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SATA/SATA II Compatibility

J

jciapara

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 25, 2008
103
0
Hi, I've searched the forums but I couldn't find a concrete answer, so if any of you who have experience with this could help me, that'll be great.

I am trying to get myself an external hard drive, but I thought it would be cheaper and also better suited to build my own. But I was looking at the enclosures which are sold on Ebay (Germany) and they say that the drive interface is SATA and external interface USB 2.0 but I also was looking at another store to buy the actual hard drive, I wan't to get a 500GB or 750GB SATA hard drive, but in that site almost all of the 3.5" drives are SATA II, so I was wondering, if a buy the Enclosure which says SATA interface and the SATA II Hard drive, will they work together?.

Thanks for any inputs you might have or if you can recommend a better configuration please do so.
 
"SATA II" does not exist. You cannot know what features the equipment has just by looking if it's labeled "SATA" or "SATA II".
 
cube said:
"SATA II" does not exist. You cannot know what features the equipment has just by looking if it's labeled "SATA" or "SATA II".
Click to expand...

The 3.0 Gbit/s specification has been widely referred to as "Serial ATA II" ("SATA II" or "SATA2")
Click to expand...

Sorry for not calling it Serial Advanced Technology Attachment 1.5Gbps and 3.0Gbps. But I'm pretty sure most people know what SATA II is, so please if you're not going to help, don't post, just ignore it.

If there is any additional information needed to see if they are compatible or not it would be great so that way I know what I need to look for.
 
cube said:
"SATA II" does not exist. You cannot know what features the equipment has just by looking if it's labeled "SATA" or "SATA II".
Click to expand...

Good grief. You know very well what the OP is referring to and that SATA II is SATA 3.0 Gbit/s. Why do you want to confuse him by saying it doesn't exist even if its not the official name?

OP: SATA 1.5 AKA SATA or SATA I is backwards compatible with SATA 3.0 AKA SATA II However, whether the drive you choose will work in the enclosure also depends on the size limitation of enclosure. An older enclosure may not "see" the all the storage on a newer larger drive. Some, for example will not see more than 750GB. So it's best to ask what the enclosures size limitation is. Personally I'd go with a SATA II enclosure. It shouldn't be any more expensive than a SATA I.
 
Chupa Chupa said:
Good grief. You know very well what the OP is referring to and that SATA II is SATA 3.0 Gbit/s. Why do you want to confuse him by saying it doesn't exist even if its not the official name?

OP: SATA 1.5 AKA SATA or SATA I is backwards compatible with SATA 3.0 AKA SATA II However, whether the drive you choose will work in the enclosure also depends on the size limitation of enclosure. An older enclosure may not "see" the all the storage on a newer larger drive. Some, for example will not see more than 750GB. So it's best to ask what the enclosures size limitation is. Personally I'd go with a SATA II enclosure. It shouldn't be any more expensive than a SATA I.
Click to expand...

There are different features that are labeled "SATA II", so you don't know which ones are present, although I guess it is safe to assume 3Gbps is there.

If something is labeled "SATA" it doesn't necessarily mean that it doesn't support 3 Gbps, because, as you said, "SATA 3Gbps" is the correct designa
tion.

Think before attacking people.
 
cube said:
Think before attacking people.
Click to expand...



?. I wasn't attacking, just put off because everyone who knows anything about computers understands SATA I = 1.5 and SATA II = 3.0. Sorry if you thought I was attacking, but trust me if I were my words would have been a lot sharper.
 
Chupa Chupa said:
?. I wasn't attacking, just put off because everyone who knows anything about computers understands SATA I = 1.5 and SATA II = 3.0. Sorry if you thought I was attacking, but trust me if I were my words would have been a lot sharper.
Click to expand...


My point is that "SATA" does not equal 1.5, and asking for "SATA II" does not equal 3.0 only.
 
Chupa Chupa said:
Good grief. You know very well what the OP is referring to and that SATA II is SATA 3.0 Gbit/s. Why do you want to confuse him by saying it doesn't exist even if its not the official name?

OP: SATA 1.5 AKA SATA or SATA I is backwards compatible with SATA 3.0 AKA SATA II However, whether the drive you choose will work in the enclosure also depends on the size limitation of enclosure. An older enclosure may not "see" the all the storage on a newer larger drive. Some, for example will not see more than 750GB. So it's best to ask what the enclosures size limitation is. Personally I'd go with a SATA II enclosure. It shouldn't be any more expensive than a SATA I.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I know what to look for now, I've seen some that says it supports up to 500GB and others up to 1000GB so I will get one that fits my needs, I will also try to get one which is SATA II, but there aren't many on German Ebay which have the looks I want haha.

Anyway thanks!!
 
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