SATA 2 HDD running in SATA1 mode

[hacky_maximus]

Since I'm not a hdd guru, I'm having a little problem. In the next few days I want to buy a 200 Gb Western Digital on SATA 2, but the computer on which I plan to use it (Asrock K8NF3 mobo- a piece of s...) supports only SATA1. As much as I read on the internet and other forums there shouldn't be any compatibility problems because SATA 2 hdds have a jumper to switch them to run in SATA 1 mode. It's that true? I mean, does any of you actually did that and it's all "nice and pink"?
Thanks a lot for your help ! Cheers

 

[mitch074]

Some HDDs have a jumper, others have a disk firmware modification utility to switch from SATA-I to SATA-II

Most SATA-II drives are sold with factory default settings set on SATA-I. So yes, it should work out of the box.

 

[hacky_maximus]

ok, thanks a lot

 

[Sonic_Reducer]

well i have installed a 160 gb western digital sata 2 on a sata 1 port and there was no problem in there no need for jumper change nothing it was smooth just like a sata 1 hdd, i'm plannig on buy a 250gb western digital with 16mb cache to my rig it's a sata2 hdd and my board only supports sata 1 i think it will be smooth to

 

[linux_0]

Yup, most drives will just work!

 

[Fox_granit]

Well to be honest sataII isn't really an "established" protocol yet. Its just like plugging in a usb1 into a usb2.0. I've never heard of any jumpers needed on any other sataII drive, but then I'm still a greenhorn overall in Hard drives.

Personally I think the 16mb cache on the 250gig will have a greater impact on the speed of the HD than the sataII speeds will........

 

[thedrake]

....i'm plannig on buy a 250gb western digital with 16mb cache to my rig it's a sata2 hdd and my board only supports sata 1 i think it will be smooth to

I've got 2 of these.....very nice drives

Run 2 of these in raid 0 and they are very close to single raptor performance in most real-world situations.

 

[mitch074]

The 16 Mb of cache can have an even better effect IF it's coupled with SATA-II (meaning 300 Mb/s + command queueing). The effect on a 8 Mb cache is quite impressive, I dare say it'd be great on a bigger cached disk.

 

[linux_0]

The 16 Mb of cache can have an even better effect IF it's coupled with SATA-II (meaning 300 Mb/s + command queueing). The effect on a 8 Mb cache is quite impressive, I dare say it'd be great on a bigger cached disk.

Hehe :-D

The NCQ and extra cache certainly helps but the interface itself doesn't even matter.

Some day when we've moved away from magnetic storage it will actually help ;-)

 

[Avadann_Kedeth]

I've done this with my WD800JD's I have 3 of them and they run fine on my A8N5X SATA1.5 controller.

 

[Anoobis]

Some day when we've moved away from magnetic storage it will actually help ;-)

Here, here!!!

 

[hacky_maximus]

next week I'll go for it and buy a WD Thanks all of you for the help .

 

[hacky_maximus]

hello all !
The HDD worked without any jumper ajustments