eSATA Express 34 - ext hd problems

[RJK]

Silly me,

I bought a Startech "1 Port Flush Mount ExpressCard 34mm eSATA II Controller
Adapter Card"
....(mine came from ebuyer.com, model no. ECESATA1 is the same, (and there is
a SIL3132 chip in it), though the label stuck on it is more of an orange
colour).
for my MSI CR620 Laptop, ...and I thought it would be as simple as
installing the driver for it | plug it in to my CR620's Express34 slot and
all would be lovely !!!
....after 30 years with IBM PC compatibles, and MS Windows, one can still
hope !

I have two Startech ext. hd enclosures, (about 2 yrs. old), each has eSATA
and USB2.0 ports on them, and 500gb hd's in them, which are normally left
sitting behind my two main desktop PC's for Ghost 14.0 backups, so I
unplugged the one that normally stays connected to my main PC | (i.e
connected to a PCIe x1 Jmicron JMB36X esata card in it), and plugged it into
Laptop, and set it doing a system image.
....all went well for 36gb's worth of system image, then the task collapsed
with, "The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk1\DR1"

any tips appreciated

regards, Richard

 

[Paul]

Silly me,

I bought a Startech "1 Port Flush Mount ExpressCard 34mm eSATA II Controller
Adapter Card"
...(mine came from ebuyer.com, model no. ECESATA1 is the same, (and there is
a SIL3132 chip in it), though the label stuck on it is more of an orange
colour).
for my MSI CR620 Laptop, ...and I thought it would be as simple as
installing the driver for it | plug it in to my CR620's Express34 slot and
all would be lovely !!!
...after 30 years with IBM PC compatibles, and MS Windows, one can still
hope !

I have two Startech ext. hd enclosures, (about 2 yrs. old), each has eSATA
and USB2.0 ports on them, and 500gb hd's in them, which are normally left
sitting behind my two main desktop PC's for Ghost 14.0 backups, so I
unplugged the one that normally stays connected to my main PC | (i.e
connected to a PCIe x1 Jmicron JMB36X esata card in it), and plugged it into
Laptop, and set it doing a system image.
...all went well for 36gb's worth of system image, then the task collapsed
with, "The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk1\DR1"

any tips appreciated

regards, Richard

Is there any more error information ? Like in Event Viewer ?

Do you have some other test you can run ?
Maybe something like Seatools for Windows (if the enclosure drive is a Seagate).
Being careful to disconnect any USB enclosures first - Seatools
erased the config info on my USB enclosure when I used it!
The enclosure had a Cypress chip, and the Cypress chip has
been known to do that.

Since you've never tested the ESATA on your enclosure before,
it could be the enclosure which is at fault. Have you checked
reviews for the enclosure, to see if others report ESATA problems ?

Paul

 

[RJK]

Is there any more error information ? Like in Event Viewer ?

Do you have some other test you can run ?
Maybe something like Seatools for Windows (if the enclosure drive is a
Seagate).
Being careful to disconnect any USB enclosures first - Seatools
erased the config info on my USB enclosure when I used it!
The enclosure had a Cypress chip, and the Cypress chip has
been known to do that.

Since you've never tested the ESATA on your enclosure before,
it could be the enclosure which is at fault. Have you checked
reviews for the enclosure, to see if others report ESATA problems ?

Paul

Many thanks Paul,

Had to take a giant step backwards, with Laptop, unable to get to Page file
screen in Advanced System Settings, gave up trawling web for fix, now
restoring recovery partition !!!
ridiculous 5,400 rpm hd that came in it ....i370, ...never worked on
anything so ridiculously slow, ...was hoping to get an SSD in it but, now
have to wait ridiculous lengths of time whilst working with 5,400 WD hd in
it,....then will then have to drag it up to date ....moan ....moan !

