Hello all,
I've recently bought a P300 Toshiba internal hard drive (3 To capacity). I'm running Windows 10.
All is well, except that there's a connector on it that I can't figure the type of, in addition to 2 common SATA connectors. Maybe someone could tell me what it is ? I've outlined it in red in the image below.
Cheers.
Interesting, but I'm not sure...
For Seagate disks, at the same place sits standard 4-pin connector of TTL service interface; this requires at least 3-pin counterpart (Receive, Transmit, Ground - see the picture). However, that one from previous post looks like 2-pin only...
From a answer on Superuser..
Those are jumper settings, similar to IDE drives, but for SATA specific options depending on the drive maker. For example, on this Western Digital support page for mobile drives, it shows two options:
- Reduced Power Spinup - RPS: Used by external hard disks to reduce spinup current and allows it to work over USB interface.
- Spread Spectrum Clocking - SSC: Used when your SATA controller doesn't support SSC by default.
Definitely not in our case.Those are jumper settings
At 1st image (Toshiba), there is a connector with two visible contactsplaced atnear bottom, not true pins (which can be shortened by a jumper).
An explanation for 2nd image (Seagate) was already posted. Usable for example for resetting SMART statistics or clearing G-table (bad sector relocation) although not intended for end users.
Of course, WD may use their 4 pins for their jumper settings.
Edit: Picture added.
Last edited by muchomurka; 09 Jun 2020 at 16:49.
I have several 2.5" Notebook drives on hand [used, salvaged from otherwise dead machines] of the Dell, Seagate and Samsung brands with the 4 pins.
The only thing I see different from the pictured Toshiba drive is it has only 2 pins in the area others have 4 pins, probably just a different way to accomplish only 1 additional function versus 2 functions others have. Probably need to contact Toshiba to learn more. Have never seen those pins used in Notebooks I've worked with.
Quote
