Anyone have success with Asus/JMicron/eSata/Hot Swap?

[DonD]

I've read many posts here over the last couple of weeks that discuss the problems people are having getting hot swapping to work with the JMicron JMB363 controller for the eSata ports that are available on current Asus boards. I was wondering if anyone actually got it to work. Most threads seem to end with someone either going a different direction or giving up. I'm hoping that maybe some people got it to work and didn't post back with their results.

I have an Asus p5k-premium and would like to use the JMicron eSata ports for an external enclosure for hot swapping drives and use the ICH9R ports for internal sata drives. I have dual OS boot setup with XP SP2 (SP2 CD - not updated from SP1) and Vista. For now I'd be happy to get hot swap working with XP and will worry about vista later.

I have the JMicron controller set to AHCI in the Asus Bios. I tried it set to RAID also. I didn't use the 'F6' method during windows installation but since these aren't boot drives I wouldn't think it would make a difference. My boot drive is on the ICH9R controller and I realize that I'd need to reinstall Windows to get AHCI or RAID working on those controllers but figure if I'm using the JMicron controller for data only that I should be able to switch from IDE to AHCI to RAID whenever I want, right?

Anyway, I'm getting the same problems others have described - long boot times, no drive shows up in either device manager, disk manager or my computer. The JMicron drive detection screen takes about 5 minutes to search for drives and never finds the drive. During one cold start it took ~1/2 hour for XP to load!

I've removed my IDE DVD writer so it wouldn't cause a conflict and tried several different drivers (1.17.15, which seems to actually be 1.17.14.03 from Asus and tried 1.17.23 from JMicron.) I tried 2 different external boxes and cables. Nothing worked. When I switch to IDE I can usually see the drive but obviously it's not hot swappable.

Is this at all drive dependent? I'm using 5ooG Samsung Sata drives.

So... has anyone actually gotten it working? From what I've read it looks like my only other options are to run the external enclosure off the IHC9R controller (requiring OS reinstallation and more cables and PCI brackets) or to get a PCI controller. I'd like to avoid those and use the existing eSata ports if at all possible.

Any help would be appreciated!

[webwilli]

i use a P5K Deluxe, Driver 1.17.23, Western Digital WD5000AAKS Caviar SE16 500GB SATA II in a FANTEC LD-H35US2 Case.

Hot Swap works without any problems. windows xp sp2 freezes for 3-5 sec when i switch on the hdd, but no problem.

JMicron controller set to AHCI in Asus Bios.

[DonD]

:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

That's great to know. Thanks for replying. I guess there is hope after all. Looks like the only difference between us is Asus p5k deluxe vs. premium and WD vs. Samsung drives. I'll try a few different drives next. I have some older maxtors and a older raptor I can try.

I wonder if it could be a difference in Bios? My JMicron bios is 1.06.69. Do you recall what yours is? I don't suppose it is able to be updated without an Asus Bios update. As I said, mine isn't even seen by the 'detecting drives...' screen.

[DonD]

Do you get the green 'Safely remove hardware' arrow icon too?

[highoctane]

I get all kinds of drive errors in the event log using ext Seagate FA esata drive with the Jmicron in AHCI.

I'm not sure if its an issue with the Seagate drive esata interface or the Jmicron but so far it sucks, this is on a P5K-E by the way.

I don't have any means to safely remove the drive either like you do with usb devices, now once again I don't know if theres and issue with the Seagate drives or not that might be causing the problems for me.

EDIT: for your delay in boot times look for a sata delay option in the bios and set it to 5 or 0 seconds, mine was I think 15 seconds by default, this should fix the long delay after posting before your OS boots.

EDIT: Well I guess I should read the post a little better, not sure what would be causing the excessive delay you are experiencing but personally I haven't had allot of luck with the Jmicron controller.

[webwilli]

:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

That's great to know. Thanks for replying. I guess there is hope after all. Looks like the only difference between us is Asus p5k deluxe vs. premium and WD vs. Samsung drives. I'll try a few different drives next. I have some older maxtors and a older raptor I can try.

I wonder if it could be a difference in Bios? My JMicron bios is 1.06.69. Do you recall what yours is? I don't suppose it is able to be updated without an Asus Bios update. As I said, mine isn't even seen by the 'detecting drives...' screen.

Thread found ;)

With some older JMICRON drivers, i have many issues. But the lastest releases are all good and useful.

I can tell you my JMICRON Bios Rev. later. I´m at work now.

