Comments on: Mysterious SATA Hard Disk Problems Solved

By: Viswam

Viswam — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 18:03:53 +0000

I have a few experiences with SATA cables so far. The lessons I seem to have learnt so far are:
1. SATA cables are too delicate to handle. Always try to be as straight as possible with them. Even a small kink can make one erratic.

2. Erratic! That is in fact even more problem than being completely dead. Because you would not be able to reproduce the problem and you will not know when it will get reproduced on its own. Better be completely dead than waking up like a zombie and going back when least expected.

3. The ones without clips are much more bad. Most of the problems I had were with those simple (without clips) cables. Apart from the absence of a tight fit, they also seems to have inferior electrical contact even while properly seated in.

4. In a good PC (means with a well stabilized OS), it is possible that after having a SATA detection trouble, even if it is fixed, the data transfer rate may be set down pityfully by the OS. The way to recover is to make the Windows uninstall the drive/ controller and reinstall it back again!

Just thought of adding my two cents.
Thanks.

By: jeff

jeff — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 04:41:33 +0000

got the same problem! I have my sata cable twisted to have neat cable arrangement without knowing that this might cause a big problem with my h-disk. Thanks to you.

By: Niloy

Niloy — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 14:06:45 +0000

My 320 GB SATA just blinked dead today.

Nothing. And the BIOS doesn’t detect it either. Changed cables with the other SATA HDD that’s working fine. Still nothing.

Will try the HDD on a friends PC, after freezing it, of course, when I get another HDD tomorrow.

Half the photos of my first year with an SLR are in it. Data recovery guys quoted $1600 to recover them. Can’t afford it now, but I plan to save the disk for years down the road when I’ll actually be able to pay that money.

Is it gonna be okay? If the DATA inside is still goodish now?

Plz say something. Kinda need assurances now at the moment. …

By: Joel Long

Joel Long — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 05:14:05 +0000

Hmm, it seemed that you could very well be helping me out here because *my* PC had the exact same problems…

1) Sudden BSOD
2) HDD cannot be detected by BIOS
3) Change slot helps until the next blackout (usually 4 months later in my case, it happened twice and today’s the second time)

I’ll post here again if I manage to buy a replacement SATA cable, but for now it seems I’ll have to deal with a blacked-out PC (and on Christmas Eve no less >.>!)

By: Azmeen

Azmeen — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:53:38 +0000

@JW: I think the cables aren’t really lousy. They’re just not built to tolerate too much bending and folding I guess.

@papajoneh: Yeah, vendors like them give “Computer Guys” a bad rep. The worst thing is that they’re just plain lazy. Why be in the business if you’re not going to put in 100% effort, right?

@PandanKia: Thanks for the compliment but really, I’m no genius. However, I do know that paper burns at about 230° C. And if any of your PC components even reach half that temperature, you have a much bigger problem than pieces of paper taped to a SATA cable. Noob

By: PandanKia

PandanKia — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:37:01 +0000

genius!!
wait until the piece of paper catches fire inside the hot cpu and you will be more genius than einstein.
noob! apparently no one told you never to use too easily flammable items inside a pc. so proud of it and blogged about it too! ha!

By: papajoneh

papajoneh — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:36:49 +0000

My friend… what a coincidence. I had the same problem … solved on my once-in-a-lifetime-friend who called me only when he has pc problems. He called me yesterday night saying the hard disk not found by the BIOS but recognized in others pc. Best thing was he is an expert who happened to diagnose his other friend’s pc at home. He called me to ask for the remedy and of coz he got all the credit lah. LOL.
yes, all due to the colored SATA cable being faulty. After he story telling me the whole kahuna, I just told him check the cable, if you have spare, change. In few minutes, he called solved. Hahahaha.

The part I hate in your story is the hardware vendor. Yes we have a few here. Cilaka, all tipu customers one. It happened to me once and damn I scold them for good. I end up with one good different better MOBO to bring home.

Nice story here friend.

By: JW

JW — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 07:07:08 +0000

Well well, I have very similar bad experience as well. Problems like:
1) Cannot detected SATA drive.
2) On & off kind of problem like what you’ve mentioned.

Finally, I realized that SATA cable is the culprit. Why is the quality of this SATA cable so lousy?? Does it happen frequently? Or I’m the unlucky person who kept on bump into this stupid thing.