I have a Gateway gaming laptop running on Vista. I purchased a WD 1tb My Book with USB, Firmware & eSATA. The USB works find, but my laptop doesn't have Firmware outlet. However my laptop has a eSATA port. I purchased the SATA cable from Best Buys. I connected the cable to my laptop and My Book, but nothing happens. How do I get my eSATA connection to work.
Had the same problem with a WD esata 1TB drive and an HP DV6 laptop. Using Vista home premium. Lots of experimentation BIOS settings and driver update, and finally fixed it by trimming back a couple of mm of the plastic shoulders on each connector of the esata cable. A few depth measurements and it became clear that the connectors weren't going in deep enough otherwise. The cable was a Belkin of reasonable quality.
No problems now, but the drive is only recognized if it's connected at boot-up.
The core of the problem is the external casing of both the laptop and the WD drive enclosure. They're thick and keep the cable connector from going in far enough. Perhaps manufacturers of the cables or the esata devices are sloppy, or the standard isn't specified well enough. I've seen pictures of esata cables that have significantly different dept.
I had a similar problem which I solved by using an eSATA cable with a longer end connector. My original eSATA cable would only allow the external drive to be seen if I pushed it hard into the computer port and held it there. With the second cable all was ok
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