WD Caviar Black Jumper Settings On Old Mobo

[aveatquevale]

Hello,

I have an old pc with a P4P800 SE Mobo (SATA 1). I've recently bought a WD 500GB caviar b hdd. The thing comes with no manual and I've read on the net that it might not work fine on an old sata 1 system if the jumper isn't set to the 150 Mb/sec option. I wasn't thinking of playing with the jumper settings at all, and now am very confused since I can't seem to find reliable info.

Also, do I have to format the drive before I attempt to install OS (Win XP) ?

 

[Dereck47]

Jumper pins 5-6 need to be connected: http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/search/1/a_id/5387#jumper

No, you don't need to manually format the drive. Windows will do it automatically during the installation process.

 

[aveatquevale]

What happens if I place no jumpers ?

 

[Dereck47]

Sorry, the only way to know is to try it with no jumpers and see what performance you're getting.

On some motherboards there will be problems, and on some there won't.

 

[jemm]

It won´t work at the speed of 1.5Gb/s, which is already half of the HDD speed.

 

[Dereck47]

It won´t work at the speed of 1.5Gb/s, which is already half of the HDD speed.

Sorry, but that's incorrect. The maximum Read/Write speeds of the 1TB Caviar Black is 126MB/s, which is SATA 1 (1.5Gb/s) speeds.

Here's the link to the spec sheet of the drive: http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-771434.pdf

 

[Dereck47]

The OP has the 500GB model, not the 1TB model, but the 500GB model has maximum Read/Write speeds of 150MB/s, which is still SATA 1 speeds.

 

[aveatquevale]

Thank you very much for your replies. I really appriciate it. However (unfortunately) I happen to be a nitpicky guy so I need to ask one more question to clarify things

Jumper settings for SATA 3.0 Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drives and Caviar Black WD1002FAEX-00Y9A0 SATA 6.0 Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drives

Jumper settings for SATA 6.0 Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drives

My HDD (5003AZEX)

As I've pointed out with the red arrow, it's a SATA 6 Gb/s drive, which gives me the impression that it falls into the 2nd table above and not the first one. What do you guys think ?

 

[jemm]

Sorry, but that's incorrect. The maximum Read/Write speeds of the 1TB Caviar Black is 126MB/s, which is SATA 1 (1.5Gb/s) speeds.

Here's the link to the spec sheet of the drive: http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-771434.pdf

I think you misunderstood what I said -- his HDD is 6 Gb/s, however the OP motherboard is SATA 1.5Gb/s, so if the OP place no jumpers, then it won´t work at 1.5Gb/s.

 

[Dereck47]

I think you misunderstood what I said -- his HDD is 6 Gb/s, however the OP motherboard is SATA 1.5Gb/s, so if the OP place no jumpers, then it won´t work at 1.5Gb/s.

Ok, gotcha - thanks!

 

[Dereck47]

As I've pointed out with the red arrow, it's a SATA 6 Gb/s drive, which gives me the impression that it falls into the 2nd table above and not the first one. What do you guys think ?

You are correct. So it appears you should have no jumper connected.

 

[aveatquevale]

http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-771434.pdf

Then again, if you look into the pdf above, it gives the impression that WD1002FAEX and WD5003AZEX fall into the same family, ergo the jumper should go to pins 5-6. It's confusing so maybe I should ask it to WD support.

On a side note, the package didn't have any jumpers included. I happened to find an old one laying around and tried to plug it into another dead hdd, but it didn't go in - at least not before i tried bending the pins to help plug the jumper in. Will bending the pins a bit ( i used a finger nail) cause any problems ?