# Sata drive question



## Binton

Hi I have a question about a sata drive. If my old computer used a sata drive could I replace it with a sata drive and it will work no matter what?


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## voyagerfan99

Yup.


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## Binton

Thank you


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## Iceyn1pples

voyagerfan99 said:


> Yup.



Not Quite....

Well, how old is the Motherboard?

Older ones only support SATA 1 and not SATA 2. Most SATA 2 drives will work with SATA1 controllers, but only if you manually set the jumper to the hard drive operates in SATA1 mode.


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## voyagerfan99

Iceyn1pples said:


> Not Quite....
> 
> Well, how old is the Motherboard?
> 
> Older ones only support SATA 1 and not SATA 2. Most SATA 2 drives will work with SATA1 controllers, but only if you manually set the jumper to the hard drive operates in SATA1 mode.



There's no difference with optical drives. Hard drives, yes, but definitely not optical drives.


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## Iceyn1pples

voyagerfan99 said:


> There's no difference with optical drives. Hard drives, yes, but definitely not optical drives.




Optical drives most likely need the SATA ports to operate in IDE emulation mode, otherwise Windows might not recognise it.


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## StrangleHold

Iceyn1pples said:


> Not Quite....
> 
> Well, how old is the Motherboard?
> 
> Older ones only support SATA 1 and not SATA 2. Most SATA 2 drives will work with SATA1 controllers, but only if you manually set the jumper to the hard drive operates in SATA1 mode.


 
Show me a CD/DVD drive with the jumper. CD/DVD drives are SATA 1 and will work just fine on a SATA 2 port.



Iceyn1pples said:


> Optical drives most likely need the SATA ports to operate in IDE emulation mode, otherwise Windows might not recognise it.


 
The only reason windows would not recognise it in SATA mode is if the SATA drivers are not installed. But since he already had a SATA drive I dont really see where you gioing with this.


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## Iceyn1pples

StrangleHold said:


> Show me a CD/DVD drive with the jumper. CD/DVD drives are SATA 1 and will work just fine on a SATA 2 port.


 
I was referring to HDDs in that post. The OP did not specify. 



StrangleHold said:


> The only reason windows would not recognise it in SATA mode is if the SATA drivers are not installed. But since he already had a SATA drive I dont really see where you gioing with this.



Informational. If windows doesnt recognize it without drivers, and its his only Optical Drive, he wont be able to boot to start Install.


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## voyagerfan99

Iceyn1pples said:


> I was referring to HDDs in that post. The OP did not specify.


This post is in the CD/DVD section, not the Hard Drive & Memory section.


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## Iceyn1pples

^ Ah, my bad.


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## StrangleHold

Iceyn1pples said:


> Informational. If windows doesnt recognize it without drivers, and its his only Optical Drive, he wont be able to boot to start Install.


 

If its XP SP2/Vista or 7 they all have generic SATA/AHCI drivers.


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## Iceyn1pples

^ Touche


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