Right, I can't seem to find a clear answer on this so here's the question.

Can I use a 150MB/sec SATA drive in an eSATA enclosure and plug/unplug it without turning off my PC?

I've seen some conflicting info saying that this can be done only with SATA II drives and/or SATA II capable mobos. Essentially all I want to do is use an external drive for backups utilising a fast data transfer method (so I figure eSATA is the best option).

Here's the hardware I have and/or plan to use:

Abit IS7-G Mobo
WD Raptor WD740GD HD (doesn't have to be this drive but I'll probably try it with one of my existing Raptors)
AKASA P2 3.5" E-SATA SATA/IDE Encl.

There is no such thing as "SATA I" or "SATA II".

SATA is a standard where many parts of it can be optionally implemented by the manufacturer of the hard drive or controller. Manufacturer's can choose whether they want to implement a 150MB/sec or 300MB/sec transfer rate, whether they want to implement NCQ, hot swap, or eSATA compatibility all independently.

You will be able to hot swap any SATA drive in an external enclosure if the eSATA controller you're using supports hot swap. Many (but not all) eSATA controllers do. The support for hot swap is independent of the support for a 150MB/sec or 300MB/sec transfer rate.

A very good eSATA controller that fully supports hot swap is the Promise SATA300 TX4302.

Ok I see.

Therefore I assume it won't be possible with my existing hardware (see below). Neither controller I have seems to indicate hot-swap, so I should therefore assume that it is not supported, right?

Abit IS7-G Mobo

Highpoint RocketRAID 1820A

Damn, I really didn't want to have to shell out for a new controller just to do this

If it doesn't say specifically, then the only ways to find out are to either call the manufacturer of the controller/motherboard and see if you can get the correct tech person on the phone, or hook a drive up to it, format it, and see if the Safely Remove Hardware icon comes up in the system tray to allow removal.

It really pisses me off when people pretend to know something when they are completely messed up.

example

"There is no such thing as "SATA I" or "SATA II". "

This is totally false. Sata I is the original 150 mbps drive standard.
Sata II that recently was adopted is 300 mbps.

Both standards are compatable with each other but the device or controller will adopt to the transfer rate.

Sure does, doesn't it? Except in this case the person who is pretending to know something is you.

Dude, before you mouth off in here, you need to get your facts straight.

See Dispelling the Confusion: SATA II does not mean 3Gb/s. That's straight off the Serial ATA International Organization's (SATA-IO) web site. SATA is one standard. There are not two standards. There is NO "SATA II". 300 MB/sec is an optional feature of the specification, NOT a new standard.

Thanks, this is the first place I've found some concrete info about this. I'm assuming this means my Dell's motherboard (to which I have attached an eSATA-to-SATA cable) doesn't support hot-swap, because there isn't any Safely Remove Hardware entry.

So that's the Windows XP answer, but what's the Linux equivalent? Also, I have a Win2003 server that I want to try the same trick on -- will it be the same as XP (I'm not a Windows expert)? I did actually buy an eSATA board (Addonics) but it has such an awful documentation and driver set that I managed to permanently munge my XP system trying to install it (and had to revert to a backup despite sysadmins trying to fix the damage). If anyone has a nice solid alternative board they could suggest I'd appreciate it (cost is not a factor, this is for business use where quality is preferred).

Go into your bios and see if there is a SATA setting. If so, check if it has an option for AHCI. AHCI is what will allow hot swapping, as well as native command queuing, and some extra power saving states.

I've actually done some further research into this lately, because more and more people are wanting to hot swap external drives. What I've found out is kind of interesting.

Apparently, there are many SATA controllers out there where the controller itself (i.e. the hardware chip) does indeed support hot swap, but the manufacturer-provided Windows drivers do not tie in to the Safely Remove Hardware API in Windows. The result is that even though the SATA controller and drive support hot swap at the hardware level, there is no way to actually hot-swap the drive because the drivers aren't supporting it at the software level.

Enter a very nice piece of 3rd-party software to fix these drivers: HotSwap.

