Member Avatar for Odiny

I need to know if a Serial ATA-150 hard drive works with a Serial ATA II motherboard.

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Short answer for : the connectors and signaling are compatible — a 1.5 Gb/s (SATA-150) drive will operate on a 3.0 Gb/s (SATA II) controller, but it will run at the drive's native 1.5 Gb/s link and therefore won't gain the extra bandwidth of SATA II. The practical implications are mostly driver/BIOS and feature related rather than a physical incompatibility.

Before buying or fitting the drive, check three things: (1) power — older PSUs may need a Molex-to-SATA power adapter; (2) drivers — the ABIT board's ICH7R RAID/AHCI mode typically needs Intel storage drivers (keep them on floppy/USB or slipstream for Windows XP installs, or set the controller to IDE/compatibility if you want to avoid F6 during setup); (3) BIOS — have the latest ABIT BIOS and the Intel storage utility available so the controller recognizes the drive and any RAID options work cleanly.

Installation checklist and troubleshooting: confirm the BIOS sees the full capacity (if the seller listing is wrong, verify the drive label and serial/model with the manufacturer’s diagnostic tool and SMART data). If the drive isn't detected or behaves oddly, try a different SATA cable, force the controller into 1.5 Gb/s/compatibility mode, update firmware/BIOS, or test the drive on another system. Avoid mixing drives of different sizes/speeds in a RAID array — the array will generally operate at the slowest drive’s capability.

If you want to verify link speed after boot: on Linux use the drive identity and kernel messages, for example:

sudo hdparm -I /dev/sda
dmesg | egrep -i 'SATA.*link up|link.*Gb'

On Windows check the Intel Matrix/Storage Console or the controller BIOS. As and pointed out, compatibility isn’t the problem — planning for drivers, power, and RAID behavior is what avoids surprises.

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Member Avatar for Paladine

Yes it will

See here for a FAQ on SATA

Member Avatar for Odiny

"However, you must have a SATA II Hard Drive and SATA II Motherboard or Controller Card to get the full benefits of SATA II."

So it will work but I will be missing out on extra features right?

If so thats allright.

This is the motherboard I might get:

ABIT AL8 Socket 775 Intel ICH7R Express PCI-E ATX motherboard
Storage Controller: ATA-100, Serial ATA II (RAID) - (no others listed?)

& this is the harddrive I might get:

MAXTOR Diamondmax 10 100GB SATA 7200rpm 8MB hard drive
Storage Hard Drive / Interface Type: Serial ATA-150.

Theres a special reason why I might get this hard drive but I cant be bothered to explain why. Lets say that dabs.com have messed up on this ones pricing and they havent done anything about it lol. Its cool.

The hard drive is actually 200GB not 100 and the price is only £55 inc. VAT.
They have a pic next to the product on the website and the pic clearly shows the packaging has 200GB written on it. The site has no 200GB maxtor hard drives in its listings and the official website says they have never sold 100GB hard drives so dabs are dumb but its cool.

Member Avatar for JANINE

"However, you must have a SATA II Hard Drive and SATA II Motherboard or Controller Card to get the full benefits of SATA II."

So it will work but I will be missing out on extra features right?

If so thats allright.

This is the motherboard I might get:

ABIT AL8 Socket 775 Intel ICH7R Express PCI-E ATX motherboard
Storage Controller: ATA-100, Serial ATA II (RAID) - (no others listed?)

& this is the harddrive I might get:

MAXTOR Diamondmax 10 100GB SATA 7200rpm 8MB hard drive
Storage Hard Drive / Interface Type: Serial ATA-150.

Theres a special reason why I might get this hard drive but I cant be bothered to explain why. Lets say that dabs.com have messed up on this ones pricing and they havent done anything about it lol. Its cool.

The hard drive is actually 200GB not 100 and the price is only £55 inc. VAT.
They have a pic next to the product on the website and the pic clearly shows the packaging has 200GB written on it. The site has no 200GB maxtor hard drives in its listings and the official website says they have never sold 100GB hard drives so dabs are dumb but its cool.

you will lose out on some of the benefits but not many. go and try for the one on dabs. its their error after all.:D

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