sata cable | DataRecoveryUnion.com

A hard drive (3.0 Gb/s) I have recently bought just came, without a SATA cable. I have a 6.0 Gb/s capable SATA cable sitting around. Are these 6.0 Gb/s cables backwards compatible? If I use it, would I have to plug it into the 6.0 enabled port on the mobo or can I just use the normal SATA ports?

SATA Cables

They are backwards compatible. And you can plug it into any SATA port you like.

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SATA Hard Drive Cables

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM15 years ago4 years ago04 mins

Connectors and cables present the most visible differences between SATA and parallel ATA drives. Unlike PATA, the same connectors are used on 3.5-inch SATA hard disks for desktop and server computers and 2.5-inch disks for portable or small computers; this allows 2.5-inch drives to be used in desktop computers with only a mounting bracket and no wiring adapter. Smaller disks may use the mini-SATA spec, suitable for small-form-factor Serial ATA drives and mini SSDs.

There is a special connector (eSATA) specified for external devices, and an optionally implemented provision for clips to hold internal connectors firmly in place. SATA drives may be plugged into SAS controllers and communicate on the same physical cable as native SAS disks, but SATA controllers cannot handle SAS disks.

There are SATA ports (on motherboards of a PC) that can use SATA data cable with locks or clips, thus, reducing the chance of accidentally unplugging while the PC is turned on. So does the same with SATA power connector and SATA data connector connected to a SATA HDD or SATA optical drive. Also, there are right-angled and left-angled connectors only on one end of SATA data cable, which can only be used when connecting to a SATA HDD or SATA optical drive.

The SATA standard specifies a different power connector than the decades-old four-pin Molex connector found on pre-SATA devices. Like the data cable, it is wafer-based, but its wider 15-pin shape prevents accidental mis-identification and forced insertion of the wrong connector type. Native SATA devices favor the SATA power-connector, although some early SATA drives retained older 4-pin Molex in addition to the SATA power connector.