How To Install and Troubleshoot Serial ATA (SATA) Hard Drives

source: How To Install and Troubleshoot Serial ATA (SATA) Hard Drives

How To Install and Troubleshoot Serial ATA (SATA) Hard Drives

Serial ATA interface disk drives are designed for easy installation. It is not necessary to set any jumpers, terminators, or other settings on this drive for proper operation. The jumper block adjacent to the SATA interface connector on SATA 150MB/s drives is for factory use only. The jumper block adjacent to the SATA interface connector on SATA 300MB/s drives can be used to force the drive into SATA 150MB/s mode for use with older SATA controllers that only work with SATA 150MB/s drives.

With a Serial ATA interface, each disk drive has its own cable that connects directly to a Serial ATA host adapter or a Serial ATA port on your motherboard. Unlike Parallel ATA, there is no master-slave relationship between drives that use a Serial ATA interface.

You can use a Serial ATA drive in the same system with Parallel ATA drives as long as both interfaces are supported on the motherboard or with a host adapter. This makes it easy to add Serial ATA compatibility to your existing system without removing existing Parallel ATA disk drives.

* Installation in a Windows System
* Installation in a Macintosh System

Installation in a Windows System
Note: For a slideshow of the Serial ATA installation process, please visit our Serial ATA Installation Basics page.
What You Need

* A Phillips screwdriver and four 6-32 UNC drive mounting screws.
* A Serial ATA interface cable (sold separately). Maximum length is 39 inches (1 meter).
* A Serial ATA-compatible power cable or adapter (sold separately).
* A version of Windows with FAT32 or NTFS file system.
* A system with a motherboard that has a Serial ATA connector on it, or a Serial ATA host adapter and available PCI slot in which to install the adapter.

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