Can Sata Ports Burn Out?

NumbersNotFound

<div class="IPBDescription">Or straight HD failure?</div> I was just working on a computer that crashed 100% (while playing NS, no doubt)

A simple restart showed that no hard drive was recognized. On a whim, i checked all connections, saw the drive was spinning up, then tried another SATA port on the mobo and it seems to work (in the process of backing up the drive)

But I ask, has anyone ever heard of an SATA port just.. going bad? Or does this have to be the hard drive?

DragonMech

If you were able to get the HD working on another SATA port, then chances are the port itself is the only part of your computer that is bad, and the HD is fine. You'll need to see about getting your motherboard fixed or replaced.

BaconTheory

Obviously a motherboard problem. I've never heard of a SATA port going bad, but then again I learn new things every day. If you have a cheap motherboard, maybe that's the culprit. If not, then I would try and get a hold of a replacement one just to be safe.

DOOManiac

I've had IDE ports mysteriously go bad, so its no suprise that a SATA one would too.

Gwahir

If it exists as an electronic device, it can go bad.

Talesin

The one I find funny is the proof-of-concept virus that turns on encryption in the SATA drive, with a random seed. Since most motherboards do NOT have an option to turn the encryption on or off, you either have to find someone with a mobo WITH that option and borrow it for five minutes, or send the drive off for professional data recovery. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->

Not to mention that SATA is actually marginally slower than IDE drives, overall. The only point where they get to be between 2-5% faster is on single files exceeding 2GB. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->


But then... everyone wants the new shiny. It must be better... it costs fifty bucks more!

Cereal_KillR

huh.. Sata is rougly the same price, give or take 5 bucks...

I thought that so far, the only reason sata is not faster is because they're not native. The cleaner-looking cables is more than enough a reason for me to pay 5 more bucks if the performance is equivalent. (Round IDE's cost probably already more than 5 bucks and are bigger than SATA cables)

NumbersNotFound

<!--QuoteBegin-Talesin+Jul 21 2005, 10:57 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Talesin @ Jul 21 2005, 10:57 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> But then... everyone wants the new shiny. It must be better... it costs fifty bucks more! <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The motherboard i was looking at had SATA ports, plus the PSU i was getting had SATA power connectors.

Plus, they free up my IDE ports and reduce case clutter. The SATA drive was very little more, too.

But i'm sure you've thought of all of this, oh Enlightened One.