Are the SATA II and SATA 3Gb hard drives backward compatible to a motherboard with a SATA-I / 150 port?

Answer 1

It's not just backwards compatible in "some" cases, like someone else said. It is in "ALL" cases.

Obviously you won't get the SATA 3Gbps interface speeds, but a single drive doesn't need it. Most drives only average 45-50MB/s transfer rates, which basic SATA is more than enough to accomodate with 150MB/s to give. The only time you need the 3Gbps rates is when you plan on having many drives (4 or more in a RAID array). Multiple drives above 3 can start to take advantage of the extra bandwidth 3Gbps provides.

As for SATA II features like NCQ (Native Command Queuing), many SATA 150 ports support it. So you don't necessarily need 3Gbps ports to take good advantage of the newer 2nd generation drives...

Answer 2

Serial ATA is 1.5gb/sec, and Serial ATA II is 3.0gb/s - so you already have the same device. SATA is so far universal - you can plug a SATA II drive onto a SATA board and vice versa with no ill effects (despite what the hype says, there isn't even really a big difference in speed between SATA and SATA II). The actual colors of the plastic connectors on your motherboard are irrelevant.

Answer 3

Yes but depending on the drive you may have to set a jumper, but other than that all will be or they are not truely SATA II since that is a requirement for it to be SATA II.

Answer 4

Hopefully....YES

The bad thing is that you won't be able to use the extra performance nor the extra features that may come with the new hard drive until you get a new SATA II controler or a new motherboard.

Answer 5

in some cases SATA II and SATA 3Gb are backward compatible. you should check with the motherboard manufacturer to make sure. upadate any drivers and bios upgades as necessary.

Answer 6

Yes!

Answer 7

Yes...

Answer 8

Yes, they are.