SATA Hard Drives
Serial ATA Hard Drive Characteristics
Number of pins/conductors in data cable
Number of pins in power cable
Maximum data cable length
Data interface voltage differential
Drive voltages
Jumpers for configuring drive
Data transfer rate
SATA Hard Drive Cables
SATA Data Cable
Always use an HP approved SATA 3.0 Gb/s cable as it is fully backwards compatible with the SATA
1.5 Gb/s drives.
Current HP desktop products ship with SATA 3.0 Gb/s hard drives.
SATA data cables are susceptible to damage if overflexed. Never crease a SATA data cable and
never bend it tighter than a 30 mm (1.18 in) radius.
The SATA data cable is a thin, 7-pin cable designed to transmit data for only a single drive.
SMART ATA Drives
The Self Monitoring Analysis and Recording Technology (SMART) ATA drives for the HP Personal
Computers have built-in drive failure prediction that warns the user or network administrator of an
impending failure or crash of the hard drive. The SMART drive tracks fault prediction and failure
indication parameters such as reallocated sector count, spin retry count, and calibration retry count. If
the drive determines that a failure is imminent, it generates a fault alert.
Cable Management
Always follow good cable management practices when working inside the computer.
●
Keep cables away from major heat sources like the heat sink.
●
Do not jam cables on top of expansion cards or memory modules. Printed circuit cards like these
are not designed to take excessive pressure on them.
●
Keep cables clear of sliding or moveable parts to prevent them from being cut or crimped when
the parts are moved.
●
When folding a flat ribbon cable, never fold to a sharp crease. Sharp creases may damage the
wires.
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Chapter 5 Routine Care, SATA Drive Guidelines, and Disassembly Preparation
7/7
15
39.37 in (100 cm)
400-700 mV
3.3 V, 5 V, 12 V
N/A
3.0 Gb/s