Ubuntu can't see new SATA drive

[Craig Hagerman]

I finally got it working. I discovered two things in my research.
First, there is a newer form of SATA which transfers at 3 GB/s and an
older form that does 1.5 GB/s (I think those numbers are right but
don't quote me). I read that some controlers won't do the higher
transfer rate so there are jumpers on the back of some SATA drives to
force them into 1.5 mode. The second thing I discovered is that my new
SATA drive is SATA 2 with this higher transfer rate. (Hadn't picked up
on that before.) So maybe that is why I had the problem.

To recap - the new drive works in an external USB case, but not
attached directly to the motherboard. But two other SATA drives (same
manufacturer) work perfectly attached directly.

My motherboard is an Asus AV8 Delux. It has two SATA controllers. I
have always used the upper ones (via?). I tried attaching the new
drive to the lower (promise?) controler before using the jumpers to
change the speed. Lo and behold, it worked! I was surprised (but
happy).

So, I *think* what was going on here is that one control can't handle
SATA2 but the other can.

Thanks for the advice Gilles.

Craig