From: ksi@koi8.net   
      
   Don Y  wrote:   
      
   SATA has a slot between power and signal connectors. SAS doesn't have that   
   slot. SATA-only receptacle has a protrusion that goes into that slot. As SAS   
   doesn't have that slot it is not possible to plug a SAS drive into SATA-only   
   receptacle.   
      
   The opposite is possible -- SATA drive can be plugged into SAS receptacle so   
   those are SAS/SATA physical connectors.   
      
   The actual controller that those drives are going to be connected to are   
   separate question. Many SAS controllers will also work with SATA drives. The   
   opposite is not true. AFAIK there are no reliably working USB<->SAS docking   
   stations. There are _SOME_ that claim to be SAS but those are hit and miss --   
   it is impossible to tell if they'll work with a particular drive. SATA<->USB   
   ones are aplenty, cheaper than dirt, and almost all of them work.   
      
   Another issue is that SAS drives don't always have power of two sized   
   sectors. Although many are usual 512-bytes per sector there are still many   
   with 520/528/536 etc. bytes sectors. Many of them (but not all) can be   
   re-formatted to 512-byte sectors but it is not for the faint of heart :)   
      
   SAS is SCSI with serial physical interface, akin to PCIe that is PCI with   
   serial physical interface. SATA is, eh, ATA with serial physical interface   
   so it is totally different device.   
      
   > I can't seem to note any physical (e.g., dimensioning, connector placement,   
   > fastening) differences between the two types of drives (other than the   
   > obvious difference in connector geometries).   
   >   
   > I'm trying to understand why there would be different *sleds* for the   
   > two types (SAS vs SAS/SATA) as, mounted, there seems to be no difference.   
   >   
   > All I can imagine is some mechanism that prevents one type of sledded   
   > drive from being installed in a machine that doesn't accept that type   
   > of drive (I could see a SAS drive buggering a SATA-only mating connector).   
   >   
   > And, of course, a machine that can't take advantage of the SAS interface   
   > would be foolish to accept such drives.   
      
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