GA-890GPA-UD3H Sata3 Drive Connection Issues

[MarcoDisco]

Hi,

I have recently built a system around GA-890GPA-UD3H.  I bought a SATA-3 drive for the system and a SATA-2 for storage.

When I connect just the SATA-3 drive (Western Digital Caviar Black WD6402AAEX) and install Windows 7, the installation fails and it reports that it cannot format the drive.  I have tried with a different WD6402AAEX, as well as another 1TB SATA-3 drive and get the same problem.

When I try to install Windows 7 to a SATA-2 drive (WD20EARS), I do not get the problem and all installs OK.

If I boot the system into Win 7 from the SATA-2, with the SATA-3 also connected, Windows initially sees the drive and prompts me to format it.  The formatting fails after a few minutes and SATA-3 drive disappears from the Drive Manager.

In all cases, the HDD is connected to one of the 6 x SATA-3 AMD SB850 connectors.  BIOS has all SATA set to AHCI. Tried with S.M.A.R.T on and off.

I am using the blue SATA cables that came with the motherboard.  I am wondering if I need a SATA-3 specific cable.

Any help appreciated.
Thanks,
Mark

[Dark Mantis]

The SATA3 cable is exactly the same as a SATA2 cable.
Are you trying to connect this drive externally as ESATA?

[MarcoDisco]

Hi,

No, all HDD connections are straight SATA via the 6 x blue SATA-3 compatible sockets on the motherboard.

I did read elsewhere that SATA-2 and SATA-3 can use the same cables, but wasn't 100% sure.

Just FYI, the case is a Zalman MS1000-HS2, which has 6 x hot-swap drive bays - I am NOT attempting to use any RAID or ESATA hot-swap features at this stage.  The case has 2 x 3-bay drive 'boxes', which each  have sockets for 1 x power and 3 x SATA connections at the back.

As the SATA-2 drive is working fine and I am testing the SATA-3 in the same drive bay, I haven't considered the basic connectivity as an issue.

When I get time later today I wil try again with a SATA-3 drive with a direct connection from drive to mobo (not going through the case drive mounding system).

Kind Regards,
Mark

[Dark Mantis]

When I get time later today I wil try again with a SATA-3 drive with a direct connection from drive to mobo (not going through the case drive mounding system).

Yes that is a good idea as it is a possibility it is a problem with the inbuilt cabling or connections in the case.

Have you used this drive in another machine and if so have you imported it into this machine.

Of course it is always possible that the drive could be faulty.

[MarcoDisco]

Hi,

These are brand new, unused drives and this is the 3rd different SATA-3 drive that I have tried - so have given up blaming the drives.

Regards,
Mark

[Dark Mantis]

As far as the drives go don't be fooled into thinking that it couldn't be faulty drives even though this is your third. We had an instance a while ago where someone had six new drives and 4 were faulty so they were returned and 2 of the returned ones that were replaced were rejected too! These were Western Digital Black SATA3 drives also.

[MarcoDisco]

Hi,

Problem solved.  When I connect the SATA-3 drive to the mobo without using the drive caddy system provided by the Zalman case, all works well.

So, issue was not with Gigabyte mobo, but Zalman case.

Regards,
Mark

[Dark Mantis]

Quite. It could have been the case or the cable as the cable would obviously fit into the drive but at least it is sorted.