SATA cables where my problem

[Phuncz]

So I've been tracking a problem for about a month now, that sometimes drives would stop working, would "disconnect" and everything would halt. I've tried everything, even replacing a harddrive after eliminating it was about the only thing that could be wrong.

In the end, after countless hours of testing, fiddling and cursing, it was the SATA cables and also the Intel RST 10.6 drivers. Both of which I installed not long before the problems started. The drivers made sure my SSD boot disk acted funny or not at all sometimes. The SATA cables gave me other problems: unexpectedly a hard drive would become inaccessible. This gave problems in Windows because sometimes it was waiting for the data and it didn't come, so it hanged.

I've only recently come to the conclusion that it was the cables and not the motherboard, because I bought a dual-port SATA600 PCI-express card and I used those wretched Belkin angle cables, after an hour it again stopped copying files and the drive was inaccessible. After replacing the cables, it has copied over 2TB of data without a single problem.



Belkin SATA cables, you cost me countless hours of frustration. You will burn in hell for your crimes.

[daboggeyman]

 That's weird Phuncz , I had one of those cables give me the same problem about seven months ago. I did a RMA to WD only to find it was the cable all a long so just paid WD for the other drive and keep both of them . Tick me off cause the cables were new but like you said the drive would work them it wouldnt.

[Phuncz]

Yeah I've always feared SATA would have finnicky cables sooner or later. I found some decent ones though:


These seem to be pretty good, you can find them as "Startech Latching SATA cable". If you come across any even better, I'd love to hear it.

[daboggeyman]

 
 Will do for now making use of what I have but need to get back to checking on some better than what I am using before they give me any other problems

[hnyman]

These seem to be pretty good, you can find them as "Startech Latching SATA cable". If you come across any even better, I'd love to hear it.

When I was building my new PC last year, I searched a long time for short 20 & 30 cm long latched SATA cables (preferably also with 90 degree angle due to the position of my drives), and I finally bought "DeLOCK SATA cable" from Amazon.de marketplace.

Some examples:
http://www.computeruniverse.net/products/e90367221/delock-sata-kabel-un/ge-metall-gelb.asp
http://www.amazon.co.uk/DeLOCK-cable-rechts-Metall-82626/dp/B003CBO1CC/ref=sr_1_32?ie=UTF8&qid=1313226019&sr=8-32

Now those seem to be available from various European webshops, but as the shops usually only carry a few lengths / angles, you might have to search several places for just the right cables. Having optimized cables makes especially small SFFs very tidy. See here: http://www.sudhian.com/forums/index.php/topic,107431.msg942759.html#msg942759

[Phuncz]

Ah nice, thanks ! They seem like good cables.

Well, you should see the inside of my PC. I needed to use a pull cable to get a fan cable through. I couldn't get one finger through And I even know to keep it tidy, it's just incredibly full...

[daboggeyman]

Wish I could find some SATA cables soft and flexible enough to rout them in my case the way I want them too. Everything I have bought are stiffer than I care for.