Why SATA II disk showing as SATA I?

Question

I have a Dimension 9200 with two HDD drives connected on ports 0 and 1. I also have an external drive connected to port 2. All HDD's are SATA II models and the external drive is housed in a casing that is SATA I and II capable. When I checked their performance through Intel Matrix Storage Manager software I can see that the two drives in the RAID array are shown as Generation 2 (i.e. SATA II or 300MB/s transfer speed) drives but the external drive is shown only as a Generation I (i.e. SATA 1 or 150MB/s transfer speed) drive. It should be SATA II as well. Any ideas why this is so?   To complete the story I have two DVD drives on ports 3 and 4. Port 5 is spare.

DELL-Donald K · Answer

Make sure the USB cable is a high quality cable.

ejn63 · Answer

Just because a case is advertised as SATA 3G "capable" doesn't mean the controller inside is, since SATA 3G is backward compatible.

At any rate, it's a moot point - USB is 480 megabits/second, which means 60 MB/sec - i.e., under perfect conditions, you'd never get more than 60 MBps out of a USB2 drive. Since SATA 150 supports 150 MBps, even a SATA 150 interface is over twice (more like 3-4 times in the real world) anything you'll ever see over a USB 2 connection.

mombodog · Answer

Read this   http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37254

down_under · Answer

Guys,   I'm not connecting via usb. I have the external drive connected via its e-sata port directly to the sata port on the computers motherboard.

mombodog · Answer

' external drive connected to port 2'   Try removing the drive from the enclosure, connect it directly to the mobo, is it seen properly now.   Are you using an eSata bracket or PCI card in the PC?   Post the Make and model of the enclosure and the eSata PCI card if used.

down_under · Answer

Mombodog,   I know, I couldn't find it on their website either. This is the box that I am using: http://www.adelong.com.au/store/product_info.php?cPath=25_244&products_id=1525TARGET=

down_under · Answer

I'm using an eSata bracket. The external enclosure is a Zynet Polar 3.5'

mombodog · Answer

Cannot seem to find their eSata enclosures   http://www.zynet.com.tw/product/ee/ee.htm   Try connecting the drive without the enclosure, see it is identifies as Sata II, if it does then it is an enclosure problem, the enclosure does not support Sata II.

mombodog · Answer

All I can say is to try what I suggested twice.

Storage, Drives & Media

Why SATA II disk showing as SATA I?

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