Simple HDD question about a connector

[John Connor]

I think this could be connector related. I was given a new HDD platter for Xmas and I installed it, went to initialize then format. When I was formatting Windows said there was an error, check your connection or something. So I connected the drive to a USB SATA reader and was able to format. I reconnected the HDD to the MOBO and it was fine.

SMART checks out. To me this sounds like a cable issue? I copied over 50 GB to it to test and it seems solid thus far. Having gone though so much HDD trouble buying from Amazon, I asked for this HDD for Xmas from Newegg. And when I got this issue I was like you have to be kidding me.

This computer is a real PITA to work in. It's a case from circa '08. I have to remove the damn Vid card just to get access to the SATA connector. And then the HDD bay is accessed on the side and not the front. I do have my new case for the new build I'm wanting to put together.

 

[LTC8K6]

Could have been dirty connectors. When you plug and unplug, they make better contact and start working properly?

 

[John Connor]

I have a program of which I can't remember the damn name now on my desktop. I ran the short test and it showed some ATA errors. I wounder if this is SATA cable related? When I get back on my desktop I'll take a snap shot and give the name of the program. Very disconcerting.

Is there such a thing as a SATA cable checker?

 

[John Connor]

Okay, the program's name is HDD Guardian. Here's what it says.

So what exactly is an ATA error? I hope this is nothing more than a connector/cable issue.

 

[John Connor]

Reading around I guess an ATA error is not in SMART but in another chip and it could be a bad PSU ot in my case most likely a bad connector. The scary part is that SMART says the drive was powerd on 0 hours. Yet the ATA errors say at 3 hours! This is a brand new drive from Newegg! I might need to update HDD Guardian though. Will see what happens.