eSATA external drive not ejectable ?

[MrEddy]

[Solved] eSATA external drive not ejectable ?

Hi,

I finally wanted to use my eSATA connector on my mono. So I just plugged an external drive on it. No problem, it's mounted correctly. All I read about eSATA was hot swap problems. So I was concerned if it would need a restart. I'm glad it didn't.
BUT my hackintosh sees it as an internal drive. Since I never used eSATA on a PC, I don't know if this is the usual way this eSATA thing works or if I'm missing some kext from multi beast.

Any idea or advice on this ?

Thanks !

Eddy

PS : Motherboard : GA-Z77X-UD5H

 

[DBP]

The UD5H has 6 SATA ports controlled by the Z77 chipset, and 4 ports (including the eSATA port) controlled by Marvell chips. In MultiBeast you can load the "3rd-party eSATA" kext which means that all devices on Marvell/ASM1061/etc controllers will be treated as external/ejectable drives. Sounds like that's what you want.

But be careful that if you have any internal drives connected to the board's GSATA3 6/7/8 ports then if you accidentally eject them you may be stuck until the next reboot (unless you can reach into the case and re-connect the SATA cable). You could connect these ports to eSATA brackets and/or hot-swap docks though.

Check the MultiBeast documentation.

 

[Pakalolo]

Also just a heads up, if you want hot swap, then you need to enable each individual port in the bios.

 

[MrEddy]

DBP > Even the rear eSATA port ? I thought ot was only for the internal ones! If this is all I need to do, sounds great !
But is it "normal" that een without this kext I was able to hot swap it ?

Pakalolo > You meant hot swap for internal connectors ? Because I was able to hot swap my external drive to the rear eSATA.
Where in the bios can I enable SATA ports ? My rear eSATA port seems to be enabled by default anyway.

 

[Pakalolo]

DBP > Even the rear eSATA port ? I thought ot was only for the internal ones! If this is all I need to do, sounds great !
But is it "normal" that een without this kext I was able to hot swap it ?

Pakalolo > You meant hot swap for internal connectors ? Because I was able to hot swap my external drive to the rear eSATA.
Where in the bios can I enable SATA ports ? My rear eSATA port seems to be enabled by default anyway.

Yes, hot swap for internal connectors. You can locate it at System/ATA Port Information.

 

[DBP]

So far I haven't done this with on-board controllers so haven't had to tweak BIOS settings for hot-swap. But I have an ASM1061 controller which I did have to use this kext for, and it mentions the Marvell controllers as being the same.

Without the "e"SATA kext the drive can be hot-connected fine, but there's no eject button in Finder for a hot-disconnect. Does that match what you were seeing?
You need both before you can say that hot-swap works.

 

[MrEddy]

Without the "e"SATA kext the drive can be hot-connected fine, but there's no eject button in Finder for a hot-disconnect. Does that match what you were seeing?
You need both before you can say that hot-swap works.

Completely, but unfortunately, after installing the "3rd Party eSATA", it didn't change anything. I still don't have the eject button. But I can unmount it by right clicking any drive (even the internal drives) and choosing the "eject" option. But I assume it was already possible before I use those kexts.

Is there something else to do to have this eject button ?

 

[MrEddy]

Question solved.

I realised the 3rd party kexts were made to show drives connected through SATA or eSATA connectors controlled by the Marvell chip as internal drives. After deleting these kexts, my external drive's partitions are finally showed as external
I will reinstall the 3rd Party SATA kext, in case I use the internal SATA Marvell connectors. But for the eSata, I will keep it this way.

Thanks for your help !

 

[DBP]

Note I was talking about the "3rd party eSATA" kext, not the "3rd party SATA" one.

 

[MrEddy]

Yes, me too. Anyway, both are made for the same thing, make drives connected through Marvell's connectors look like internal drives.