eSATA booting External links Options

[ktp]

In the PC world, there is no HDD Firewire booting. But how about eSATA boot ?
I believe on some new laptops there is eSATA port built-in, so I assume eSATA attached HDD can be booted
(menu in BIOS). Is it true ? And is there any difference (for BartPE, WinPE...) to boot eSATA vs. USB 2?
Any problem like BSOD 0x7B (INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE) for example ?


I do know that PCMCIA/ExpressCard providing eSATA ports could not be used for booting.
Only built-in eSATA port could.

Note : I do not have any SATA equipment, so I am newbie on this matter.

Edit: a Google search seems to indicate that it is possible:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=159970

[Nuno Brito]

Also seen the hardware from online vendors but I'm still waiting to actually play with one..

Why do you say that PCMCIA can't be used for booting?

It's been booting fine other devices like external CD-ROMS for some time now - guess it depends on BIOS support for each manufacturer.

[mr_]

Add me to the list of interested people.

Someone can confirm he booted:
- DOS from esata?
- XP from esata?
- Vista from esata?
- or Linux vom esata?

I have none currently in front of me and informations on google are rare.

[was_jaclaz]

Though I have no e-sata hardware at hand, theoretically it should boot allright, as always if the BIOS allows for it, or if using a "kicker" of some kind.

Booting XP from USB (on motherboards without BIOS support for it) and from Firewire has been resolved with the "XP Kansas City Shuffle", it should work as well from e-sata:
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...c=21242&hl=


A thread (with no useful reports ) is here:
http://www.msfn.org/board/Installing-to-an...ta-t118355.html
and another one here:
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=21408

It seems like people that are curious and willing to experiment do not have the needed hardware, and people with the hardware do not care to experiment and report....

jaclaz

[mr_]

Well, does esata differ from sata much? I mean, yes it has another connector but in software it's seen as normal sata hdd?

I know that installing XP on sata isn't much fun. You either need a sata driver on legacy floppy disk or you need to fiddle the sata driver into your setup cd.

My globe says booting DOS should be no problem at all if handed as normal harddisk, DOS will just use BIOS drivers and currently it looks all the 8086 compatible mode stuff will be supported unlimited. Perhaps only protected mode drivers related problems.

But a confirmation would interest me.

[was_jaclaz]

Well, does esata differ from sata much? I mean, yes it has another connector but in software it's seen as normal sata hdd?

Yes.

As in already posted:
http://www.msfn.org/board/Installing-to-an...5.html&st=3

As I see it (but I might be completely and utterly wrong, of course ) the problem might be the "Express Card" thingie.

What I am just speculating about and probably failed to express properly, is that the BIOS must be able to boot from the PCMCIA slot and accept an e-sata attached to it.

And, once the "real mode" part has booted, there should be the need for an Express Card (read PCMCIA) driver and that for a sata driver, so we are in a situation similar to the "Boot from USB" where more than one driver is needed.


A "direct" e-sata bus would not be a problem, I think, as e-sata is basically nothing but a connector for the normal sata bus to attach external devices, and as thus is supported by the "normal" appropriate sata driver.

There is no way a (desktop) motherboard can distinguish between a sata and an e-sata drive.

On laptops, an e-sata port may behave differently, as well as an e-sata port attached through a "bridge", like the Express card in the referenced thread.

jaclaz

[booty#1]

I do know that PCMCIA/ExpressCard providing eSATA ports could not be used for booting.

That is wrong. I remeber an article in the "c't" (the magazine ctmag is related to) about PCExpress card (e)SATA adapter. About half of them supported booting (two of them by a manufacturer named "onnto"). It looks like booting or not booting depends on the used adapter.

booty#1

[mr_]

There is no way a (desktop) motherboard can distinguish between a sata and an e-sata drive.

I think there is a little difference. I have read somewhere esata supports hotplug and therefore you see the device in the windows "hardware safe remove".

Hopefully this little difference is unimportant for booting and booting is same like sata.

About half of them supported booting (two of them by a manufacturer named "onnto"). It looks like booting or not booting depends on the used adapter.

Thanks for the info.

Bah, again this mess with standards everyone implements a bit other...

I purchased now an USB HDD enclosure with both USB and esata connector. First I will play a bit with booting from USB (more computers support it). Maybe I purchase later also an esata controller card.

If there are no success storys with which esata controller booting is working and with which it isn't I think I have the hard task to find out the chipset and find the data sheet. I am pretty curious about this.

[mr_]

My current motherboard here has no sata ports, therefore also no sata related options in BIOS. But there are sata controller pci addon cards.

How should it be possible in my case to boot sata directly? (Let's forget about hacks like fake signature method.)

Would any sata devices become IDE 0,1 or IDE 1,0 or what?

Or are sata controller pci cards only bootable if the BIOS is already aware of sata?

[booty#1]

My current motherboard here has no sata ports, therefore also no sata related options in BIOS. But there are sata controller pci addon cards.
How should it be possible in my case to boot sata directly? (Let's forget about hacks like fake signature method.)
Would any sata devices become IDE 0,1 or IDE 1,0 or what?
Or are sata controller pci cards only bootable if the BIOS is already aware of sata?

You should be able to boot from a sata disk via an bootable sata-pci card. The BIOS doesn't have to be "sata-capable". Booting from hdd's attached to add-on cards isn't a new feature. It has been used by SCSI-cards since the existence of PCI. Therefore you may have to select "boot from SCSI" in your BIOS for booting from the SATA adapter card.
Please note that only SATA-cards with an own BIOS are capable of booting.

booty#1