[SOLVED] Does SATA port number matter?

[Wheaten]

Hi,

After looking at my motherboard documentation I realized that the SATA ports are actually numbered which I didn't know and I've actually got an SSD with an OS installed on it in SATA port 5 which is the very last port.
(I didn't really think this through when plugging in drives in to my pc).

Does the SATA port order matter? i.e; If I put my SSD in SATA 0 will the OS boot faster?

I'm new to all this PC stuff so sorry about the noob question.



Thanks for your time and patience

 

[USAFRet]

On some (older) boards, different SATA ports had different capabilities.
SATA II vs SATA III. Or Intel chipset vs ASMedia.

Personally, I put the OS drive in the lowest numbered port, just for continuity sake. When looking at Disk Management, I always know which it is.

But generally, no.

 

[Wheaten]

I have a Gigabyte Z87X-D3H-CF

On some (older) boards, different SATA ports had different capabilities.
SATA II vs SATA III. Or Intel chipset vs ASMedia.

Personally, I put the OS drive in the lowest numbered port, just for continuity sake. When looking at Disk Management, I always know which it is.

But generally, no.

Thank you for the response!
It's a Gigabyte Z87X - D3H - CF


Would this be classified as SATA III? I've attached some screenshots, not too sure if this will be helpful at all. I'd like to order it logically so it is displayed systematically in Disk Management too. My drives are all in random numbers, I assumed the numbering myself and that's why my drives are in SATA 5, 2, 4 =/.

https://imgur.com/a/1cf24T6

View: https://imgur.com/a/1cf24T6



Thanks for the response.

 

[Wheaten]

I don't know if I should edit out now seeing as I've already posted it but I asked if it was SATA 3 and I've just seen in the screenshot I posted that it clearly says SATA "3". Apologies.

 

[USAFRet]

They are SATA III, (6Gb/s).
Any one of those 6 will work.

The SATA III (6 Gb/s) and SATA II (3Gb/s) can get a bit confusing.
Then, add the labels 1 through 6, and it is VERY easy to get lost.


Not your system, but I ran into this the other day...
"I have it connected to the SATA 3 port!"

Is that SATA III, or SATA II (3Gb/s), or the port labeled SATA 3?

 

[Wheaten]

They are SATA III, (6Gb/s).
Any one of those 6 will work.

The SATA III (6 Gb/s) and SATA II (3Gb/s) can get a bit confusing.
Then, add the labels 1 through 6, and it is VERY easy to get lost.


Not your system, but I ran into this the other day...
"I have it connected to the SATA 3 port!"

Is that SATA III, or SATA II (3Gb/s), or the port labeled SATA 3?

Oh I see how ambiguous it can be unless specified thoroughly. I've just seen the image below your profile and it has struck a chord. Come to think of it, I have never created a back up, I have two 500GB hard drives installed and functioning and are not setup in any particular way that if one of them failed it would save my data from being lost. I have heard of RAID arrays and I don't know a thing about it other than the RAID has a number next to it either 0,1,5, or 10 and this denotes the configuration of how the data is stored?

I have never setup a RAID array, what is the best way I can setup my hard drives for redundancy so that if one of my drives fails I still have the other one with the data on it?

I don't know if any of what I just said makes sense because I am still very new to this stuff, any suggestions or recommendations would be greatly appreciated. In fact, would it be better just to start an entirely new thread?

Thank you

 

[USAFRet]

RAID is not a backup. Often confused for such, but it is not.
It can be good for uptime if needed, but the OS and the user sees but one "copy" of a file. Accidentally delete, and its gone.
For instance, if you were hosting a webstore, and actual downtime meant lost sales.

Corruption, ransomware, bad virus infection...RAID does nothing for those common issues.

I use Macrium Reflect. Full drive or partition images.
It has actually saved my bacon a couple of times. Actual dead drive. Put in a new drive, click click.all data recovered exactly as it was that morning at 4AM, when it ran its nightly image backup.

My procedure is modified a little bit since I wrote this, but the same basic concept.
You could trim that down to one or two external drives.
The basic idea is 3-2-1.
3 copies, on 2 different media, at least one of them offsite (or at least offline).

What is your backup situation at home?

What is your backup situation at home? And if you don't do that, why not? Every single day, I read multiple threads here of "How do I get my stuff back?" or "That drive had 5 years of photos of my kids!!" Be it a dead drive, dropped phone, virus, accidental deletion, formatting the wrong...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[Wheaten]

Thanks for the explanation. I will check out the link you've posted. I'll also go learn about Storage Devices so I can better my understanding.

I don't understand too much of what you've written not because you haven't explained it well but because I don't have enough knowledge on the matter.

So it's not a good idea to setup RAID 1 (I think this is the one)? Are you suggesting I buy an external hard drive and/or purchase Macrium Reflect?




I really appreciate the time and effort you've taken to respond to my thread.

Thank you

 

[USAFRet]

The FREE version of Macrium is just fine.
I have the paid on my main system, Free on all others.

And don't bother with a RAID 1. Just added headache, for no real purpose in the consumer space.
If you actually needed 100% uptime, then maybe.

But any reputable business that has a RAID 1 for their server also has a true backup. If you can suffer with 30 minutes of so of recovery, RAID 1 is absolutely not needed.

 

[Wheaten]

I just realized that you wrote that thread that you linked, nice!

Okay thank you very much for all the responses. I'm actually new here, joined 5 days ago and feel very welcomed and supported. If it wasn't for that memo above your picture I would've never known that you could set a best answer, I'll go and select a best answer to all my threads that are considered solved.

Thanks again, all the best.

 

[USAFRet]

Welcome to Tom's Hardware.
Good luck, and do NOT hesitate to ask questions.

The only dumb question is the one not asked.