Windows 10: How to best remove eSATA drive?

I guess I am used to removing a drive when done on USB...and I used to do this with eSATA. However, while I can still do this on USB is there any way to remove my eSATA drive when I am done? Some have said you do not need to in Win 10 and we can just shut it down and others say to use software like Hotswap.

Does anyone have the answer?

:)

 

Windows 10 Esata not auto detecting - only if scan for hardware changes - also cannot safely remove

Hi all.

So previously, with Windows 7, using an HDD docking station connected by esata, I could insert a hard drive into the docking station power it up, and windows 7 would detect it automatically.

Since updating to Windows 10 quite some time ago now, this has never worked properly. The only way I can get Windows 10 to see the esata drive is to either a) Restart the PC, or B) Scan for hardware changes in device manager, which would then pick up the
drive. This is very annoying, as causes every one of my internal drives etc to spin up needlessly

Likewise....once I'm finished with that drive, there is no longer a Safely Remove Hardware option for the esata drive....something which was present with no problems in Windows 7 too....so the only way I can guarantee safely removing the drive is effectively
to shut down the PC.

On the same docking station I can use USB 2.0 too, but that is much slower.

Any ideas how to make this work how it used to please?

 

How Can I Get Windows 10 to "See" my External Hard Drive in the eSata Port?

To use ESATA with Windows 10 on my computers, this works:

1) shut down.

2) plug the ESATA drive into the PC, and turn on the ESATA drive.

3) after the drive is spinning up, turn on the PC.

4) if the PC freezes during boot, reboot it, and it usually detects ESATA correctly and boots normally.

5) always keep ESATA plugged into the PC and turned on before you start the PC if you want to continue using it.

Please let me know what happens for you?

Thanks,

J

 

Pull it out when the PC is off.

 

Actually that is what I did. I shutdown the system and then turned it off, but there has to be a better way isn't there?

 

If your motherboard has a hotswap feature, that is one safe way. But I still don"t trust it. It may not affect the system but it will affect the hard drive. It makes the hard drive prone to errors. So I think the safest way to pull it out is when the power is off.

 

Don't you have a "safely remove" in the task tray.

 

Yes, but it seems to be for USB only.

 

Usually it would be safe to remove if you wait a few seconds after the last write request. You must just give it a chance to empty the buffer. But that happens in a matter of seconds. You may also want to uncheck the write caching.

 

I agree... these were my observations.

Solved E-SATA Observations - Windows 10 Forums

 

If your eSata enclosure sees an on/off switch you first simply turn the switch off. You can use the Safety remove to eject the enclosure but won't make a difference as far as the drive is concerned since once that is powered off you should have heard the disconnect wav file go off. When turning the drive back on the wav file here would be the Addams Family butler Lurch sounding off! "You Rang!" *Eek*chuckle

Once the drive is turned off the enclosure is then ejected with the Safely remove option to insure no glitched on the C drive as far as OS glitches while even that would tend to be rare. The external drive already being turned off however wouldn't see any disk errors simply since it wouldn't even be running at the time. Have an external usb/eSata fan cooled enclosure just bought lately to replace and older usb only enclosure now in use on another system with the on/off switch and Lurch ringing! yet to be plugged into one of the eSata ports on the main case when getting around to plugging those cables into the board.

 

Well, I do have the Antec enclosure for the drive attached to eSATA. It does have a power switch. Turning off write caching on that drive may work, but wouldn't I need to do that each time I connect it? I am only planning to use this once or twice a month.

So, am I correct in assuming that if I wait 5 seconds or so after the write completes it is OK to just turn off power to this enclosure?

 

The 5 seconds should work. That is plenty of time for any buffers to empty.

 

Great, so I will then just power it down and not worry about it.

 

I do the same with any drive in a usb or combo enclosure simply turning the power off while the host controller in the enclosure itself being the chip on a small miniature circuit board will still be seen as a device in the Safety Remove list. Windows tends to detect everything even if not having any effect on Windows or a hardware. Clicking on the remove option simply insures that no error logs are created.