Drive sometimes doesn't power up

WD Internal Drives Desktop & Mobile Drives
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Thanks for the link. I have two questions:

  1. I don’t know when SATA III first became available, but I see that document is 2005. I’m wondering if the fastest mode at that time was SATA II. I ask this because the docs I’ve found on WD’s site say a jumper on 5-6 throttles a SATA III drive from 6 Gb/s to 3 Gb/s, and that jumper on a SATA II drive throttles it from 3 Gb/s to 1.5 Gb/s. Do you know if that’s the case? If so, would putting the jumper on help? Or would it force a SATA III to operate at 3 Gb/s, preventing it from being used with a 1.5 Gb/s controller?

  2. I’ve read in numerous posts on this site (and even in this thread) that a SATA III drive cannot be used with a SATA I (1.5 Gb/s) controller. I believe my drive is SATA III, and if I understand Device Manager correctly, it is operating at 1.5 Gb/s. Evidently it can negotiate down to that speed. And since I’m using the drive (although its startup behavior is erratic) with a 1.5 Gb/s controller, it cannot be that the two are always incompatible. Do you know of any KnowledgeBase articles that discuss this?

Thanks.