A few very simple questions on installing a SATA HDD

[datamestonic]

So this is a shot of the mobo, focused on the SATA interface ports:

http://www.amdzone.com/pics/motherboards/asus/a8n-sli%20deluxe/southbridge.jpg

If I just have the one HDD, and am uninterested in now or ever using RAID, should I plug it in to the black port labelled SATA1? Does it matter? And what could happen if I plug it in the wrong one?

Also, is the only point of a SATA host adaptor card to give you SATA ports if your mobo doesn't have them?

I'm asking all this because I just found out that I ordered an OEM version instead of retail of the Raptor, so I guess I won't be getting a manual. Silly me.

 

[sandeep108]

If I just have the one HDD, and am uninterested in now or ever using RAID, should I plug it in to the black port labelled SATA1? Does it matter? And what could happen if I plug it in the wrong one?

You can plug in any SATA HDD into any of the SATA ports. I have only one SATA HDD and it is plugged into port 3.

Also, is the only point of a SATA host adaptor card to give you SATA ports if your mobo doesn't have them?

Probably and also to give you extra ports if you need them. Many earlier motherboards only came with 2 SATA ports. And since you can only put one device on each port (unlike IDE), you can buy a SATA adapter card for installing extra HDDs/opticals on the card.

 

[imported_Tick]

^QFT

Also, make sure to set the raid controller to IDE mode in bios, if SATA1 or whatever is on the raid controller.

 

[datamestonic]

Originally posted by: Tick
^QFT

Also, make sure to set the raid controller to IDE mode in bios, if SATA1 or whatever is on the raid controller.

This is definitely a newbie question but: what is the raid controller?

 

[V00D00]

RAID is for using many hard drives which usuallty act as one. There are a bunch of different raid modes and conigurations, check out this site for more info.

Sometimes I think it does matter. My motherboard manual said that I need to use certain ports for a boot drive and certain ports for the data drives. I'm not sure if it actually matters, but that's what the manual said. So just read your motherboards manual, see what it says.

This is what my manual says:
"Plug your Serial ATA boot disk on the master port (SATA1 and SATA2) to support S3 function. Refer to the table below for details"
Connector - Color - Setting - Use
SATA1, SATA2 - Red - Master - Boot Use
SATA3, SATA4 - Black - Slave - Data Use

I'm not sure if it's because it uses an IDE to SATA bridge or what, but that's what my manual says. So who knows. Either way, it doesn't really matter what port you plug it into. The worst thing that could happen is that your computer won't boot. In which case, turn it off, switch it to a different port, and turn it back on. It won't harm your data or anything.