SATA drive connection

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peter

I know its a silly question but the nearest computer store is 2 hours away.
could/would someone kindly look at the SATA pins where the SATA connector goes
and tell me if the pins are all the same lenght or are some shorter than
others??
I was working on cleaning up the wire mess inside when I accidentally knocked of
the SATA connector from the drive.When I attempted to reconnect I noticed it was
harder than before and upon inspection saw some pins were shorter than
others....so did I damage the connection??
The connection seems really touchy from that point on.To be on the safe side I
ordered another SATA drive with a more secure connection..should be here next
week.
thanks in advance
peter
 
could/would someone kindly look at the SATA pins where the SATA connector goes
and tell me if the pins are all the same lenght or are some shorter than
others??
Click to expand...

They are designed so that some pins are longer than others - the ground
wires (and possibly power as well, but I don't know). This is just like
USB - so that you can hot-plug a SATA device. I haven't tried it yet
(don't want to risk killing a 200 gig Seagate), but hot-plugging was
designed into the SATA interface right from the start.

Also from what I've seen, SATA connectors aren't held in as strongly as
I would like - they seem to always be a couple of degrees away from
flat. It's quite easy to knock a SATA plug out, but since it was
designed to be that way, there's no cause to worry. If you knocked a
standard IDE/ATA cable out, then that's a whole different story...
 
Thanks for the reply.
I still ordered a new Western Digital.......with the newer more secure
connection cable thats supposed to fit the older drives as well.
thanks again
(sigh of relief)
peter
 
BananaOfTheNight said:
They are designed so that some pins are longer than others - the ground
wires (and possibly power as well, but I don't know). This is just like
USB - so that you can hot-plug a SATA device. I haven't tried it yet
(don't want to risk killing a 200 gig Seagate), but hot-plugging was
designed into the SATA interface right from the start.

Also from what I've seen, SATA connectors aren't held in as strongly as
I would like - they seem to always be a couple of degrees away from
flat. It's quite easy to knock a SATA plug out, but since it was
designed to be that way, there's no cause to worry. If you knocked a
standard IDE/ATA cable out, then that's a whole different story...
Click to expand...

Hot-plugable doesn't mean you can yank out drives and plug'em
in at will. You think you can remove your XP disk and plug in one
with Win98 ?
Whoever invented these sataconnectors should be banned from
this profession for life! It's one of the most horrible designs I've
ever seen. The good news is, if you're carefull, it will only connect
one way. So you cant go wrong with that.
 
Thanks for the reply.
I still ordered a new Western Digital.......with the newer more secure
connection cable thats supposed to fit the older drives as well.
Click to expand...


I bought two of these cables, only to find out that this cable completely
blocks the SATA power connector of the drive. I.e. you can only use the
special Western Digital SATA cable if you are using a molex connector to
power the drive.

For me, this was not possible, as I have a new power supply with lots of
SATA power connectors and fewer molex connectors... I had to ditch the
special Western Digital cables and use the standard ones that came with my
A8N-SLI instead...
 
Thanks for the warning........but they already have been ordered and
shipped(we're quick up here in the Great White North)
If I run into that same problem I will be returning them.The WD website makes no
mention of the fact that you need to use the molex power connectors with these.
peter
 
Correction...........I went back to WD website and looked into it more
closely......pictures show the connector covering the SATA power connection.
I guess I'll be sending them back
peter
 
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