Level 1

1 points

How to tell between SATA2 and SATA3 hard drives?

Hello all.

Googled my little fingers off and couldn't find a clear answer to this ...

How (the heck) do you find out if a hard drive is SATA3 or SATA2 and/or how do you find out if a hard driveis 6Gb/s or 3Gb/s?

The situation: WIth the price coming down on SSD drives, I finally caved and bought an SSD to upgrade my 2011 Macbook Pro. First up, wow ... I realize this SSD drive is brand new and performing at it's best but holy doodle! It's so fast it feels like a whole new computer. Great upgrade, well worth the money.

Anyways, my plan was to install the SSD as the primary drive and run the OS and applications off it. Then take old main HD (a 1TB, 72000rpm HD) and rotate that into the optical bay (for file storage). I am using the OWC data-doubler kit and that's where the problems started. The data doubler rack is fine but apparently I can't put a SATA3 (?) drive in the optical bay ... only SATA2 drives. Something about the optical bay not being able to handle 6Gb/s and only 3Gb/s.

I might have an out here. I have three other 2.5" HDs in external USB enclosures (Western Digital My Passport, Freecom etc.) that if I can successfully identify as SATA2 and/or 3Gb/s then I will break open and use that in the optical bay. Before breaking the enclusore open, I would ideally like to positively identify the drive as having the proper specs. These enclosures don't appear to be designed to be opened and closed again so it might be a one way mission if I break them open ;-)

I plugged in the drives and tried System Information and wasn't able to spot anything (maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention)

If anyone can tell me if it's possible to plug these USB drives and indentify them as SATA2 / SATA3 or 6Gb/s / 3Gb/s that would be awesome.

Tnx!

MacBook Pro, iOS 7.0.4, Mavericks, SIRI

Posted on Dec 1, 2013 12:58 PM

21 replies

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Feb 23, 2014 11:28 AM in response to andremartins.br

You inserted your picture upside down, but that looks like an IDE drive, not a Sata drive. No use as an internal but will work in an external USB case (made for an IDE drive)

Feb 24, 2014 3:50 AM in response to Csound1

thanks Csound1,

a sales persons yesterday told me that this is an ide drive. But what about this sata bridge that is attached to he drive. I saw some ide enclosures and none seems to fit on this...

Any hint?

Thanks again, I appreciate.

ps: I inserted the picture on the right side, I dunno why the foru posted upside down...

Feb 24, 2014 3:54 AM in response to andremartins.br

You asked the same question in the Air forum

I told you why the SATA card is on the controller board as 1 piece , they did that to save 50 cents in manufacturing

Yup, that is WHY you never buy WD external HD, they cheap out and save 50 cents by making the controller board and SATA bridge card the same unit

Toshiba is now doing the same thing, avoid them as well

Purchase Seagate and Hitachi to avoid that (Hitachi are the best ext. USB drives without doubt)

see here all about it:

Your dead external hard drive is likely fine! Great hope for your 'faulty' external HD

There is a way, any way to put this drive again working, in another drive case or whatever?

ONLY if you had another identical HD you could swap the controller boards.

. It is my time machine backup drive, so I am kind of upset...

You never should have let yourself be in the position of having a single external DATA copy, ever

hard drives are way way too cheap to let that happen.

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Feb 24, 2014 3:57 AM in response to andremartins.br

andremartins.br wrote:

thanks Csound1,

a sales persons yesterday told me that this is an ide drive.

Correct, it is an IDE drive and won't work in a Mac (a modern Mac)

But what about this sata bridge that is attached to he drive.

What Sata bridge is attached to the drive?

Going Forward.

Buy an external enclosure, IDE to USB, put the drive in it.

Feb 24, 2014 3:59 AM in response to Csound1

thanks Csound1. But I already figure it out that this drive is useless by now.

I appreciate your feedback.

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Feb 24, 2014 4:06 AM in response to andremartins.br

It's not completely useless, but it may not have much use in a world where a 1tb drive can be bought for $65

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How to tell between SATA2 and SATA3 hard drives?