Yesterday afternoon I went to Panthip bought a new computer, with specs that could easily run Windows Vista. I also bought together with this system Windows Vista Home Premium.

Installed everything, went relative easy….

The problem now that this computer sees an external eSata 320gb (Seagate) hard drive as being in RAW format. Connecting the same hard drive to one of our other two Windows computers (running Windows XP) or notebook (running Windows XP) they have no problems accessing or reading the drive.

In Windows Vista if I want to assess the drive I get the question if I want to format it? If I look with Storage manager I can see 298GB RAW and something like 9Mb un-located space.

Hi

Sorry i can't jhelp with the question but just give an observation -i have seen that happening PLENTY of times with external HDD's (USB) as well as thumb drives and memory cards - they work fine in XP and Linux but Vista doesn't correctly identify or detect them and states "Drive is not formatted".

It regularly drives my colleague up the wall, he uses Vista Ultimate on his laptop and NONE of the thumb drives we have in the office work for him, although they work fine on all the other computers (XP).

Umm personal question - are you the guy with the Kawasaki Victor whom i met recently at Udomsuk bike accessory shop? If not disregard the question - his name is also Richard, he's active here on TV and i lost his contact details.

Best regards.....

Thanh

Hi Thanh,

No, I'm not the Richard who rides a Kawasaki Victor. To be honest the whole Microsoft thing is driving me on the wall. First I have one notebook with a genuine Windows XP Prof. but for somehow it will not validate, something wrong with the region or so Microsoft is working on that... Hope to hear from them tomorrow.

But one computer out of production and one other computer getting old, we had something why not buy a new computer.... But this computer will not see the eSata drive... (That is not 100% correct, it sees the harddrive only it sees it empty)

Is this a Seagate drive in some other brand enclosure, or is it a Seagate all-in-one, drive+enclosure product?

If it's the latter, you could check the Seagate site for some support options, but you likely won't find anything that can help you other than if it was designed to support Vista.

In either case, your best bet is to buy a new enclosure that works with Vista and slap the old 320GB Seagate drive in there. You can purchase a quality enclosure that supports eSATA for under 1k baht.

It is a none Seagate casing, but it is a eSATA harddrive so there is basically no electronics, other then a few copper wire, between case and harddrive. I can even take the harddrive out of the case and connect it direct with a eSATA to SATA cable still not work.

It is as I said before Windows Vista has no problems seeing the drive, it only has problems seeing the NTFS partition on the drive.

Anyway we solved the problem the hard way, we bought another 320GB Sata-II harddrive and let Windows Vista partition and format it. Then we connected it to a Windows XP computer and copied the data on it....

Interesting. I had no idea they made SATA hard drives with onboard eSATA interfaces.

With regards to Vista not seeing the partition and reporting RAW format, that is a common problem with external enclosures that don't support Vista, or at least not as well as one would hope. As far as not working when directly connected to the motherboard without the enclosure, that truly is bizarre.

BTW, I know drives are cheap these days, but I have a few spare SATA hdd's around that I could have lent you to do the copying. Don't be afraid to ask next time!

Unlike USB and FireWire interfaces, eSATA does not have to translate data between the interface and the computer. The only problem you have with connecting a "naked" Sata-II harddrive to a eSATA interface is that you still need a power supply and would not recommend hot-swappable...

The supplier in Panthip has no website to show you the cable so here a US supplier cable cost less in Panthip... (I'm not sure but I belief that I bought the eSATA to SATA cable for 80 or 120 Baht, top floor Panthip, the guy was also so friendly to make a powercable from inside case to flat SATA power plug with a length of 1 meter.

And what does it cost a Seagate Barracuda 10 320GB 16mb cache for 1650 Baht, can remember that I bought them for 4400 Baht not so long ago.

Unlike USB and FireWire interfaces, eSATA does not have to translate data between the interface and the computer. The only problem you have with connecting a "naked" Sata-II harddrive to a eSATA interface is that you still need a power supply and would not recommend hot-swappable...

The supplier in Panthip has no website to show you the cable so here a US supplier cable cost less in Panthip... (I'm not sure but I belief that I bought the eSATA to SATA cable for 80 or 120 Baht, top floor Panthip, the guy was also so friendly to make a powercable from inside case to flat SATA power plug with a length of 1 meter.

And what does it cost a Seagate Barracuda 10 320GB 16mb cache for 1650 Baht, can remember that I bought them for 4400 Baht not so long ago.

A Seagate 500 GB SATA 3 GB drive will cost you 3000 bht. I suggest the problem with edrive is "Drivers".

Please keep it informative, and not a price list, first your price is off and second your info about drivers between a 320GB or 500GB is identical as directly supported by most new operating systems. eSATA drives not need drivers as the same as you not need drivers for SATA drives...