....have removed Express34 Sil3132 card and USB nano dongle for Logitech M305
mouse whilst setting the thing back to its' shipped condition ! ,...13
minutes and counting !

regards, Richard

ps my 2 yr. old Startech ext. 500gb hd's I 've always used, on my desktops,
with eSATA cables, never had any trouble with them.

 

[RJK]

Windows 7 tells me that I'm trying to do WindowsImageBackup on the "same
physical disk" ?

So, quickly, here's what I did :-

Restored MSI CR620 recovery partition, (mainly to fix missing PageFile
settings in Control Panel | System | Performance and Settings screen),
....then did 83+ Windows 7 Home Premium updates, and installed AVG 2012 full
internet security suite.

Removed 320gb WD hd from MSI CR620 Laptop, and put it in a USB 2.0 ext. hd
caddy,
fitted a new 60gb SSD into Laptop, ...used Acronis boot cd to clone 320gb
hd
onto SSD in Laptop,
....and all is swift and lovely.

Seeing as I've now done quite a bit of updating and tweaking on W7, which
now lives in SSD in Laptop,
I thought I'd like to "Windows Image Backup", ...make a system image of
what's on SSD using W7's "Backup and Restore" | "Make a system image", out
onto the 320gb hd that's still in the ext. hd enclosure,
but, Windows Image Backup tells me that I'm trying to send it to the "same
physical drive."

...anyhooo
SSD Disk 0 in Laptop has 4 downsized partitions,
9.10gb Healthy (Recovery Partition)
22mb Healthy (Active, Recovery Partition)
28.56gb OS_Install (C NTSF Healthy (Boot,Pagefile,Crash Dump, Primary
Partition)
18.22gb Data (D NTSF Healthy (Primary Partition)

DVD rewriter is drive E:\

WD 320gb Disk 1 has it's 4 original partitions, ...when connected / drive
letters are:-
15gb Healthy (Recovery Partition)
100mb Healthy (Active, Recovery Partition)
172.79gb OS_Install (F NTSF Healthy (Boot,Pagefile,Crash Dump, Primary
Partition)
110.20gb Data (G NTSF Healthy (Primary Partition)

....and with 320gb hd connnected in ext. case, Windows "Make a System Image"
includes partitions :-
SSD 28.56gb OS_Install (C ...(21.46gb used)
172.79gb OS_Install (F NTSF Healthy (Boot,Pagefile,Crash Dump, Primary
Partition) ...(20.72gb used)
SSD 22mb Healthy (Active, Recovery Partition) ...(21.73gb used)

....am unable to deselect OS_Install (F

....would be hugely grateful for any tips on best approach, ...perhaps mark
one or more partitions on ED 320gb hd as inactive etc.

regards, Richard

 

[Paul]

Windows 7 tells me that I'm trying to do WindowsImageBackup on the "same
physical disk" ?

So, quickly, here's what I did :-

Restored MSI CR620 recovery partition, (mainly to fix missing PageFile
settings in Control Panel | System | Performance and Settings screen),
...then did 83+ Windows 7 Home Premium updates, and installed AVG 2012 full
internet security suite.

Removed 320gb WD hd from MSI CR620 Laptop, and put it in a USB 2.0 ext. hd
caddy,
fitted a new 60gb SSD into Laptop, ...used Acronis boot cd to clone 320gb
hd
onto SSD in Laptop,
...and all is swift and lovely.

Seeing as I've now done quite a bit of updating and tweaking on W7, which
now lives in SSD in Laptop,
I thought I'd like to "Windows Image Backup", ...make a system image of
what's on SSD using W7's "Backup and Restore" | "Make a system image", out
onto the 320gb hd that's still in the ext. hd enclosure,
but, Windows Image Backup tells me that I'm trying to send it to the "same
physical drive."

