Can't get eSata disk working

[mauri kanter]

Hi:

I'm a newbie to Ubuntu and Linux ... So I'm grateful a-priori for your patience.

I'm facing aproblem using an eSata disk.

I'm running Ubuntu on an MSI PR-600 Laptop. I'm quite happy with it.

I bought for it a new 500 GB hard disk FreeAgent from Seagate
which includes support fo USB, FireWire and eSata.

I bought an eSata card for the laptop and an eSata cable.

The eSata card seems to be properly recognized, if I understand correctly.
The hard disk works also properly with the USB connection but does not with eSata.

See some lines of the lshw an dmesg below.

P.S. I tried in my previous PC (IBM t42 with win XP) ... It
does not recognize it either ... Even though Windows auomatically
recognized a new hardware and downloaded a driver for Sil 3512 ...

Mauri.

root@msii-laptop:/home/mauri# uname -r
2.6.24-19-generic


*-storage
description: Mass storage controller
product: SiI 3512 [SATALink/SATARaid] Serial ATA Controller
vendor: Silicon Image, Inc.
physical id: 2
bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
version: 01
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: storage pm bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=sata_sil latency=64 module=sata_sil
*-scsi
physical id: 3
bus info: usb@7:2
logical name: scsi10
capabilities: emulated scsi-host
configuration: driver=usb-storage
*-disk
description: SCSI Disk
product: FreeAgent Pro
vendor: Seagate
physical id: 0.0.0
bus info: scsi@10:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/sdb
version: 4109
serial: 9QM245PA
size: 465GiB (500GB)
capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
configuration: ansiversion=4 signature=a4b57300
*-volume
description: Windows NTFS volume
physical id: 1
bus info: scsi@10:0.0.0,1
logical name: /dev/sdb1
logical name: /media/FreeAgent Drive
version: 3.1
serial: d04b-ed16
size: 465GiB
capacity: 465GiB
capabilities: primary ntfs initialized
configuration: clustersize=4096 created=2008-05-05 05:54:05 filesystem=ntfs label=FreeAgent Drive mount.fstype=fuseblk mount.options=rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,relatime,use r_id=0,group_id=0,allow_other state=mounted


[151263.974644] ata11: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 310)
root@msii-laptop:/home/mauri# dmesg | tail -30
[150989.728612] usb-storage: device scan complete
[150989.730242] scsi 10:0:0:0: Direct-Access Seagate FreeAgent Pro 4109 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4
[150989.735057] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] 976773168 512-byte hardware sectors (500108 MB)
[150989.736695] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[150989.736706] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 1c 00 00 00
[150989.736711] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[150989.739925] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] 976773168 512-byte hardware sectors (500108 MB)
[150989.741424] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[150989.741431] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 1c 00 00 00
[150989.741435] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[150989.741443] sdb: sdb1
[150989.756587] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
[150989.756683] sd 10:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[151015.619806] cs: warning: no high memory space available!
[151209.069177] usb 7-2: USB disconnect, address 4
[151246.286753] cs: warning: no high memory space available!
[151259.266833] pccard: card ejected from slot 0
[151259.299857] ACPI: PCI interrupt for device 0000:02:00.0 disabled
[151261.453015] pccard: CardBus card inserted into slot 0
[151261.453414] PCI: Enabling device 0000:02:00.0 (0000 -> 0003)
[151261.453431] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:02:00.0[A] -> GSI 22 (level, low) -> IRQ 19
[151261.453466] sata_sil 0000:02:00.0: cache line size not set. Driver may not function
[151261.453474] sata_sil 0000:02:00.0: Applying R_ERR on DMA activate FIS errata fix
[151261.453491] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:02:00.0 to 64
[151261.453696] scsi11 : sata_sil
[151261.453795] scsi12 : sata_sil
[151261.453858] ata10: SATA max UDMA/100 mmio m512@0x44000000 tf 0x44000080 irq 19
[151261.453866] ata11: SATA max UDMA/100 mmio m512@0x44000000 tf 0x440000c0 irq 19
[151263.662937] ata10: SATA link down (SStatus 1 SControl 310)
[151263.974644] ata11: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 310)

[flatline]

Mauri:

I am not an expert, but I was told that for some reason, at least in Linux, eSATA is not hot-swappable. Have you tried connecting & powering up the hard drive before you turn on the computer?

[mauri kanter]

Mauri:

I am not an expert, but I was told that for some reason, at least in Linux, eSATA is not hot-swappable. Have you tried connecting & powering up the hard drive before you turn on the computer?

Yep I tried ... May be the problem is the connector ?

[rmjohnson144]

Yep I tried ... May be the problem is the connector ?

This could be the problem. I recently bought an external eSATA DVD and External 500GB hard drive. I first hook up the hard drive to sata port and preformat it and get it ready. I then put it in my eSATA case and hook it up and nothing. Not even recognized at all, not even bios.

I then try the eSATA DVD case and all is fine. I figure it was the case. Then I moved it to my other computer for another test and all is fine. Then I left the eSATA cable on the other machine and used my hard drive's eSATA cable to the DVD eSATA box and nothing.

I look at the cables and one is longer than the other. I then look at the eSATA connector and plug in the long cables and notice the plug sticks out on all the ports excapy my main computer which was failing.

so definately there are two different sizes of eSATA connector.

Good luck
-=Mark=-

[mauri kanter]

Bad luck ... I finally broke the eSata connector on the Seagate side while trying to insert it ... This happend after I noticed that there is like a "click" when I inserted it on the controller card side ...

So this is the end of my eSata intent ... I'm back on the USB

Thank you all for your willingness to help.

Mauri.