Question Motherboard has 4 SATA ports but the BIOS only shows 2

[Primortem]

I'm using a dell optiplex 3010 MT with the SLJ4B chipset and an i5-3570. The PC works just fine, I'm currently using sata-0 (ssd) and sata-1 (hdd) and wanted a third drive in sata-2 but 2 and 3 don't show in the bios. I made sure the third drive is actually powered and the sata cable works, I swapped it with the second drive (sata-1).

 

[RealBeast]

It's a Dell bios, you could check for an update or email Dell support. Dell does not do things the standard way. I would also try resetting the CMOS after checking for an updated bios if there is none.

 

[Primortem]

It's a Dell bios, you could check for an update or email Dell support. Dell does not do things the standard way. I would also try resetting the CMOS after checking for an updated bios if there is none.

I just don't understand why I would need to update the bios when the motherboard comes with 4 sata ports. Shouldn't the very first version of the bios recognize that there are 4 sata ports? I don't know, a bios update might fix it, but it just doesn't make sense to me.

 

[RealBeast]

I just don't understand why I would need to update the bios when the motherboard comes with 4 sata ports. Shouldn't the very first version of the bios recognize that there are 4 sata ports? I don't know, a bios update might fix it, but it just doesn't make sense to me.

For only one reason: It's a Dell.

I know that it doesn't make sense but they do proprietary stuff for some reason -- probably product differentiation.

 

[RealBeast]

I just found this: Read page 34 of THIS. The ports are disabled for some reason, and you need to enable them. Why? Because it is Dell's way.

 

[Primortem]

I just found this: Read page 34 of THIS. The ports are disabled for some reason, and you need to enable them. Why? Because it is Dell's way.

The first image on the original post shows that I can not enable them because they just simply do not show up. On page 34 of the manual, I'm not sure if this is relevant, but in SATA Operation it lists two options, Disabled and ATA, but right now I'm configured with AHCI mode.

 

[RealBeast]

It could be a different bios, but that is your manual that says you can enable all four SATA devices, so if you cannot find anything in the bios advanced options to allow you to change the drives I would try a newer bios if one exists.

 

[Primortem]

Guess it doesn't hurt to try. I'll update the bios and see what happens
Edit: I updated the bios to A22, latest, and nothing changed. BIOS-->System Config-->Drives still only shows SATA-0 and 1

 

[Medisinman]

I get your issue. I work on 3010's on the regular at work and have taken a few home when they were decommissioned. I use them for all sorts of things and have had this same issue. This is a Dell imposed limitation between their different models of 3010's. If you look at the technical guidebook there is a section showing the different SATA ports for each and only on the full size does it have 4 active ports, the DT model only has 2 activated, even though it has 4 physical ports on the board.

There is a work around for this. It is a little long winded and seems strange, but I can confirm my 3010 DT is able to use all 4 SATA ports.

Here we go:

1.) Shutdown your PC
2.) Open your case and find the green USB 2.0 Headers
3.) Plug your green header onto the blue header
4.) Turn on your PC and you will get an error saying that the front I/O has an error
5.) Enter your BIOS and you should now see 4 SATA ports, they are not functioning yet though, even if they see a drive.
6.) Shutdown again and swap your USB header back to the green headers
7.) Start up again and you will get another Front I/O error that you can ignore
8.) Enter your BIOS and you should still see all 4 SATA ports active
9.) Change your boot option from Legacy to UEFI and save the BIOS
10.) Restart and let it try to boot normally, mine tried to go to PXE boot
11.) Once the PXE boot either fails or you power off the computer go back into your BIOS and change the boot option back to Legacy
12.) Save your BIOS.
13.) Boot into Windows and you should be able to use/access your drives.

Just a heads up, if you make any changes to those extra drives, even just swapping to the other SATA port, you have to repeat steps 9 -13 to access them again.

Another note: Your front I/O will function just fine the whole time even though its says there's errors.

I figured this all out this morning as I am using a 3010 board/cpu to set up a PLEX server and I need those 2 extra ports as well. I didn't want to spend the extra money on a PCIe card for more SATA.

As a side note if you ever move a 3010 to another case, you need to bring along the power switch. Its proprietary on this board.