This is a 3rd-party application that presents a second Safely Remove Hardware icon in the system tray that supports hot-swapping on the following controllers where the hardware supports hot-swap but the driver doesn't:

- Silicon Image 3112A, 3114, 3132
- Silicon Image 3611 (SATA-PATA Bridge)
- SunPlus 3611 (SATA-PATA Bridge)
- All AHCI-compatible SATA controllers (JMicron JMB363, Intel ICH6/6R/7/7R/8/8R/9/9R)

I'm currently using this on several Intel ICHx based machines, and it works flawlessly.

Thanks for the info. I checked and my BIOS is set for AHCI, so that didn't help. I'll try HotSwap when I get a chance and hopefully the controller is among the supported ones.

If AHCI is on, you should just be able to hot swap already.

Well, I wish that was true, but it doesn't seem to be... are you suggesting some way other to do the swap than "remove hardware safely" (which is not appearing on my machine)? I happened to find out today that if I power off the drive (wasn't intentional) then it does disappear from the available drives, but switching back on does not bring it back (had to reboot).

I've never bothered with safely remove hardware, but on the only machine I've used with E-sata (and AHCI), I could just unplug the drive, it would vanish from the list, and then I could re plug it in, and it would reappear on the list (just like if you plugged in a USB flash drive).

The problem with that is that Windows may have open files or unwritten directory data that hasn't gone to the drive yet. Safely Remove Hardware tells Windows to flush all pending writes and close all files before cleanly unmounting the volume. This doesn't happen if you just unplug it, which risks file system corruption.

The HotSwap utility I mentioned above works very well - we're very pleased with it in our environment (video editing studio, all editing workstations have a dock/sled removable hard drive system -- we can HotSwap all sleds at will).

Two of three SATA hard drives I have used in external enclosures have been hot swappable using the e-SATA port on my Asus PW5 DH Deluxe motherboard (port provided by a JMICRON JMB363 controller). My Samsung HD103UK (1000 GB) hard drive is not recognised unless the computer is re-booted, when it appears in Explorer as another volume on the system. However, it can be hot swapped with no problems when using USB2 connection, and then appears in the "can be safely removed" list.

I have tried downloading the HotSwap! facility. The file is downloaded as HotSwap! 4.1.1.0.zip, size 85.7kB, but when unzipped to the two versions (32bit or 64bit), I double click on the 32 bit version and from that HotSwap!.EXE appears, but the HotSwap!.EXE file does nothing when I try to open it.

Any advice on what I am doing wrong.

Thanks for the info Somejoe7777, this will help me out with resolving this on my fileserver (going to use another of your articles to enable AHCI on it first)

The HotSwap! .exe doesn't have an installer or anything with it, so what you have to do is copy it to a folder that's tucked away somewhere where nothing will mess with it (I put it in C:\Program Files\HotSwap). Then double-click it, this will do two things:

1. It puts a second "Safely Remove Hardware" icon in the system tray (next to the clock). The normal Windows Safely Remove Hardware icon has a green arrow on it. The HotSwap Safely Remove Hardware icon looks just like the Windows one, but the arrow is red.

2. HotSwap automatically configures itself to run when Windows is started.

All functionality is accessed by clicking on the HotSwap icon in the system tray. If you left-click, I believe you get a list of drives you can hot swap. If you right-click, you get a context menu of other options. See the HotSwap web site for additional documentation.

One thing that is kind of strange is that when HotSwap is run for the first time, it configures itself to start with Windows, but only for that particular user account. If you log on to the machine as a different user, HotSwap will not run, you will have to go double-click on it the first time to configure it to run automatically under that user account also.

Yes the program is called HotSwap 4.1.1.0 http://www.softpedia.com/get/Syste [...] Swap.shtml

use it to hotswap your non-OS drive. Works with IDE and SATA. I use it at work all the time. Works just like the "Safely remove hardware" for usb drives. to add a drive plug it in and use "scan for hardware changes".

Make sure you read the directions on how to use it.