First post, by Zup
- Rank
- Oldbie
A few days ago, I had to check an old IDE hard disk before installing it. I connected to my chinese USB to IDE/SATA adapter, and the thing didn't spin up. The disk was detected, the hard disk ID was consistent (so the board worked), but the size was 0 bytes and I couldn't read or write anything to it and I couldn't hear the motors revving up. I tested with jumpers on MASTER, MASTER (SINGLE) and CS positions, and limiting it to 32 Gb but I couldn't make it work.
So, before returning it as a DOA, I put it on its destination machine and it spun up and worked without apparent problems. I suspect I have some kind of equipment failure, so...
- The adapter is based on a JMicron chip, with USB ID 152d:2337. It had worked without troubles, even allows to read SMART parameters from disk. Maybe that kind of chip is not compatible with older disk (CHS or pre 48-bit LBA)?
- The PSU that came with the adapter had only three wires (red, yellow, black). Maybe that disk needs TWO separate black wires?
I always suspected that PSU was a low-low-end one, so I'm going to use another (from an HDD enclosure) better (I hope) PSU. When I was checking the connections, I found that SATA power connector has a +3.3v connection. I haven't seen a disk that needed +3.3v, so...
- Are there any disk that needs or uses that +3.3v connector? Maybe SSD disks?
I have traveled across the universe and through the years to find Her.
Sometimes going all the way is just a start...