..anyhooo
SSD Disk 0 in Laptop has 4 downsized partitions,
9.10gb Healthy (Recovery Partition)
22mb Healthy (Active, Recovery Partition)
28.56gb OS_Install (C NTSF Healthy (Boot,Pagefile,Crash Dump, Primary
Partition)
18.22gb Data (D NTSF Healthy (Primary Partition)

DVD rewriter is drive E:\

WD 320gb Disk 1 has it's 4 original partitions, ...when connected / drive
letters are:-
15gb Healthy (Recovery Partition)
100mb Healthy (Active, Recovery Partition)
172.79gb OS_Install (F NTSF Healthy (Boot,Pagefile,Crash Dump, Primary
Partition)
110.20gb Data (G NTSF Healthy (Primary Partition)

...and with 320gb hd connnected in ext. case, Windows "Make a System Image"
includes partitions :-
SSD 28.56gb OS_Install (C ...(21.46gb used)
172.79gb OS_Install (F NTSF Healthy (Boot,Pagefile,Crash Dump, Primary
Partition) ...(20.72gb used)
SSD 22mb Healthy (Active, Recovery Partition) ...(21.73gb used)

...am unable to deselect OS_Install (F

...would be hugely grateful for any tips on best approach, ...perhaps mark
one or more partitions on ED 320gb hd as inactive etc.

regards, Richard

Well, I don't know if I can follow all of that, but I'll make some
general observations.

Disks have a number of identifiers. At the physical level, the hardware
generally has a serial number. A notable exception might be cheap USB keys,
but most other storage devices have a serial number on the disk itself.

Windows also has several numbers recorded in various places. There could be a
disk ID in the MBR. Volume_IDs for each partition. That sort of thing.

You can use Everest to review storage information, and see if at least a few
of those identifiers are unique or not.

http://majorgeeks.com/download4181.html

It might depend on whether the cloning had an option to make things
exactly identical. Perhaps that is why System Image is complaining.

If you needed to change a Volume_ID, there is this program. I use this
after formatting C: on my current machine. (It's part of a cleaning
procedure I do.) Most people won't be bothered with, or need this.
But it's there if you need it.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897436

*******

Your SSD partitioning could be better.

Your System Reserved is only 22 megabytes. On the original disk it
was 100 megabytes. That seems... a little tight. Not a lot of
writes should go to that. The main concern with making it that
small, is nuisance dialog boxes claiming it is full.

You've separated C: and D:, with C: at 28.56GB. This will be too
small, if you attempt to install SP1. Or do a decent number of
updates. Or, turn on System Restore. C: should have a bit
more slack on it, to be useful.

If there are really no files in D: 18GB, I would delete D: and
expand C: to use the space, bringing C: to about 43GB. This still
isn't enough for a few things, but it's big enough if you're careful.
I've been running C: at 40GB for a while, and it's been enough so far.
I think I'd be getting "disk full" dialogs a lot, if I shrank it to
28GB.

*******

Anyway, take a look with Everest, and see if there is an obvious
duplication of some identifier. The actual problem is probably
in the registry somewhere, but it won't hurt to have a look
with Everest.

Paul

 

[RJK]

Well, I don't know if I can follow all of that, but I'll make some
general observations.

Your read it too fast <grin> ...just kidding

Since posting, (and before carefully reading your notes), for which I'm
truly grateful,
I gave up trying to alter partitions/sizes on WD 320gb hd in external caddy,
(connected to win7 Home Premium CR620 Laptop), and removed it from caddy,
and
plugged it into "All IN 1 HDD Docking" unit that is connected to my main
desktop XP Home ed. PC,
and deleted all four partitions on it, and repartitioned it as a Logical
drive, (not spanned anywhere),
....put it back in caddy, connected it to Laptop, where it shows in disk
Management as 298gb or so free space,
and still Win 7's Backup and Restore | Create system Image collapses with
complaints about there not being enough room somewhere for "Volume Shadow
Copy,"
....so I think I'll abandon trying to use Win 7's System Image rubbish, and
either upgrade my Ghost 14.0 (which is not Win7 compliant),
or buy Acronis True Image.

