Unable to safely remove eSATA disk

According to this web page:

http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx...0&SubCatID=117


There's a newer driver that specifically supports Vista (double-check
everything since this is just my best shot). I had a similar problem with
my eSATA drive in an Icy Dock external enclosure. Even though I didn't show
any problems in Device Manager, I wasn't getting a Safely Remove Hardware
prompt from Vista Ultimate. I had to Update the driver from Device Manager
using a new, Vista specific driver to get that capability. Also, make sure
the drive is set up as non-RAID in the BIOS and that you don't install the
RAID driver (again, I'm assuming this is a non-RAID setup -- I don't know
what VIA calls there's, but it should be something besides RAID (I think)).



"Peter Meinl" <pit@petermeinl.de> wrote in message
news:ORohyxLRHHA.2172@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

>I have a eSATA disk connected to a VIA VT6421 Controller (Driver Date
> 8.11.2006).
> Vista does not show the disk when I click on "Safely remove hardware".
> Using Device Manager I tried to set the disk policy to "Optimize for
> quick
> removal" but this option is disabled.
>

I am already using the new driver mentioned.
Could it be that the controller has to support hot-swap, which maybe the VIA
controller does not?


"David A. Lessnau" <DavidALessnau@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message news:16D22F93-3ECA-4AB1-9690-A62DD954DE2F@microsoft.com...

> According to this web page:
>
> http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx...0&SubCatID=117
>
>
> There's a newer driver that specifically supports Vista (double-check
> everything since this is just my best shot). I had a similar problem with
> my eSATA drive in an Icy Dock external enclosure. Even though I didn't
> show any problems in Device Manager, I wasn't getting a Safely Remove
> Hardware prompt from Vista Ultimate. I had to Update the driver from
> Device Manager using a new, Vista specific driver to get that capability.
> Also, make sure the drive is set up as non-RAID in the BIOS and that you
> don't install the RAID driver (again, I'm assuming this is a non-RAID
> setup -- I don't know what VIA calls there's, but it should be something
> besides RAID (I think)).
>
>
>
> "Peter Meinl" <pit@petermeinl.de> wrote in message
> news:ORohyxLRHHA.2172@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

>>I have a eSATA disk connected to a VIA VT6421 Controller (Driver Date
>> 8.11.2006).
>> Vista does not show the disk when I click on "Safely remove hardware".
>> Using Device Manager I tried to set the disk policy to "Optimize for
>> quick
>> removal" but this option is disabled.
>>

>

Peter Meinl wrote:

> I have a eSATA disk connected to a VIA VT6421 Controller (Driver Date
> 8.11.2006).
> Vista does not show the disk when I click on "Safely remove hardware".
> Using Device Manager I tried to set the disk policy to "Optimize for quick
> removal" but this option is disabled.

If a drive appears in the 'Savely remove hardware' list is
controlled by some bits in the device descriptor which the
driver provides.

The 'Savely remove hardware' facility reads the bits from
the registry, so they can be temporarely modified until next
restart. This is true at least for XP.
Have a look at this thread:
http://groups.google.com/group/micro...af269e39119f5b

My commandline tool RemoveDrive should be able to do the removal
job:
http://www.uwe-sieber.de/files/removedrive.zip

If the drive isn't detected on replug, then you can try a
devcon rescan
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311272


Greetings from Germany

Uwe

"Peter Meinl" <pit@petermeinl.de> wrote in message
news:ORohyxLRHHA.2172@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

>I have a eSATA disk connected to a VIA VT6421 Controller (Driver Date
> 8.11.2006).
> Vista does not show the disk when I click on "Safely remove hardware".
> Using Device Manager I tried to set the disk policy to "Optimize for quick
> removal" but this option is disabled.

Maybe?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925528
Release Date: January 30, 2007

This article discusses an update that resolves a variety of issues that occur with specific USB
hardware devices and controllers in Windows Vista.

It was a controller/driver problem:
After replacing the VIA PCI controller with a Delock PCI-Express controller
(20 Euro, JMicron JMB360 chipset) and installing the newest Vista driver
from JMicron the eSATA drive shows up in "Safely remove hardware" and the
disk policy is set to "optimize for performance".

