From: blockedofcourse@foo.invalid   
      
   On 12/11/2025 11:38 PM, Sergey Kubushyn wrote:   
   > 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.   
      
   Yes, hence the reason you would want a sled to discourage that attempt.   
   I.e., let the sled absorb the "interference" and not the connector   
   on the drive or backplane.   
      
   > The opposite is possible -- SATA drive can be plugged into SAS receptacle so   
   > those are SAS/SATA physical connectors.   
      
   All of my backplanes are SAS/SATA (though not mix and match).  So, I don't see   
   the value of keeping any of the SATA (only!) sleds.  I can, of course, use them   
   in the existing backplanes but see no advantage to keeping them over an   
   equal number of the SAS/SATA sleds.   
      
   > 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.   
      
   Yes.  The extra/augmented interface is not present on the SATA drives so   
   not present on a SATA-only backplane.   
      
   > 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.   
      
   I've not looked for a SAS dock as I can just pull a drive out and slap a   
   new/temporary drive in its place just as easily as putting one in a dock.   
   Especially as the backplanes tend to support higher bandwidths than the   
   docks.   
      
   > 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 :)   
      
   I've also encountered "12V only" drives.   
      
   I've not had problems *using* the SAS (or SATA) drives.  Just wondering which   
   sleds have value to keep (this is the time of year I upgrade my tools)   
      
   > 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.   
      
   SAS also allows FDX communication instead of SIMPLEX and a fatter pipe.   
      
   And, of course, tend to be more durable than SATA.   
      
   So, can you see any reason other than "inhibiting mating" for there to be   
   two types of sleds?  (the sleds look like swiss cheese with all the   
   various mounting holes supported)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)