My laptop has the Intel 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA AHCI Controller.
(hwbrowser)
According to
http://linux-ata.org/driver-status.html, Linux supports full
hotplug for this chipset.
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AHCI (newer Intel ICH, ULi, others)
Driver name: ahci
Summary: Full NCQ support, full SATA control including hotplug and PM.
Note1: AHCI specification is completely open.
Note2: ATI, Intel, JMicron, NVIDIA, SiS, ULi and VIA are currently known to
have deployed AHCI in their chipsets.
Hopefully others will follow. AHCI is a nice, open design.
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My laptop has 2 internal SATA drives and they work perfectly, including with
hwbrowser.
So why does hwbrowser stall with the external drive ?