Submitted 1 year ago by RAM@discuss.tchncs.de to askelectronics@discuss.tchncs.de
I bought two of these a long time ago, and I recently tried to connect them to a SATA III connector without luck. The size seems to match up, but the block between the two pin segments seems to block it from connecting with SATA III.
Can you help me figure out what kind of adaptor I need ? :))
That’s a SAS connector, but unfortunately it won’t work with your computer without a SAS card called an HBA or Host Bus Adapter.
Why yes it’s a SAS drive. You can find that in some NAS models for home use too. Otherwise this is usually server land.
The thing with HBAs is that you usually only get virtual disks on the system side because the controller masks the real disks. This is not really needed any more since modern filesystems can do RAID functionality too - and even better and faster - but that does require direct access to the drive.
Many controllers can be patched though or come with a pass through (JBOD) mode out of the box, which allows you to use that kind of drive directly again. Such drives can be obtained used for cheap too so this may be a feasible option to extend the possible amount of drives for a desktop computer at home too a lot. Most controllers support 4-8 devices.
SAS connection - cdn.shopify.com/…/SAS_SATA_text_2_1024x1024.png?v…
You can connect a SATA drive to a SAS cable, but not a SAS drive to a SATA cable.
There are sas harddrives which support SATA. They are however very rare.
It’s a 2.5” SAS drive. They’re usually used in servers and typically spin a lot faster than consumer SATA drives. You won’t be able to use it in your PC unless you buy an HBA card and some adapters.
thank you :))
do you know why SAS HBAs are so expensive ? 🥲 is it possible to get a cheap one ?
I got a used 8 port card from ebay for about $20 a few years ago. I had to flash different firmware to it using a DOS boot disk to disable raid though. It’s an obsolete card, but it’s been working fine in my NAS.
Looks like that’s actually “SATA Express,” which has lanes for both PCI and SATA - if you look at the other side of the connector (which you should have already shared!) you’ll see even more contacts. You can get either a PCI or SATA adapter in order to use the drive.
Thanks for the help :)))
I’ll try to figure out what to do with them ^^
Can you show us the other side of the drive? Curious what make/model this is supposed to be. Best guess is that this is yet another attempt by a PC manufacturer to sell un-upgradeable units that need to be either replaced as a whole, services only by then, or had at with wire snips and a soldering iron.
I’d say it’s time to carefully cut out that tab (leaving the keys intact), and to start being more careful about what you buy.
That looks like one of the notebook SATA variants. It’s SATA & power combined in one connector, and passive adapters used to be readily available.
Hyzerflip@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Pretty sure that is a SAS drive.
RAM@discuss.tchncs.de 1 year ago
I think you’re right :)
Will I be able to use it as with a sas to sata adaptor ?
SpaceMan9000@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Depends. If there’s a SATA logo on the front then yes.
If not it’s probably not supported.
dack@lemmy.world 1 year ago
No. SAS is a different protocol and requires a different host controller. SAS controllers can typically handle SATA drives, but not the other way around.
If this is for a server or desktop machine, you could install a PCIe SAS HBA.