SATA port not working ALN4L102 N305 4x2.5Gb

2026-04-30 02:28:08
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1 Comments

Hello,

I bought one of the CWWK N305 4x2.5Gb Ethernet mini PC's (this one except N305 CPU if the Amazon page helps).  During boot and in Proxmox dmidecode command I see BIOS Version: ALN4L102 Release Date: 11/08/2023


I am trying to use the SATA port built into the device, using the SATA power + data cable that came with the device.  I also have 1 M.2 NVMe drive installed, it boots with Proxmox installed on the M.2.  Proxmox does not detect the Samsung SATA SSD I plugged into it.  I confirmed the Samsung SSD is good on another Linux computer, I can format it and read and write data to it.  I left the SSD with a new GPT partition table and no partitions before plugging into the mini PC.  Running <code>lsblk</code> shows no SATA type disks.  Running <code>lspci | grep -i sata</code>  or  <code>lspci | grep -i ahci</code> gives no results so Proxmox is not even detecting any SATA controller.  


I have checked in BIOS -> Chipset -> PCH-IO Configuration -> SATA Configuration.  SATA Controllers are Enabled, SATA Mode Selection is AHCI (AHCI is the only option available).  I see Serial ATA Port 0, 1, and 2 and the ports are all set to Enabled.  I am not sure if anything else needs to be changed?  Or if only Port 0 should be enabled?


I tried updating the BIOS using the "Original version" at this link since the upload date is newer than what it had.  But that did not change anything for the SATA SSD.  Is there a best BIOS version for my mini PC with just 1 M.2 NVMe SSD and 1 SATA SSD?  And what should I try regarding the SATA port?


Thank you for any assistance.

    2026-04-30 04:01:16
    Actually I resolved the SATA port issue.  When I first started using this device it came with the WiFi H-board to support a WiFi adapter and a second m.2 drive but I was only using 1 m.2 drive in the main slot on the board, so the H-board was empty but plugged into the motherboard.  I removed the H-board and now the SATA SSD is detected by the BIOS and by Proxmox.

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