regards, Richard

 

[Paul]

Your read it too fast <grin> ...just kidding

Since posting, (and before carefully reading your notes), for which I'm
truly grateful,
I gave up trying to alter partitions/sizes on WD 320gb hd in external caddy,
(connected to win7 Home Premium CR620 Laptop), and removed it from caddy,
and
plugged it into "All IN 1 HDD Docking" unit that is connected to my main
desktop XP Home ed. PC,
and deleted all four partitions on it, and repartitioned it as a Logical
drive, (not spanned anywhere),
...put it back in caddy, connected it to Laptop, where it shows in disk
Management as 298gb or so free space,
and still Win 7's Backup and Restore | Create system Image collapses with
complaints about there not being enough room somewhere for "Volume Shadow
Copy,"
...so I think I'll abandon trying to use Win 7's System Image rubbish, and
either upgrade my Ghost 14.0 (which is not Win7 compliant),
or buy Acronis True Image.

regards, Richard

That's a good observation, and provides the answer. It means C: on the
SSD is too small. The VSS service, used by a *lot* of backup utilities,
needs disk space on C: for things. (I do not believe it stores the
entire backup, but it might need room for a 1GB sized tracking file.)
Since your C: is so small, VSS is still running, but any time some
software uses VSS, it immediately runs out of space. You need to make
C: a little bigger. On my laptop, running C: at 40GB, allows System Image
to work. You'd better do something about it, as there might not be any
really good backup solutions that don't use VSS. (Without VSS, to backup C:
you need to reboot the computer, and have a DOS-like tool do
the backup. That's what running without a working VSS looks like.
Like, go back to Ghost type solutions.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_Copy

With a 40GB C:, I keep System Restore turned off but there's enough
slack so I can do System Image to an external USB hard drive. And
it completes OK.

Paul

 

[RJK]

That's a good observation, and provides the answer. It means C: on the
SSD is too small. The VSS service, used by a *lot* of backup utilities,
needs disk space on C: for things. (I do not believe it stores the
entire backup, but it might need room for a 1GB sized tracking file.)
Since your C: is so small, VSS is still running, but any time some
software uses VSS, it immediately runs out of space. You need to make
C: a little bigger. On my laptop, running C: at 40GB, allows System Image
to work. You'd better do something about it, as there might not be any
really good backup solutions that don't use VSS. (Without VSS, to backup
C:
you need to reboot the computer, and have a DOS-like tool do
the backup. That's what running without a working VSS looks like.
Like, go back to Ghost type solutions.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_Copy

With a 40GB C:, I keep System Restore turned off but there's enough
slack so I can do System Image to an external USB hard drive. And
it completes OK.

Paul

Many thanks,

OK, I deleted D:\ partition on SSD and expanded C:\ into the space D:\ was
using,
....d'loaded | installed Acronis TrueImage 2012 | and paid the £39.95 :-( to
license it.

....now W7's Disk Management shows 60gb SSD has:-
9.10gb Healthy (Recovery Partition)
22mb Healthy ( Recovery Partition)
OS_Install (C:\) 46.78gb ntfs Healthy (Boot,Page File,Crash Dump, Primary
Partition)

....dunno what the little 22mb partition is for but, I think I'll leave it
alone.

....as an aside, re: Laptop, I used the Startech SIL3132 Expres34 card and
eSATA lead to Startech 2.5" INFOSAFE eSATA and USB 2.0 SATA drive enclosure,
that has the
dreadfully slow WD 320gb 5,400rpm hard disk that came out of CR620, ....and
it all works beautifully now
....i.e used Acronis to image/backup all partitions on SSD in just a few
minutes.

