M4400 e-sata port/external hard drive problems

Hello

i recently bought a vantex nexstar 3 external hard drive with the option of usb and e-sata. The problem i am having is with e-sata. The e-sata is the prefered method of exchanging information dur to its speed rather than usb.

I would like to know from the community in large if there is anyone who has experienced these problems or has connected an external to their m4400 laptop.

The external laptop has a seagate 7200 rpm FFS(free fall sensor) inside.

The problems:
1) When connecting the exHD to the laptop for the first time the HD spins (i can feel it) but then stops. Windows does not pick it up as well as Intel Matrix Storage manager. Only when i restart the laptop still with the exHD connect does windows pick it up as well as Intel Matrix Storage manager.

I did in both cases check to see if the exHD needs more power and it is sufficient.

2)Another issue is that i have windows reporting to me that an external hard drive has been connect to my system even though i havn't plugged it in. Funny though but annoying.

3)Another issue is that when i do have it plugged in windows tells me that the device is not connected. in the meantime i was actually transferring data so the device was connected. another issue is that i have many delay write failed errors when transfering 30 gigs in one go.

4)another issue is that when i plug it in my internal hard drive light stays constantly on. when i unplug the external it still stays on.

5)another issue is that when i succesfully connect it and windows picks it up it stutters my audio/video when i am watching.

6)another issue is that when trying to create raid 0 or 1 it doesn't do it succesfully. i actually lost all my work even though i told it to delete my secondary raid volume and not my master raid volume

Thanks for the help guys

PS does anyone think that the precision m4400 was a rush job by dell ie i have noticed many updates and patches even though its suppose to be a high performance laptop. What i am actually saying did dell really test this machine before presenting it to the public. i still remeber when i was on bios A11 and now we are on A14 as well as other updates.

 

I have no problems with plug and play eSATA on my E6400.

What HDD access mode do you have set in the BIOS? I'm using the IRRT mode.

If you have set it to ATA then the eSATA won't work. Also, make sure you have installed version 8.8 of the Intel Matrix Storage Manager.

John

 

I had similar issue's with a thermaltake muse enclosure,ultimately ending with the hard drive dying [it was a new hard drive] whether it was coincidental or caused by the enclosure I'm not sure as I haven't been game enough to try it again.

I didn't notice your issue number 5,but then I had very little actual use out of it.

How did you create a raid0 array,the last time I tried there wasn't the option to create raid0 or raid1,only the intel rapid restore technology ?

I use one of the cheap ebay 2.5" optical bay enclosure's now as my first foray into using the e-Sata was about as disasterous as your's,whether this was due to me doing something wrong or whether it was a faulty enclosure,who know's.....like the opt bay drive better anyway.

I don't think the M4400 was rushed,but there are a couple of fairly significant oversight's that should have never seen the light of day imho.
The amount of bios update's are not really that new these day's,I guess there's more pressure than ever to get the newest product's to market.

I certainly have no issue's with 95% of the notebook's performance though

 

If you hook it up and it's not loaded you probably have to do the following:

go to disk management (start, right-click "my computer", click manage, disk management)
There you will see a "foreign disk", if you right-click this choose the option to import foreign disk. In Vista i had to do this every time i hooked up the HDD after booting, if connected before boot the disk would automatically load.....in Win7 it always load automatically