Do you get the green 'Safely remove hardware' arrow icon too?

no Icon.

[DonD]

New developments...

I tried a bunch of different drives I had around and it seems any drive I try now will eventually be detected by the JMicron controller while in AHCI mode. Only problem is that it takes 3 to 5 minutes to detect! Also, still no green 'safe to remove' arrow icon.

Samsung 500G - used to not be detected now is detected after 3 - 5 minutes
Samsung 250G - detected after 3 - 5 minutes
Samsung 160G - used to be detected immediately but now is detected after 3 - 5 minutes
old Maxtor 250G (circa 2004) - detected after 3 - 5 minutes
old Raptor 74G (circa 2004) - detected after 3 - 5 minutes

Anyone know if the ICH9R AHCI is more reliable and if it has the green 'safe to remove' arrow icon?

[DonD]

How about ABit boards and hot swap? Looking at the Abit forums there is a lot of talk about AHCI and hot swap but I can't find any confirmed usage with hot swap, complete with green 'safely remove' arrow.

Today is my last day to RMA the Asus and I'm thinking about going with an Abit IP-35 Pro instead. Any actually got an Abit IP-35 Pro working with hot swap with green 'safely remove' arrow? If so, is it with the ICH9R controler, JMicron, or both?

[pee4]

Just get a standard removable SATA hard drive drawer. Just slide the drive in and turn it on. Win XP SP2 will detect the drive and add the partitions to MyComputer.

Before removing the drive, just disable it in Device Manager to ensure that any buffered data is written to the drive. Turn it off and give it 20 seconds to spin to a halt, then remove the drawer.

[donpipo]

You may try using Hotswap!
It works fine for me with eSATA Jmicron ports in AHCI mode and allows to have the safe remove for eSATA drives, aswell as other removable devices.
Windows shows now no errors in event monitor.
Have a look here: http://mysite.verizon.net/kaakoon/hotswap/index_enu.htm
Hope it helps.
:)

[Mike89]

Hmm. I had been trying to get info on this myself. I have an Asus P5B Deluxe motherboard. I have two SATA (WD 250 gigs each) hard drives hooked up internally (not RAID or Micron). I recently bought a SATA WD 750 gig hard drive and put it in an enclosure (Thermaltake Max 4) and have it hooked up to the esata port on back of computer (which is controlled by the Micron controller).

I have the BIOS set for the Micron controller as IDE. I always boot (XP Pro) with the external hard drive switch off (but hooked up). Then when I want to access that hard drive, I turn the switch on. Windows XP does not automatically detect the external hard drive when I do this. I always have to manually scan for hardware changes for Windows XP to recognize it. No safe remove icon is ever present. Usually when I have it on, I will leave it on until I shut down the computer and then turn off the switch but I have on occasion turned it off while XP was still running (making sure no folders are open and no hard drive activity via the hard drive light is going on).

This setup works fine for me but it is not truely hot swappable. After all I read about the Micron controller/drivers (which is mostly not good), I am pretty leary to try setting the Micron controller in BIOS to AHCI and installing Micron drivers. I also have 1 IDE DVD/RW on the single IDE channel of motherboard which is also controlled by the Micron chip. The DVD drive works fine as it is and I'd hate to have issues with that going AHCI through Micron (as I have heard some people have).

So I'm sitting here reading and trying to decide if I should just leave well enough alone or try the Micron AHCI/driver route to see if the external hard drive would then be hot swappable.

I just tried that program mentioned here (Hotswap). I do now have a safe remove icon and I can remove the external hard drive with it. XP still won't detect it automatically though when it's turned on. So I got half of it. Maybe I should just settle for half.

[pjo]

Thanks all.

I followed what you guys tried.

My system: P5B Deluxe , eSATA external Box via JMICRON JMB836X on board and additional eSATA box via Silicon Image SiL 3132 on additional PCI card. Vista.

Sometimes these two external boxes are hotswappable, sometime not.

I have been searching information onthis and found your posts.

I changed JMICRON mode to AHCI, installed ASUS driver for JMICRON (RAID), and installed HotSWap! 4.1.1.0.

Finally these two external boxes are now hotswappable using HotSwap! function to scan new disks.

Thank You !

pjo

[chris36]

Hi DonD i had exactly the same situation as you, same mb and same esata problem, i just download the latest JMICRON DRIVER and install it and it works prefectly now, hope u had solve ur things.