With the standard MS Vista driver "safely remove" was not offerd.

There is still something strange:
"Enable wirte caching" and "Enable advanced performance" under "Disk
Policies" are selectable but device manager seems not to accept them to be
checked (does not remember them checked).
However: Vista Explorer reports 65-70 MB/Sec writing to a ST350083 disk,
which seems to be OK to me.

"Peter Meinl" <pit@petermeinl.de> wrote in message
news:ORohyxLRHHA.2172@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

>I have a eSATA disk connected to a VIA VT6421 Controller (Driver Date
> 8.11.2006).
> Vista does not show the disk when I click on "Safely remove hardware".
> Using Device Manager I tried to set the disk policy to "Optimize for
> quick
> removal" but this option is disabled.
>

> "Enable wirte caching" and "Enable advanced performance" under "Disk Policies" are selectable

> but device manager seems not to accept them to be checked (does not remember them checked).

I get the same on two of my external USB drives.

They seem to work fine.

-Michael

"Peter Meinl" <pit@petermeinl.de> wrote in message
news:uZ$pIa4RHHA.3592@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...

> It was a controller/driver problem:
> After replacing the VIA PCI controller with a Delock PCI-Express controller (20 Euro, JMicron
> JMB360 chipset) and installing the newest Vista driver from JMicron the eSATA drive shows up
> in "Safely remove hardware" and the disk policy is set to "optimize for performance".
>
> With the standard MS Vista driver "safely remove" was not offerd.
>
> There is still something strange:
> "Enable wirte caching" and "Enable advanced performance" under "Disk Policies" are selectable
> but device manager seems not to accept them to be checked (does not remember them checked).
> However: Vista Explorer reports 65-70 MB/Sec writing to a ST350083 disk, which seems to be OK
> to me.
>
> "Peter Meinl" <pit@petermeinl.de> wrote in message
> news:ORohyxLRHHA.2172@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

>>I have a eSATA disk connected to a VIA VT6421 Controller (Driver Date
>> 8.11.2006).
>> Vista does not show the disk when I click on "Safely remove hardware".
>> Using Device Manager I tried to set the disk policy to "Optimize for quick
>> removal" but this option is disabled.
>>

>

Peter Meinl wrote:

> It was a controller/driver problem:
> After replacing the VIA PCI controller with a Delock PCI-Express
> controller (20 Euro, JMicron JMB360 chipset) and installing the newest
> Vista driver from JMicron the eSATA drive shows up in "Safely remove
> hardware" and the disk policy is set to "optimize for performance".
>
> With the standard MS Vista driver "safely remove" was not offerd.
>
> There is still something strange:
> "Enable wirte caching" and "Enable advanced performance" under "Disk
> Policies" are selectable but device manager seems not to accept them to
> be checked (does not remember them checked).
> However: Vista Explorer reports 65-70 MB/Sec writing to a ST350083 disk,
> which seems to be OK to me.

Where does Vista report HD read and write rates?

Click "Details" on Vista Explorers copy progress dialog.

"Ron Miller" <millerDOT90@osu.edu> wrote in message
news:%23sXX05$RHHA.2252@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

> Peter Meinl wrote:

>> It was a controller/driver problem:
>> After replacing the VIA PCI controller with a Delock PCI-Express
>> controller (20 Euro, JMicron JMB360 chipset) and installing the newest
>> Vista driver from JMicron the eSATA drive shows up in "Safely remove
>> hardware" and the disk policy is set to "optimize for performance".
>>
>> With the standard MS Vista driver "safely remove" was not offerd.
>>
>> There is still something strange:
>> "Enable wirte caching" and "Enable advanced performance" under "Disk
>> Policies" are selectable but device manager seems not to accept them to
>> be checked (does not remember them checked).
>> However: Vista Explorer reports 65-70 MB/Sec writing to a ST350083 disk,
>> which seems to be OK to me.

>
>
> Where does Vista report HD read and write rates?
>