XPS 17 doesn't like mixed Sata3 and Sata2 drives

[Jovec]

Posting this to help others who may be searching for the answer.

TL;DR - Dell XPS 17 L702x laptop makes the hard drive click / squeak when a sata3 and sata2 device are both installed.

I have a Dell XPS 17 L702x laptop. I was using an Intel 320 SSD with the dell/seagate 500GB 7200.4 HDD combo without issue for since I bought it in spring 2011. After some SSD upgrades, I figured I'd swap the 320 to a 510. Immediately after, though not every boot, the hard drive would make a clicking sound during boot / when accessed and the system would stall. The seagate drive would test okay, but getting tunnel vision I focused my searches on the hard drive itself, which led me to believe it might be failing. It seemed possible that I damaged it when removing or installing it.

I bought a replacement WD scorpio black drive, which did the same thing. Fresh Win 7 install. MSAHCI drivers, Intel drivers, with/without the freefall driver - it didn't matter. More googling and I finally found a couple threads with users having the same problem with various SSD and HDD types, but only when mixing Sata3 and Sata2. CPU-Z reports a B3 chipset.

 

[Puppies04]

I have the XPS 17 LX701 running an OCZ agility III and a SATA II WD 750GB scorpio black and I have no issues at all.

I don't mean to discredit your research but have you actually got proof of someone using a 2.5" SATA III HDD in their second bay rather than a SATA II one because those things cost a fortune and I really don't see why anyone would bother paying the premium.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

Yeah, in *theory*, these interfaces are serialized and can by and large all work independently of each other with different rates. This is across all SATA standards. There only tends to be issues when you mix signaling (Mixing SAS and SATA drives in a backplane). Just for kicks, have you tried fully updating your storage drivers? Looked through your BIOS to make sure nothing weird is checked? I don't have the above laptops, so I'm only talking from the other side of the fence. But it would seem very odd that there would be problems.

If anything, I think it has more to do with mixing an SSD and a HDD, vs mixing a SATA 3 with a SATA 2. Now *that* can cause weird issues Why, I don't have the know-how to tell you. But its seen in the Storage world all the time where SSD's won't show up, won't post, or will work fine but won't even trigger the access lights on the hard drive caddy.