SATA 2 mobo / SATA 1 hardisk

[bim27142]

would it be ok?

are they backwards compatible?

[Aevum]

SATA 2 controlers support SATA 1 drives with no problems,
they will run at sata 1 speed and features, but they will run fine,

the only issue is not sata related, it seems theres an incompatability between maxtor drives and the NF4 chipset, but then again, i wouldnt be caught dead with a maxtor

[DanTheBanjoman]

Works fine, SATA2 disks can be set to SATA1 as well. Performance wise there will be little difference untill you start to use RAID.

[Israar]

i wouldnt be caught dead with a maxtor

Just a question in need of an answer basically... Why would you not be caught dead with a Maxtor? I've had Maxtors throughout the 9 years I have been with computers and not one of my HDD's that I have had have died, had trouble or gone funny.

Just curious as to why you wouldn't be caught dead with one really lol!

--Lee

[Dynamic]

I have an ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 using a Maxtor EIDE as my primary WindowsXP installed and a WDC SATA1 on SATAII with 2.0.7 drivers installed working like a charm.

[Leginmat]

Hello,

To save having a new topic with almost the same problem. I recently received a SATA II HDD WDC but my motherboard only supports SATA I I believe. I would have attempted to plug it in at first and see if it works but opening it means I cannot return and this HDD wasn't cheap.

My motherboard is an Intel D865PERL and the question is, would it be able to allow WDC to auto-speed and function properly? Or is it one of these "First Generation SATA controllers"?

From WDC Help:

Problem:
Second Generation Serial ATA hard drives are not detected when connected to a VIA or SIS Serial ATA controller. These First Generation Serial ATA controllers include the following chipsets:
* VT8237
* VT8237R
* VT6420
* VT6421L
* SIS760
* SIS964

Cause:
Our Second Generation Serial ATA hard drives use autospeed negotiation. This enables our Second Generation Serial ATA hard drives to automatically detect the motherboard data transfer rate, making it backward compatible with First Generation Serial ATA data transfer rates. However, because this technology is so new, some older First Generation Serial ATA controllers are unable to support autospeed negotiation and cannot recognize the drive. This “drive not detected” condition occurs when a chipset is incapable of correctly negotiating the data transfer speed with a Second Generation Serial ATA hard drive.

Resolution:
* You can purchase and install a third party PCI or PCI-Express Second Generation Serial ATA controller card for your Serial ATA hard drive(s).
* To lock the drive at 150 MB/s data transfer rate, install a jumper shunt on pins OPT1, shown in the picture below.
* If the OPT1 jumper setting does not resolve the issue, please contact Western Digital Support for further troubleshooting.

Thanks!

Cheers,
Nigel

[Poisonsnak]

Since your motherboard is an intel chipset I would have to say no, since the issue appears to affect only via/sis chipsets.

Additionally even if you do open the drive they list a fix in the article you quoted where you put a jumper on the drive to "lock" it to SATA 1 (150MB/sec), since the controller is only SATA 1 anyway it's not like you're losing anything by doing this.

[Aevum]

the series 9 maxtors are known for high temperatures and compatability problems
those high temperatures lead to premature death,

i hear that the series 10 is quite good, but all the maxtors i´ve been around caused excessive noise and could be used as hot plates for cooking, not my brand,

but now that seagate owns maxtor, i guess thats no longer an issue, :cool:
except for several boxes of old school maxtors rebadged as seagates that might turn up now,

as for that note in the western digital support for drives,
i notice that almost all of those southbridges are VIA, considering my past expiriances with via, i would say via couldnt make a piece of paper without having at least 30% of pens and pensils incompatible with it, i´ve had a via based motherboard in my machine, an expiriance that i would like NOT to repeat,

as for sis, they had their moments, the 735 made the athlon affordable for everyone, the 746FX and the 748 gave us a nice cheap and solid alternative to the NF2, but most of their chipsets were badly implemented by system builders since those were ¨value products¨ which is another term for cheap boards for OEM´s, i actually feel sorry for sis, they had good products, but they were always late to the market (except with the 735) and the few motherboard makers which implemented their solutions just limited themselfs to copy the sis referance board and print their brand on it, rarly updating bios and fixing problems.

thats a good point for western digital for documenting this issue.