As technology and miniaturization progresses, manufacturing processes evolve requiring fewer components and lower cost materials.

Hard drive boards have not been immune to this progression. The increasing number of lower grade modernized SATA hard drive boards has forced the e-scrap industry to make some difficult decisions. These newer SATA boards return nearly half the amount in terms of recoverable materials than their older IDE and SCSI cousins.

As the ratio of SATA drives increases the overall value of the entire load decreases. Where there used to be a 3 to 1 ratio of IDE/SCSI -vs- SATA, the ratio has since flipped.

We are left with two options.

One possibility would be to progressively decrease the price of hard drive boards in relation to the average percentage of SATA vs IDE. As the number of lower value boards increase, we slowly drop the collective price until the population of higher grade hard drive boards becomes irrelevant to the return. Essentially slowly drop it until it cannot drop anymore.

Or we just cut to the chase. Pull the SATA boards out and pay what they are worth so that we can reward the customer with a better rate when they find themselves with the more valuable IDE/SCSI boards (super old RLL/MFM are considered high as well).

So in summary it is either a SATA board or it is not.

SATA = Low Grade Hard Drive Board

Non-SATA (IDE/SCSI etc...) = High Grade Hard Drive Board

This applies to both laptop drives as well as desktop drives.

How to identify a SATA board from a non-SATA board?

Simple. A SATA board does not have pins in its connector but instead has little gold fingered ridges on a plastic lip. Once you see the connector you will always know it. They are very recognizable.

PICTURE OF A SATA CONNECTOR



PICTURES NON-SATA (IDE and SCSI) CONNECTORS

IDE


SCSI



So in summary, if it is a SATA hard drive board it is a Low Grade Hard Drive Board.

If it is NOT a SATA hard drive board it is a HIgh Grade Hard Drive Board.

Easy as that.