Seagate 500 gb sataII

[kenmo]

Hi Just purchased a 500 gb Seagate SataII with 32 mb of cache from local vendor....

I noticed on the drive there is a white jumper and 4 pins. On the hard drive itself there is a diagram and it shows 1.5 gbs if the last two pins are covered and 3gbs if pin is removed... Presently the pins are covered however as hard as I tried (without breaking something) I could not remove this white jumper... I tried tweezers & small jewelers screw driver...

My mobo is a newer Asrock (about 1 yr old) and does support SataII

Any ideas? Should I be concerned? I really don't wish to break something...

Thanks kindly

Kenmo

[kenmo]

PS: I fully aware 1.5gbs is Sata I and 3gbs is Sata II but I'm thinking with a nwere mobo the drive will default to Sata II... Makes sense?

[RLT69]

Ummm, no it won't. That's why the jumper is there. The jumper prevents the drive from being recognized as a SATA II drive. If you want SATA II performance you need to remove the jumper.

[Constant Gardener]

The jumpers are fun to remove. I've used pointed tweezers with success, also an Xacto knife with a point. Whether the SATA 1 - SATA 2 speed makes any difference seems dependent on file size; while the buffer-to-host speed may be fast (3.0 Gb/s) the sustained rate is less, certainly under 1.0 Gb/s.

[budz]

use a tweezer to remove the jumper...be careful of not bending the pins

[jagabo]

Needle nose pliers.

[kenmo]

I think needle nose pliers would be too big...

[SingSing]

I think needle nose pliers would be too big...

There are many sizes.

[kenmo]

I don't have a pair that small nor have I ever seen a pair that small... AND I have alot of tools as my other hobby is working on antique/classic cars....

[minidv2dvd]

if it's a jumper it has indents near the top you can get your fingernails in to remove it. or if you bite them off, a small eyeglass type flatblade screwdriver will allow you to pry it up a bit at a time, working the top and bottom alternately will get it off.

[kenmo]

Tried tweezers but they can't get a grip and the jumper is below a small ridge on the surface of the hard drive's case....

No way my teeth could get into an opening that small....

[jagabo]

Why worry about it? There's virtually no performance difference in real world use.