On 2/19/24 18:07, Felix Miata wrote:
My experience with that particular color cables matches Gene's. Cut one open, and out comes a powdery substance instead of clean copper strands. I think most for gen 1.0 SATA 2 decades ago, so there shouldn't be many still around bogging down 3.0 drives.
About 10 (?) years ago, I seem to recall trouble-shooting a SATA connection problem and coming to the conclusion that the (red) SATA cable was the problem. I cannot recall if I had heard Gene's story at the time. I believe I decided to cut off one end, taking a 50% chance of getting something I could use as a break-out/ pig tail. To my surprise, there was no copper within the cable, just brownish dust! Unfortunately, I did not photograph the cable and it is long gone.
4 or more years ago, I was plagued with SATA III connection issues; likely due to old SATA I and SATA II cables and mobile racks. I bought a bunch of black SATA cables marked "6 Gbps" with locking connectors and got rid of all of my existing cables (most of which were red). I later retired all of my SATA I and SATA II mobile racks, moved most of my drives internal, and bought a few SATA III mobile racks for off-site backup drives. My SATA connection problems are finally resolved.
David
