If I my motherboard is SATAI, can it use SATAII hard drives?

3

My motherboard has SATAI and I was wondering if I could buy SATAII hard drives and use it with it. I expect SATA I transfer speeds, but I wanted to make sure to see if that is okay to buy a new hard drive.

Doug

Posted 2010-10-21T18:36:40.850

Reputation: 943

Answers

7

Yes. SATA II interfaces are backwards compatible with SATA I on both host and drive.

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams

Posted 2010-10-21T18:36:40.850

Reputation: 100 516

3To add more detail, SATAII drives will downscale to SATAI speeds. – BinaryMisfit – 2010-10-21T19:01:11.720

This this apply to SATAIII too? SATAIII will downscale to I/II? – Doug – 2010-10-21T20:31:58.227

2As far as I know, all SATA 1.5/3/6 drives are supposed to work with SATA 1.5/3/6 hosts (at the smaller maximum supported speed, of course). However there can be compatibility issues; for example I've known SATA 3 drives that only worked on SATA 1.5 hosts if you added a jumper. – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' – 2010-10-21T20:57:06.830

Asked: 2010-10-21T18:36:40.850

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Active: 2010-10-21T18:39:16.163