On Thu, May 9, 2024 at 4:31 PM Dale <rdalek1...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Dale wrote: > > Mark Knecht wrote: > > > > On Thu, May 9, 2024 at 2:12 PM Dale <rdalek1...@gmail.com> wrote: > <SNIP> > > Can someone tell me how to know when a drive has PWDIS and when it > > doesn't? Is there some term for it that shows in the specs and I'm > > missing it? Or is there no way to really know? > > I believe PWDIS is part of the SATA 3.3 spec so first filter would be > don't buy a SATA 3.3 drive for an old PC. > > I have done NO online research to take this with less than a > grain of salt. > > Mark > > > > Your reply gave me a clue. I did a search for sata in the docs and found this for both drives I linked to in other post. > > > Exos X18 SATA drives incorporate connectors which enable users to hot plug these drives in accordance with the > Serial ATA Revision 3.3 specification. > > > I suspect that means it has the PWDIS pin. You agree? If you open the links to pdf docs in other reply, search for "Hot-Plug compatibility" and see what it says. It was the second hit for me. > > Why can't they label those drives with something that makes it clear. Print 'SATA V3.3', 'hardware reset enabled' or something that makes it easy instead of sticking it in a 50 something page document. At least we have the "find" feature on most pdf viewers. Another option, throw a adapter in the box for those who can't have that feature. > > Looks like both drives I'm looking at might not work for me. My goal in this thread, figure out what to look for so that I avoid buying a drive that don't work. I got the difference in the power cable at least. Now to figure it out without being able to see the drive. > > Thoughts? > > Dale > > :-) :-) > > > > I thought of something else. I looked at drives I bought in the past. I have a model ST16000NM000J and it works but it says it is SATA v3.3. So, saying it is SATA v3.3 doesn't distinguish between having or not having the PWDIS feature. It just means it is possible. > > Crap. I thought I was onto something. :( > > Dale > > :-) :-) > > P. S. Since I have one of those already, I'll buy that one again. ROFL
Dale, You have raised a number of issues. I will speak as a retired Silicon Valley engineer who worked on IEEE and PCI-related specifications. (PCI-X, 1394b and a few things that never made it to market) 1) Probably most important, the disk drive manufacturers are not focused on those of us who fiddle with old hardware. They are designing and developing products for the mass market which basically means new machines. These drives do into data farms and new computers. 2) The next issue is whether a new SATA-3.3 drive is even intended to work in a machine running old SATA spec. In the case of these SATA-3.3 drives there is a kluge connector/adapter cable that hooks to your existing SATA controller but has a PC power supply dongle so that the SATA-3.3 drive's PWDIS pin is 'hopefully' driven correctly. Whether that works does depend on the timing of your motherboard and the power supply, but it 'hopefully' works. I don't know if this information is going to be helpful to your immediate situation but possibly it will help you going forward when you are considering upgrading an old machine vs what I have done a couple of times is to purchase a new or used low-end motherboard so that my peripheral choices were easier. (Such as now all of my DNS and Pi-Hole stuff running on an RP-5 vs an old x86-64 machine.) Best wishes and good luck, Mark
