Please tell me i'm not crazy...

I was on another forum while ocforums was down and I was trying to help some guy who was having problems with his SATA hard drive. It kept doing this wierd click every 5-10 minutes like a floppy drive.

I told him to check his connections and stuff, and be ready to send for an RMA. Well, a few hours later he comes back and he tells me that he switched the ends of the SATA cable around and the clicking stopped. I told him it was probably reseating the cable is what fixed it, but then I get flamed by 'experts' saying that connecting the correct ends are 'crucial' for the proper installation of an SATA hard drive

In other words:

Now fiddle me this: Are there two different ends on a SATA cable, and does it really make a difference which end goes into the hard drive and which end goes into the mobo (or PCI card in some cases)?

Thanks!!! I think I need to get some rest now...

i think they mean plugged backwards like the connector is upside down, which is bad...

nope

they didn't put the connector upside down... they assured me of it...

I guess the frustrating thing is some of these experts think a 9200 is great graphics card to play doom3 on...

It shouldnt matter which end you plug it in at. It should all work the same. s long as the cable isnt plugged in upside down or something stupid like that. A sata cable works pretty much the way and IDE cable works.

Really?

When I installed a SATA drive each end seemed to plug in to either the MB or the hard drive but not both. Which is good but I thought it was keyed for mb end and drive end. I didnt fiddle with it too long though.

JT

IrQ said:

It shouldnt matter which end you plug it in at. It should all work the same. s long as the cable isnt plugged in upside down or something stupid like that. A sata cable works pretty much the way and IDE cable works.

Click to expand...

Thank you!!! i'm not going crazy....

Jtanczos said:

Really?

When I installed a SATA drive each end seemed to plug in to either the MB or the hard drive but not both. Which is good but I thought it was keyed for mb end and drive end. I didnt fiddle with it too long though.

JT

Click to expand...

I double checked a few of my SATA cables lieing around and both ends of the cables are keyed exactly the same. It's the same principle as that little notch in the IDE cables. It's just meant to keep pin 1 lined up with pin 1 on the other side. Other then that they are exactly the same. And there is no indicator mark saying one side is specifically for the motherboard or hardrive.

If thats the case how the hell would someone put it in backwards? I tried and couldnt get it to work. Its not as if there are unkeyed SATA cables like there were IDE because its a new standard.

JT

Jtanczos said:

If thats the case how the hell would someone put it in backwards? I tried and couldnt get it to work. Its not as if there are unkeyed SATA cables like there were IDE because its a new standard.

JT

Click to expand...

Man, I'd hate to say it, but that's kinda like asking how many licks does it take to get to the center of a totsie role pop. The world may never know.