Hi guys GA-P35C-DS3R mobo. I just connected a Freecom 500GB HD Pro USB2/SATA. USB works fine. It comes with esata-esata cable too, so I bought a Akasa internal SATA to esata backplate connection BT Shop - Akasa INTERNAL SATA TO EXTERNAL ESATA PCI BACKPLATE ADAP (ESATA-45-EX) However the external HD is not seen I tried different spare sata connection points on the mobo - no good. (SATA internal HD works fine). Can sata cables be a bit flaky? Seems to me either the drive is bad, or the supplied cable, or the backplate adapter. I guess the next step is to get an esata to sata cable and connect direct from the external drive to the mobo in the hope of isolating the problem - if there's still no connection then it could be the Freecom HD, if I get connection then it's either the supplied Freecom cable or the Akasa backplate. Any better ideas/comments please? Miles
Hi Chai. Thanks for the reply. It comes with both cables coz it's dual USB/Sata. USB 2 works fine. I set that up first. Then tried esata, but found the cable (esata-esata) didn't fit the 2 esata ports on the backplate that came with the GA-P35C-DS3R. Which is why I bought the Akasa backplate which it fits fine. But when I power down, remove USB cable connect Sata cable and boot up again there's no connection at all. What puzzles me, and I only just discovered this - and you almost need a magnifying glass - is that the sockets on the Gigabyte backplate have 2 little flat-head pins in the slot on the opposite side to the slot that has the contacts - it's these pins that prevent the cable from connecting, whereas on the Akasa backplate and on the back of the Freecom HD theses pins are absent, hence the cable inserts OK. (Photo attached of the GA backplate with some fine artwork to pinpointing the pins ) Miles
Good idea - but which cable? Is it the supplied esata-esata that's faulty or the internal sata-esata backplate? Maybe I just have to fork out £10 for an esata type "I" - sata type "L" cable direct to the mobo to try to identify the cause. But then it might be a bad socket on the Freecom like this Push the eSATA cable into the FreeAgent Pro drive harder - CNET Storage Forums difefrent hardware I know, but it makes me wary.... Miles
That's weird. I checked an eSATA port here and it doesn't have those two pins... But it does look like a regular eSATA port. Some external HDD cases come with "fake" eSATA ports that are really regular SATA ports using the standard SATA cables. Maybe you should try pushing it in harder. The two "pins" could be there to just hold the cable harder...
Yeh, sometimes you just have to just push harder than seems appropriate to achieve full penetration, which I'd been reluctant to do to start with. Thanks guys. More rep points for Adrian if I can - you need a few don't you Still no sata transfer though, so unlikely to be the internal sata-esata as I've tried both - the GA supplied one and the Akasa one I bought. So either a dodgy esata-esata cable that came with the kit, or it's the drive itself. Hmm... will have to send it back to dabs.com I think. fiddler
