January 12, 200917 yr I just brought a new HDD dock (USB2.0 AND eSATA(Supporting hot-swap)). I've plugged it in using the eSATA connection on the back of my PC. I've discovered it doesn't hot-swap as expected. After reading many posts I've heard mention that AHCI mode has to be enabled for hot-swapping. My M/B is a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R running XP - http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ClassValue=Motherboard&ProductID=2543&ProductName=GA-P35-DS3R with ICH9R. I found a thread stating how to upgrade without re-installing XP. http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=106575.0;all Currently the bios is set to "SATA RAID/AHCI Mode" disabled (Default). (I have all SATA HDD's). The next option is "RAID" and then "AHCI" I'm not sure if RAID has to be set first to activate AHCI. Now, if you have to run the RAID part, can you do so without having a RAID setup? - so I can have AHCI set? I played with this when I built the machine and vaguely remember overwriting the HDD's in a RAID0 config. Don't want to do that again, so am looking for some help. I've also found several options in the bios 1 - Onboard SATA/IDE Device (Gigabyte SATA2 Chip) Enabled (Default) - Not sure what this one is for?? This is the interesting one?? 2 - Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode [iDE] (Other options are AHCI and "RAID/IDE") - I set this to "AHCI" as a test. Windows booted and I seemed to get several more things under "Devices", but with a "!" - not enough resources. The dock still does not hot-swap. Any comments suggestions before I try the guide as per link? THx. Appreciate any help.
January 12, 200917 yr I just brought a new HDD dock (USB2.0 AND eSATA(Supporting hot-swap)). I've plugged it in using the eSATA connection on the back of my PC. I've discovered it doesn't hot-swap as expected. After reading many posts I've heard mention that AHCI mode has to be enabled for hot-swapping. My M/B is a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R running XP - http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ClassValue=Motherboard&ProductID=2543&ProductName=GA-P35-DS3R with ICH9R. I found a thread stating how to upgrade without re-installing XP. http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=106575.0;all Currently the bios is set to "SATA RAID/AHCI Mode" disabled (Default). (I have all SATA HDD's). The next option is "RAID" and then "AHCI" I'm not sure if RAID has to be set first to activate AHCI. Now, if you have to run the RAID part, can you do so without having a RAID setup? - so I can have AHCI set? I played with this when I built the machine and vaguely remember overwriting the HDD's in a RAID0 config. Don't want to do that again, so am looking for some help. I've also found several options in the bios 1 - Onboard SATA/IDE Device (Gigabyte SATA2 Chip) Enabled (Default) - Not sure what this one is for?? This is the interesting one?? 2 - Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode [iDE] (Other options are AHCI and "RAID/IDE") - I set this to "AHCI" as a test. Windows booted and I seemed to get several more things under "Devices", but with a "!" - not enough resources. The dock still does not hot-swap. Any comments suggestions before I try the guide as per link? THx. Appreciate any help. Be very careful... do not set the controller to RAID. It might make your data unreadable when you set it back. You might not need ACHI at all. Plug your drive in and then in the XP control panel ask the XP OS to "scan for new hardware" It should find the drive. Before unplugging, you will probably need to eject the new drive, or stop it (not sure how it will show in your OS) Joe L.
January 12, 200917 yr Some questions: 1. Are you using the 2-port SATA -> 2-port eSATA PCI adapter that came with the Gigabyte motherboard? 2. Which SATA port do you have the adapter connected to (purple [2 ports] or yellow [6 ports])? 3. Which SATA port do you have your OS drive connected to? 4. Are you using IDE or SATA optical drives? The Gigabyte SATA2 chip controls the 2 purple SATA ports and IDE port on the motherboard. The Intel ICH9R chipset controls the 6 yellow SATA ports. If you installed Windows XP in legacy/IDE mode, what I'd do is switch the OS drive to the purple SATA ports and keep them in legacy/IDE mode. That way you avoid the hassle of having to do a repair install. You can then switch the ICH9R controller to AHCI/RAID mode. Have the Intel Matrix Storage driver ready. You can only install that after you've switched the ICH9R to AHCI/RAID mode in the BIOS. Not sure if it would help with your hot-swap problem. I just did the above steps so I can use onboard RAID functions.
January 12, 200917 yr Author 1. Yes. 2. The eSATA connections on the back of the pc are connected to the 2xpurple ports. 3&4 All drives in my system are SATA (4xHDD's + 2xOptical) - connected to the yellow ports. If I switch the OS HDD to the purple ports, can the other ones still run off the yellow ones if AHCI mode is running? What I'm trying to achieve is getting the dock to auto activate when the HDD is changed. When it's connected via USB 2, when I turn the device on, XP automatically detects it. This isn't done when connected via eSATA. I discovered by going to the Device Manager I could scan for new H/W and it would pop it up under "My Computer". Somehow, this seems to defeat the purpose of auto detection. I'm also looking to capitalise on the faster transfer speeds of eSATA. I did however find a link to using "Devcon" that activates "Scan for new H/W" from a shortcut. Still, I'd prefer it it did it automatically. So I guess I'm either going to have to get over the scariness and move forward with a switch to AHCI or accept this as the closest alternative. My PC system is extremely stable and I really don't want to mess with it - but I guess sometimes you have to when trying to get what you want. I'm currently trying the shortcut method.
January 12, 200917 yr 2. The eSATA connections on the back of the pc are connected to the 2xpurple ports. Since you already have the purple ports isolated, just switch the Gigabyte controller to AHCI mode. The only reason I had to swap SATA ports for my computer is because I had IDE optical drives and they won't work when the Gigabyte controller is set to AHCI mode. Don't forget to install the Gigabyte SATA RAID drivers. If I switch the OS HDD to the purple ports, can the other ones still run off the yellow ones if AHCI mode is running? Yes, they'll still work. It's only the OS HDD that you can't switch arbitrarily. Also, not sure if this would help much. You do need to enable AHCI to get hotswap capabilities but you also need OS support, too, and I'm not sure if Windows XP has it without need for tweaking.
January 12, 200917 yr Author Thx for the help. Starting to make more sense to me. After reading your comments I just did some more wading through the manual and found you can switch the purple ports to AHCI on their own. I'll investigate the XP hot-swap side as well, as I didn't know it couldn't support hot-swap I have just reverted to eSATA with the dock and tried the shortcut method using devcon. Works as expected. The limitation appears to be that you have to remember to do this, and it seems you have to do it again after waking from sleep mode. I'll follow up on switching the purple ports. Again, thx for the help.
January 13, 200917 yr Author I would appear as if hot-swapping isn't something that is easily achieved in XP. After doing the Google, seems like lots of people have the same problem - even if AHCI is already set-up. I found a little program called "HotSwap" that is the closest thing to it and doesn't need AHCI set. Allows one to safely swap the drive by closing it down correctly and also has a "Scan for New Hardware" link to find the drive in the dock. It would seem after searching another option is perhaps the addition of a SATA expansion card that is purposely designed for hot-swapping and works out of the box - hopefully with XP. I'll use Hotswap for the moment. If it doesn't prove itself, I'll revert to USB2. Thx for the help.
January 13, 200917 yr Looks like this ... http://mysite.verizon.net/kaakoon/hotswap/index_enu.htm Bill
January 13, 200917 yr Author Looks like this ... http://mysite.verizon.net/kaakoon/hotswap/index_enu.htm Bill Yep...that's it
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.