So I have the situation now where PCIe x1 Jmicron eSATA II card, in my main
desktop PC, works fine with 2 year old Startech 3.5" eSATA/USB2.0 ext. hd.
enclosures, using eSATA lead...(had to reflash bios chip on Jmicron card to
get that working, ...getting on for 2 years ago, I distantly recall), so I
think I'll leave ext. 3.5" hd's lurking behind desktop PC's,
.....and just be content that Laptop has it's own 2.5" 298gb backup hd in
ext. enclosure, and of course I can use it for other storage.

It I win the lottery I'll replace it all with USB3.0 and LaCie hardware,
....maybe not !
...I was tempted to get a 120gb SSD but, that would have cost another £20,
and I had planned to fit 5,400/320gb hd into ext. enclosure,
....one has to put the brakes on PC hardware spending at some point !
60gb ssd+eSATA Express34 card+eSATA/USB 2.0 ext. hd. enclosure was approx.
£103

regards, Richard

 

[Paul]

Many thanks,

OK, I deleted D:\ partition on SSD and expanded C:\ into the space D:\ was
using,
...d'loaded | installed Acronis TrueImage 2012 | and paid the £39.95 :-( to
license it.

...now W7's Disk Management shows 60gb SSD has:-
9.10gb Healthy (Recovery Partition)
22mb Healthy ( Recovery Partition)
OS_Install (C:\) 46.78gb ntfs Healthy (Boot,Page File,Crash Dump, Primary
Partition)

...dunno what the little 22mb partition is for but, I think I'll leave it
alone.

...as an aside, re: Laptop, I used the Startech SIL3132 Expres34 card and
eSATA lead to Startech 2.5" INFOSAFE eSATA and USB 2.0 SATA drive enclosure,
that has the
dreadfully slow WD 320gb 5,400rpm hard disk that came out of CR620, ....and
it all works beautifully now
...i.e used Acronis to image/backup all partitions on SSD in just a few
minutes.

So I have the situation now where PCIe x1 Jmicron eSATA II card, in my main
desktop PC, works fine with 2 year old Startech 3.5" eSATA/USB2.0 ext. hd.
enclosures, using eSATA lead...(had to reflash bios chip on Jmicron card to
get that working, ...getting on for 2 years ago, I distantly recall), so I
think I'll leave ext. 3.5" hd's lurking behind desktop PC's,
....and just be content that Laptop has it's own 2.5" 298gb backup hd in
ext. enclosure, and of course I can use it for other storage.

It I win the lottery I'll replace it all with USB3.0 and LaCie hardware,
...maybe not !
..I was tempted to get a 120gb SSD but, that would have cost another £20,
and I had planned to fit 5,400/320gb hd into ext. enclosure,
....one has to put the brakes on PC hardware spending at some point !
60gb ssd+eSATA Express34 card+eSATA/USB 2.0 ext. hd. enclosure was approx.
£103

regards, Richard

On my laptop, there are two partitions of interest.

100MB partition labeled "SYSTEM RESERVED", has active flag set.

40GB main C: partition

Those two partitions, hold the OS.

If I were to do an anytime upgrade, and say, upgrade to Ultimate,
then decide to use BitLocker to encrypt the 40GB C:, the tiny 100MB
partition remains un-encrypted. It holds the files necessary to
start the boot process. That's why the OS is split in two pieces,
to support certain usages of BitLocker encryption.

It is also possible to install the OS in a single partition,
and not bother with SYSTEM RESERVED partition. In that case,
you cannot very well encrypt the entire C:, because the boot
files need to be accessed early on in the boot process.

So that's the difference.

If the 100MB partition shrinks to 22MB, maybe that's room to hold
the files, but then the partition must be very near to being full.
Maybe the OS would need to write in there, if you do a BCDEDIT
operation ? Or use a program like EasyBCD ? At which point, you
might discover the 22MB is just too small.

Windows 8, apparently, makes the small partition a little larger.
But I don't know yet, what for, whether it's to hold a kernel
image or something like that. I haven't been curious enough to find out.

Paul