This is crazy. I make this blog entry to help anyone with this problem.
I was trying to install this HD753LJ SATA2 (3.0 GB/sec) hard drive into an older motherboard (MSI K8T). It couldn’t detect it. Of course. Being an older motherboard, it can only handle SATA 1.5 drives.
Some Samsung SATA hard drives have this jumper with which you can limit transfer rate. This one didn’t have that. The little booklet however mentioned http://www.samsunghdd.com to look for info on changing the the protocol. I couldn’t find anything on this there.
I found a web page however (http://blog.techflaws.org/2008/07/22/samsung-hd753lj-sata-hdd-750-gb/#comment-235) where Bruce Schneier Marvin points to Samsung’s FAQ where a certain SSpeed.zip program can be downloaded, with which you can set the limit using a computer which has 3.0GB/s controlling ability.
There’s a catch however: When running the program it’s gonna ask what would you like to do:
“1.5 -> 3.0″ or “3.0 ->1.5″ ?
Okay, which do you think should be chosen, if we want to set the limit to 1.5GB/s?
Wrong!
The correct answer according to Bruce Schneier Marvin is “1.5 -> 3.0″. And he is right.
Update: Since then I also found ESTOOL.exe on http://www.samsunghdd.com and with this you can also set the limit (Set Max UDMA menu item). Put this program on a bootable floppy disk, and boot from disk on a system which has a SATA controller capable of handling 3Gb/s drives.
I always thought it to be quite obvious I’m not Bruce Schneier but merely translating some of his op ed pieces to german since I agree with him on these issues discussed.
Sorry, Marvin.