eSata cxn freezing Windows

Hi all,

I'm just wondering if anybody has ever had trouble with their eSata connection freezing their OS.

I've run into a consistent problem with my eSata connection freezing up my Windows 7 after a pro-longed time (say after 36+ hours of being plugged in). Basically I keep my external HDD plugged in to my 1645 via eSata, and leave it like that for long periods of time. After a while my Windows 7 just locks up. Any non-Windows application window can still be used, but anything that is run by Windows (e.g. Windows Media Player, explorer.exe, iexplore.exe) is completely frozen. I can open my Task Manager, but it reports nothing wrong and my CPU remains completely idle and RAM remains the same right before the freeze.

The only solution is to physically disconnect my drive: doing so causes "explorer.exe" to crash and restart automatically.

I've had this problem since I first got my computer, and it's happened maybe about 10 times altogether. This never happens when I plug in my external HDD via USB, just by eSata. THis problem never happens on my desktop though.

Do you think this is a bad eSata port on my machine, or is this a Windows 7 issue? I've not had a problem with eSata on my desktop which runs Win 7 Professional 32-bit, but my 1645 runs Win7 Ultimate 64-bit.

 

Hmmmm....funky.

TBH, I'd say it's more of an issue with the eSATA standard and some random protocol by Windows 7. I doubt there was huge amounts of testing into leaving eSATA drives in for extended periods of time.

I have an eSATA drive; I'll try to reproduce this Wednesday when I get back.

What goes into the hard drive? Automated backups or anything?

 

in terms of what goes on my external drive, it's a bit of everything: backups (incremental and full ones) and work documents mostly.

i have never had this problem with my desktop. I used to be able to leave this exact external HDD plugged in the eSata port on my desktop,and it literally remained plugged in until I got my 1645. I've never had these freezes on the desktop which is usually left on 24/7. This is what led me to think that it might be an issue with my eSata port or my Windows 7 install.

thanks for your help!


and for the record, yes i'm probably an uncreative twit, but the format works

 

No worries.

Have you tried installing the latest version of the Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver? It updates the AHCI driver to an Intel one (who makes our chipset) instead of Windows' generic AHCI.

And, for the record, I don't really mind. Though, after I was forced to change my signature after some length restriction, I noticed many SXPS 16 users "borrowing" my new design and I was a bit miffed, but not particularly.

~Ibrahim~

 

I don’t always have my eSATA drive connected, but the other day when I was transferring about 100Gb of data to my hard drive it slowed down to about 2-3Mb per second. SLOW...... After I cancelled it cancelled, I restarted my computer and I could not connect to my wireless network. It wouldn’t even let me if I manually entered the network info. I had to recover from a previous restore point for it to connect. Maybe there is something wrong with the eSATA. What hard drive are you using? I am using the Seagate 1.5Tb GoFlex.

 

i do have the Intel RST driver, but not the newest one. i'll give those drivers a go tomorrow morning. perhaps that will fix things! though i don't think i'll be able to replicate the problem until the following weekend (i don't get this problem unless the eSata is plugged in for around 24+ hrs). to make sure it's not my drive enclosure, i'm going to keep the eSata plugged into my desktop for the following few days 24 per. then i'll give the Intel RST drivers a go.

mine is a by-parts external drive. it's a CoolMax HD211 external enclosure (USB 2.0, eSata) with a SeaGate 250GB 5400.4. i use the included USB cable to power the enclosure (enclosure has a 5V port) while using the eSata.

i do not think therer is anything wrong with the eSata on my external enclosure. i've been using this external case with my desktop and other computers, and have not had problems there. i've only had problems with the 1645.

 

I saw this when I had VMs on the eSATA drive. It is basically Windows Power management is turning off the eSATA drive after a said time and this is causing to other applications fail. May be you can find an option and disable the power management to stop this happening.

Hope it helps

 

I do have VMs on my external drive, but i usually don't leave them running when I don't need them - I'm usually pretty good with keeping them in suspended mode. That said, it doesn't mean the VMware isn't constantly accessing the drive to poll whatever data it might need.

You know what? I think this might help.

It completely slipped my mind that eSata would also be controlled by some sort of power management in Windows. I always thought that as the eSata port is not not drawing power (since my eSata cable doesn't draw power) it would not kick in any power measures. I'll have a look at Windows when I get home tonight and see if there's any power options available.

My only hesitation is that my drive has frozen my Windows 7 even while the drive is in use. So I'd like to see if power saving measures might be the cause of the problem.

 

@jataayu,

have you had success in changing power management for your esata port? i couldn't find anything accordingly, then again i didn't look too hard. been having trouble with stuff at work so i'm self-accusing myself of not concentrating well enough on this.

 

I can not remember it now but will update you when get home. I think I set it to high performance mode or set hard disk sleep time to Never.

 

Sorry for the lack in posting; I left for home and stupidly forgot my eSATA drive at my university. Unfortunately, it'll be hard for me to go back early with the roads snowed in. But, I will definitely start this coming Tuesday when classes begin again.

 

hey no worries. i myself am pretty busy this weekend (friend's moving, so lots of boxes and pizza).

i've set the hard drive sleep period on to 0 mins/disable. we'll see if this has any effect on it. as i use bitlocker on my drive, the drive is almost always active so the hard disks should have never slept. however, my external hard drive is not bitlocker-enabled, so maybe the drive really was going to sleep.

we'll have to see though. my comptuer will be most likely completely unattended between the next 15 minutes and Sunday evening well past 9pm. that ought to be enough of a "test" to see if i get another freeze.

 

Haha, sounds like a productive weekend.

Definitely; good luck,

~Ibrahim~

 

haha thanks. i can't really say for certain, but it appears that disabling the hard disk sleep timer could have been my culprit.

just stopped in to say that about 48 hours and no problems yet. will update again later. seems to be OK though.

 

a million and a half cardboard boxes later, and it seems that my computer didn't freeze over the weekend.

i don't know for certain if changing the Windows Power Plan settings to disable the "Turn off hard disk after..." option was what fixed the issue, so i'll give it another week and see if that's the case. for now i'm throwing in a bit of skepticism, but if i can confirm it then i'll be happy you mentioned that power saving features was freezing my OS (who would have thunk it?)

 

Where is the power managenent setting for the eSATA drive? I cant find it anywhere including device manager

 

i couldn't find one specific for the eSata controller either. instead I went into the Windows Power Options, Change plan settings, Change advanced power settings, + Hard Disk, +Turn off Hard Disk after, change from 20min (on AC) to 0).

this *seems* to be working, but i'm not confirming it yet. sometimes these annoying little problems tend to disappear for a short while before rearing their ugly heads when you least expect it.