Silly Sata HDD question.

[luciusad2004]

I know this is a dumb question but I wasn't sure and my hdd didn't come with any documentation or anything.

I just bought a SATA 6.0GB/s capable Hard Drive. I've never actually used a SATA drive before so I just plugged it in and everything worked the way i assumed it would. I'm fairly certain that my motherboard only supports SATA 3.0GB/s but I didn't jumper the pins to limit my HDD to this speed.

Is it important to do this? I was under the impress that everything was forward and backwords compatible and would thus "Just work."

[Fuganater]

There are jumpers to limit HDD speed??? That's a new one to me.

If you put SATA III HDD on a SATA II interface it will run transfer at SATA II speeds. Same if you put a SATA II HDD on a SATA III interface it will transfer at SATA II speeds.

Your HDD speed is its RPMs. You can't change that.

[luciusad2004]

There are jumpers to limit HDD speed??? That's a new one to me.

If you put SATA III HDD on a SATA II interface it will run transfer at SATA II speeds. Same if you put a SATA II HDD on a SATA III interface it will transfer at SATA II speeds.

Your HDD speed is its RPMs. You can't change that.

It doesn't change the RPMs it just limits the transfer speed to 3.0GB/s
I wasn't sure if it was important to use this setting with motherboards that don't support the full 6.0GB/s. But i guess it just works like I originally thought so i wont bother changing it.

[OvRiDe]

There are jumpers to limit HDD speed??? That's a new one to me.

RTFM much!?! J/K

If everything is working and your getting the proper transfer speeds, it shouldn't be a problem. The other way around is more of an issue. Say you have a SATAII drive and the jumper is set to 1.5 then you will only get 1.5 instead of the full 3.0. I didn't realize there were jumpers at first either. I was about to send a big old nasty gram to Newegg/Seagate because I was only getting SATA I speeds and I thought they did a bait and switch on me. Found the little jumper and boom.. it was good to go!

[Fuganater]

I have only red 2-3 manuals in my life. One for my daughters car seat and one for the stroller the other was probably something baby related.

[Fuganater]

Can you give me a link to something about these switches?

[OvRiDe]

Sure.. this was the top link using a Google search...

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/...atadesktopjump

[xr4man]

now that is something to file away and remember.