External HDD not getting recognized.

[RadSalacan]

I have just made an upgrade from z77 to z97 and have a WD black as my mass storage drive.  I have all my games and media saved to it.  I no longer want to keep it in the case because it takes up too much space and messes with the tidiness of my water cooling setup so I've put it into an external drive that has a SATA pig tail that goes out the back of the case using a bracket.  For some reason though my PC doesn't see that it's there.  The closest I can get to it being recognized is upon boot-up my EVGA z97 classified sees that there is a 1 TB drive attatched but the OS doesn't see it.  Not even is disc manager.  Is there a step I'm missing to get it recognized?  Any suggestions/tips/help is appreciated.  Thanks in advance.

[Captain_WD]

I have just made an upgrade from z77 to z97 and have a WD black as my mass storage drive.  I have all my games and media saved to it.  I no longer want to keep it in the case because it takes up too much space and messes with the tidiness of my water cooling setup so I've put it into an external drive that has a SATA pig tail that goes out the back of the case using a bracket.  For some reason though my PC doesn't see that it's there.  The closest I can get to it being recognized is upon boot-up my EVGA z97 classified sees that there is a 1 TB drive attatched but the OS doesn't see it.  Not even is disc manager.  Is there a step I'm missing to get it recognized?  Any suggestions/tips/help is appreciated.  Thanks in advance.

 

Hey RadSalacan,

 

Is the drive connected only with a SATA cable or does it have a power cable too? Also is it recognized properly in BIOS (both the size and the drive model)? How do you see the drive in device manager and disk management? Screenshots would be helpful.

I would try connecting the drive back to the motherboard and see if it's recognized there and back up all the important data just to be on the safe side. 

You can also try connecting the drive to another computer. 

If the drive is recognized, try running a diagnostic tool on the drive to check its health. I would recommend using WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostic tool: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=58aa8d

 

Captain_WD.

[RadSalacan]

 

Hey RadSalacan,

 

Is the drive connected only with a SATA cable or does it have a power cable too? Also is it recognized properly in BIOS (both the size and the drive model)? How do you see the drive in device manager and disk management? Screenshots would be helpful.

I would try connecting the drive back to the motherboard and see if it's recognized there and back up all the important data just to be on the safe side. 

You can also try connecting the drive to another computer. 

If the drive is recognized, try running a diagnostic tool on the drive to check its health. I would recommend using WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostic tool: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=58aa8d

 

Captain_WD.

 

Yes, there is power run to the external enclosure it is in.  I know for a fact the drive works fine because if I use the USB connector at the back of the enclosure instead it detects it immediately and can be accessed no problem.  I don't want to use the usb though because SATA is a faster connection.

[brandishwar]

The Z97 Classified doesn't have any eSATA ports on the rear of the mainboard. What are you using to connect this via SATA?

[Captain_WD]

Yes, there is power run to the external enclosure it is in.  I know for a fact the drive works fine because if I use the USB connector at the back of the enclosure instead it detects it immediately and can be accessed no problem.  I don't want to use the usb though because SATA is a faster connection.

 

So, if I understand correctly, you would like to use the drive with a SATA cable to the motherboard but with an external power cable that comes from outside the case instead of a cable from the PSU? A picture of what you are trying to do might be helpful because, as @brandishwar pointed out, this motherboard does not have a eSATA port. 

 

I would imagine the best way to be to back up everything from the drive, connect it internally just as any normal drive, initialize, partition and format the drive and then restore the backup onto it. 

 

Captain_WD.

[brandishwar]

There are brackets that allow you to take an internal SATA port and convert it to an eSATA port. If you do this, there may be an option you'll need to enable in the BIOS so that tells the system to treat a specific internal SATA port as an eSATA port. It is absolutely necessary you enable this option as eSATA has different specifications around it than SATA. So if you're trying to use an external eSATA enclosure, you'll likely need to do that: find an eSATA bracket that goes into one of the expansion slots and plugs into one of the onboard SATA ports, then for whichever port you use, see if there is an option in the BIOS for declaring that port to be an eSATA port.

[RadSalacan]

There are brackets that allow you to take an internal SATA port and convert it to an eSATA port. If you do this, there may be an option you'll need to enable in the BIOS so that tells the system to treat a specific internal SATA port as an eSATA port. It is absolutely necessary you enable this option as eSATA has different specifications around it than SATA. So if you're trying to use an external eSATA enclosure, you'll likely need to do that: find an eSATA bracket that goes into one of the expansion slots and plugs into one of the onboard SATA ports, then for whichever port you use, see if there is an option in the BIOS for declaring that port to be an eSATA port.

This is exactly the kind of thing I'm using.  I'll have to root around the BIOS to see if I can find the option you're talking about.  Thanks.

[brandishwar]

Looking at EVGA's BIOS manual published online, it doesn't look like it has an option like I'm talking about. Instead for the SATA port in question, you'll want to make sure it's set to AHCI and has Hot Swap turned on.

[RadSalacan]

Looking at EVGA's BIOS manual published online, it doesn't look like it has an option like I'm talking about. Instead for the SATA port in question, you'll want to make sure it's set to AHCI and has Hot Swap turned on.

I have all of them set to those settings...still no luck though.  I'm kind of starting to think maybe I have a bum cable or connector?

[brandishwar]

I have all of them set to those settings...still no luck though.  I'm kind of starting to think maybe I have a bum cable or connector?

 

Possible. What enclosure are you using? And what bracket did you buy?

[RadSalacan]

Possible. What enclosure are you using? And what bracket did you buy?

Oh jeez...I actually bought it years ago.  It's an Antec enclosure.  Everything came all together.  It's sat in storage for 2-3 years before I even decided to use it in this build.  I may just end up biting the bullet and figuring out a way to jam it inside the case.

[brandishwar]

And using a SATA to eSATA bracket isn't always going to work -- it can be a little flaky depending on the mainboard and the eSATA device. So you basically have two choices: buy a new enclosure that supports USB 3.0 (with or without eSATA), or buy a SATA controller card providing eSATA support. The former is going to be less expensive, and one enclosure I've used without issue is the ThermalTake Max 5G. For an HDD, USB 3.0 and eSATA aren't going to be that far off in performance.

 

Or you could find a way to "jam it inside the case". Depending on your case, you could use an adapter bracket to put it into a 5.25" drive bay so it's out of the way.