:?: :!: :?: Has anyone tried an internal SATA cable over 1 meter long? I need an extra long cable and I can find 1 meter long internal cables but my total length may be near 1.5 meters. I know the specification says 1 meter, but has anyone tried longer cables? What happens?

Thanks,

-A

i imagine that the data would degrade and therefore become unreadable over 1m. unless you get something like a repeater for sata which is unheard of(as far as i kno)

im curious why is your drive that far away? :?

It is a test chassis with a remote hard drive (very non-standard)

i just had a thought, what kind of motherboard do you have?

i kno my asus board comes with pci plates that allow me to connect external sata drives to my internal sata ports, if you could find one of these you may be able to rig it up, to give you the length you need i also believe these pci plates use a seperate power connecter.



at the top right is the pci thing im on about.

It's a server board. That would be a nice solution, but the test chassis configuration does not allow me to use an external to internal connection.

i was thinking more allong the lines of modding the plate so you could use the connectors to join several SATA cables together(to give the length) in a internal config.

Signal attenuation beyond 1 meter results in potential data corruption. The greater the distance beyond 1 meter, the greater the risk.

WOW, It has been awile, but I beleive it has to do with the power/frequency ratio. I do not think the controller supplies enough power to carry the signal past the magic 1m spec.

Like I said it has been awile since Electronics class.

What Happens? I'll tell you what happens- GLOBAL WARMING! THE END OF ALL MANKIND! DOGS AND CATS LIVING TOGETHER!

The internal SATA specification has a transmitter minimum voltage specification and receiver minimum voltage sensitivity specification that allow the expected signal attenuation over 1 m.

At further than 1 m, the signal attenuates enough such that the signal will be below the receiver minimum voltage sensitivity specification. The receiver will likely not be able to correctly decode the signal in all circumstances, resulting in transmission errors.

The eSATA specification has raised the minimum transmit voltage and lowered the minimum receiver sensitivity voltage to allow signal attenuation that would be expected over a 2 m cable. Also, unlike internal SATA cables, the eSATA cables are shielded to prevent EMI/RFI interference, their contacts inside the connecter are more recessed to prevent electrostatic discharge, the connectors are a different size/configuration to prevent using internal SATA cables in the external eSATA specification, and the connectors are rated for 5000 insertions, not 50.

By the way, the PCI plate shown in the picture above that allows an internal SATA cable to become an eSATA port is a recipe for disaster. It is NOT eSATA compliant. Anyone who uses that thing is taking a gigantic risk with the data on that hard drive. It's just like the irresponsible manufacturers who make 24 inch 80-conductor PATA cables (very non-compliant, spec is 18" max) -- you're just dangling your data out the window. Will you have a problem? Maybe "not". Maybe "not yet". 8O

What Happens? I'll tell you what happens- GLOBAL WARMING! THE END OF ALL MANKIND! DOGS AND CATS LIVING TOGETHER!

OMG, dogs and cats living together? What's the world coming to, we're all doomed!

There are error correction built into SATA as did ATA. To a certain extent you'll eventually get data corruption, but at say 1.2m it'll just have slower data transder rate as Flake said due to the error correction that's going on in background.

Don't want to unduly split hairs, but the error correction that occurs is due to the data being corrupted.

Well it's not currupted if it's been corrected by the time it reaches to your HDD or vice-versa.

Anywhoo...

Internal sata.... I didn't see any distinction before I voted. I've got a 2 meter eSATA cable that I use with an external enclosure. Internally, though, I've never had to use one that long.

The question that was posed spoke to cable length issues. Excessive cable length results in signal attenuation and reduced signal to noise ratios, hence data corruption.

Error correction is merely the source of the resulting performance degradation. In and of itself, error correction doesn't negate the fact that data errors are occurring, it confirms it.

That must be why they call it "correction".