K9A2 Plat v1 eSATA -- No drives detected at POST? -- (Resolved)

Question

Upgrading the BIOS to 1.4 was not a fix for me, so I set aside the two NEW cables I had been using, and just added an eSATA conversion segment to some standard SATA cables I had been using.   I'm now booting the off of a 0+1 RAID on the Promise T3, which includes the two external ports.  I transferred the drives directly over from the internal to external connectors without any apparent ill effect.  No modification / reinstall of the RAID / OS required.  With this result, I'm officially writing this all off to bad cables.
Perhaps as a result of the BIOS upgrade, Win2k reported that it had detected new hardware.  I'm not sure why, but sometimes on startup, the system hangs while scanning for drives on the PDC42819 --- with a message to the effect that "your system has a hardware problem!".  Reboot and it goes away, so whatever!
This now allows me to run more burners.  I'm running three SATA and one IDE.  Everything is happy in device manager, save for one unknown device.
****** Original post:
Win2k SP4 is running pretty well on my SB600 0+1 RAID, but when I tried to use the Promise T3 eSATA ports recently I encountered a problem at the point where POST passed control to the PDC42819 for array enumeration and scanning for attached drives.  Specifically, normal SATA drives attached to the eSATA ports are never detected, even though the exact same drives attached to SATA5 & SATA6 internally are detected without any problem.
I have some difficulty understanding the difference between the SATA5-6 and eSATA ports  as listed in the mainboard specifications.  Some of the following obviously applies to both the v1 and v2, and when it starts talking about SATA5-6 and eSATA, I assume this is referencing what I have: 
"4 SATAII ports by SB600 (SATA1~4)
 2 SATAII ports by Promise T3, support SAS ready device
 (SATA5~6, optional)
 2 eSATA ports by Promise T3 (optional)
 Supports storage and data transfers at up to 300MB/s
 2 SATA (SATA5 & SATA6) ports and 2 eSATA ports by Promise T3
 support to install storage devices only (optional)"
So I have some basic questions about the Promise T3 and associated ports:
If my board actually has the eSATA ports (not just solder blanks like those at JTPM), is a regular SATA drive supposed to be detected if plugged in?
Assuming that the Promise T3 is enabled in the BIOS, is there any other prerequisite for making the eSATA ports work?  Like, can you use the eSATA ports without using SATA5-6 internally on the mainboard?
Swapping eSATA cables made no difference.
Win2k SP4
K10 Phenom 9500
Scythe SCZP-1000 139mm CPU Cooler
4G Corsair Dominator DDR2 1066
Hitach A7K1000 750GB HUA721075KLA330 (0A35771)
RAID 0+1
Promise T3 (PDC42819)

Answer 1

Quote
If my board actually has the eSATA ports (not just solder blanks like those at JTPM), is a regular SATA drive supposed to be detected if plugged in?
Yes.
Quote
Assuming that the Promise T3 is enabled in the BIOS, is there any other prerequisite for making the eSATA ports work?  Like, can you use the eSATA ports without using SATA5-6 internally on the mainboard?
Yes, you can.
I have had some different results depending on the eSATA enclosure I use. Tested with two regular SATA drives, Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 and Hitachi 7K250. Both drives work fine on the internal connectors, both drives work fine in an ICY BOX enclosure connected to eSATA. Trouble started when I bought a second enclosure, Cooler Master X-Craft. The Hitachi drive simply wasn't there anymore, the Seagate was but it would hang during boot where it is scanning for hard drives...