I have SATA 3 but get only 3 Gb/s?

Question

Here's the output of dmesg | grep SATA:

[    1.244456] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: AHCI 0001.0300 32 slots 6 ports 6 Gbps 0x11 impl SATA mode
[    1.256512] ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m2048@0xc0817000 port 0xc0817100 irq 42
[    1.256525] ata5: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m2048@0xc0817000 port 0xc0817300 irq 42
[    1.576370] ata1: SATA link up 6.0 Gbps (SStatus 133 SControl 300)
[    1.904299] ata5: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)

From the first line, I understand that I have SATA III 6 Gb/s *6 ports. Please correct me if I am wrong here itself. Assuming I am right, I don't understand why my second HDD, which is plugged into my optical bay using a iConnect caddy is having a speed of 3 Gb/s. I am 100% sure that the HDD is SATA 3. Is there a way by which I can restore it's speed? Well, it could be the caddy, but how do I make sure of that? No information is given on the product page.

Here's the output of hdparm for the HDD:

    ATA device, with non-removable media
    Model Number:       TOSHIBA MQ01ABF050                      
    Serial Number:      X3UZC5SFT
    Firmware Revision:  AM0G3H  
    Transport:          Serial, ATA8-AST, SATA 1.0a, SATA II Extensions, SATA Rev 2.5, SATA Rev 2.6
Standards:
    Supported: 8 7 6 5 
    Likely used: 8
Configuration:
    Logical     max current
    cylinders   16383   16383
    heads       16  16
    sectors/track   63  63
    --
    CHS current addressable sectors:   16514064
    LBA    user addressable sectors:  268435455
    LBA48  user addressable sectors:  976773168
    Logical  Sector size:                   512 bytes
    Physical Sector size:                  4096 bytes
    Logical Sector-0 offset:                  0 bytes
    device size with M = 1024*1024:      476940 MBytes
    device size with M = 1000*1000:      500107 MBytes (500 GB)
    cache/buffer size  = 8192 KBytes
    Form Factor: 2.5 inch
    Nominal Media Rotation Rate: 5400
Capabilities:
    LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)
    Queue depth: 32
    Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard, no device specific minimum
    R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 16  Current = 16
    Advanced power management level: 254
    DMA: sdma0 sdma1 sdma2 mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5 
         Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns
    PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4 
         Cycle time: no flow control=120ns  IORDY flow control=120ns
Commands/features:
    Enabled Supported:
       *    SMART feature set
            Security Mode feature set
       *    Power Management feature set
       *    Write cache
       *    Look-ahead
       *    Host Protected Area feature set
       *    WRITE_BUFFER command
       *    READ_BUFFER command
       *    NOP cmd
       *    DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
       *    Advanced Power Management feature set
            SET_MAX security extension
       *    48-bit Address feature set
       *    Device Configuration Overlay feature set
       *    Mandatory FLUSH_CACHE
       *    FLUSH_CACHE_EXT
       *    SMART error logging
       *    SMART self-test
       *    General Purpose Logging feature set
       *    WRITE_{DMA|MULTIPLE}_FUA_EXT
       *    64-bit World wide name
       *    IDLE_IMMEDIATE with UNLOAD
       *    WRITE_UNCORRECTABLE_EXT command
       *    {READ,WRITE}_DMA_EXT_GPL commands
       *    Segmented DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
       *    Gen1 signaling speed (1.5Gb/s)
       *    Gen2 signaling speed (3.0Gb/s)
       *    Gen3 signaling speed (6.0Gb/s)
       *    Native Command Queueing (NCQ)
       *    Host-initiated interface power management
       *    Phy event counters
       *    Idle-Unload when NCQ is active
       *    DMA Setup Auto-Activate optimization
            Device-initiated interface power management
       *    Software settings preservation
       *    SMART Command Transport (SCT) feature set
       *    SCT Write Same (AC2)
       *    SCT Error Recovery Control (AC3)
       *    SCT Features Control (AC4)
       *    SCT Data Tables (AC5)
Security: 
    Master password revision code = 65534
        supported
    not enabled
    not locked
    not frozen
    not expired: security count
        supported: enhanced erase
    110min for SECURITY ERASE UNIT. 110min for ENHANCED SECURITY ERASE UNIT. 
Logical Unit WWN Device Identifier: 50000395144086c6
    NAA     : 5
    IEEE OUI    : 000039
    Unique ID   : 5144086c6
Checksum: correct

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 11 '15 at 20:48

Transport: Serial, ATA8-AST, SATA 1.0a, SATA II Extensions, SATA Rev 2.5, SATA Rev 2.6

SATA Rev 2.6 = SATA II.

Reading the link you posted:

[...] SATA interface Suitable for SATA 2.5

So most likely it's forcing the hard disk to be seen as SATA II.

To quickly verify this, unplug it, plug the hard disk directly to the SATA port on the motherboard and run hdparm -I [...] again.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 30 '17 at 11:48

0

On many chipsets only a subset (typically two or four out of six) of the SATA ports support 6Gbps mode. I suspect you have such a chipset and the manufacturer chose to use a 3Gbps port for the optical drive bay.

answered Apr 30 '17 at 11:48

Peter Green

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I have SATA 3 but get only 3 Gb/s?

2 Answers2