Will IBM x31 laptop work with 3TB hard disk via pcmcia 2 sata adaptor?

Hello,

I have a WIFI router/fax server based on IBM x31 laptop and slackware 14.0. The idle power consumption is only around 12W which is very nice. Since the hard disk space is very limited. I plan to use a pcmcia sata adaptor to mount a 3TB hard disk to make it into some kind of file server. My question is that will X31 laptop work with 3TB hard disk?

uname -a
Linux 3.2.29 #1 Mon Sep 17 13:26:41 CDT 2012 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1500MHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

If you get the pc slot to work and you get a pc card to sata to work then I'd think some or all of the drive ought to be usable.

My thinking is there is less than a 50% of working. I wouldn't just go out and buy parts to test.

Well, I bought a AKE branded pcmcia to sata card which is based on VIA VT6421. Sadly it does not work right with linux. It caused system lockup all the time. The system resumed normal after unplugging the card though. I learned some successful story for this card to go with kernel 2.6.X., but no luck for my system with kernel 3.2.29. Here is some parts of the dmesg:

[  144.132050] ata4: drained 65536 bytes to clear DRQ
[  144.182568] ata4.00: exception Emask 0x52 SAct 0x0 SErr 0xffffffff action 0xe frozen
[  144.182578] ata4.00: BMDMA stat 0xff
[  144.182592] ata4: SError: { RecovData RecovComm UnrecovData Persist Proto HostInt PHYRdyChg PHYInt CommWake 10B8B Dispar BadCRC Handshk LinkSeq TrStaTrns UnrecFIS DevExch }
[  144.182609] ata4.00: failed command: READ DMA EXT
[  144.182632] ata4.00: cmd 25/00:00:95:27:44/00:01:27:00:00/e0 tag 0 dma 131072 in
[  144.182637]          res ff/ff:ff:ff:ff:ff/ff:ff:ff:ff:ff/ff Emask 0x72 (host bus error)
[  144.182647] ata4.00: status: { Busy }
[  144.182655] ata4.00: error: { ICRC UNC IDNF ABRT }
[  144.182676] ata4: hard resetting link
[  144.185333] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket0: pccard: card ejected from slot 0
[  145.193127] ata4: failed to resume link (SControl FFFFFFFF)
[  145.193169] ata4: SATA link down (SStatus FFFFFFFF SControl FFFFFFFF)
[  145.193213] ata4: EH complete
[  145.193299] ------------[ cut here ]------------
[  145.193318] WARNING: at drivers/ata/libata-core.c:6113 ata_host_detach+0xc7/0xd0()
[  145.193326] Hardware name: 267239C
[  145.193332] Modules linked in: nf_nat_pptp nf_nat_proto_gre nf_conntrack_pptp nf_conntrack_proto_gre ipt_MASQUERADE iptable_nat iptable_filter ip_tables ppp_synctty ppp_async ppp_generic slhc snd_seq_dummy snd_seq_oss snd_seq_midi_event snd_seq snd_seq_device snd_pcm_oss snd_mixer_oss ipv6 cpufreq_ondemand cpufreq_conservative cpufreq_performance cpufreq_powersave speedstep_lib acpi_cpufreq mperf freq_table nf_nat_snmp_basic nf_conntrack_snmp nf_conntrack_broadcast nf_nat_irc nf_nat_ftp nf_nat nf_conntrack_irc nf_conntrack_ftp nf_conntrack_ipv4 nf_defrag_ipv4 xt_conntrack nf_conntrack x_tables fan fuse radeon ath9k ttm ath9k_common drm_kms_helper ath9k_hw ath pcmcia mac80211 firewire_ohci drm e100 yenta_socket pcmcia_rsrc pcmcia_core cfg80211 intel_agp thinkpad_acpi intel_gtt mii agpgart firewire_core i2c_algo_bit nvram rfkill uhci_hcd ehci_hcd i2c_i801 processor video i2c_core psmouse thermal thermal_sys nsc_ircc battery ac button evdev shpchp serio_raw snd_intel8x0 snd_ac97_codec snd_pcm ppdev hwmon irda snd_page_alloc snd_timer snd soundcore ac97_bus crc_ccitt parport_pc parport loop ext4 jbd2 mbcache
[  145.193552] Pid: 1045, comm: pccardd Not tainted 3.2.29 #1
[  145.193558] Call Trace:
[  145.193573]  [<c14380f8>] ? printk+0x1d/0x1f
[  145.193587]  [<c1037a32>] warn_slowpath_common+0x72/0xa0
[  145.193600]  [<c12c04f7>] ? ata_host_detach+0xc7/0xd0
[  145.193611]  [<c12c04f7>] ? ata_host_detach+0xc7/0xd0
[  145.193622]  [<c1037a82>] warn_slowpath_null+0x22/0x30
[  145.193634]  [<c12c04f7>] ata_host_detach+0xc7/0xd0
[  145.193646]  [<c12c0515>] ata_pci_remove_one+0x15/0x20
[  145.193659]  [<c12059cd>] pci_device_remove+0x2d/0xe0
[  145.193673]  [<c12847ab>] __device_release_driver+0x5b/0xb0
[  145.193685]  [<c1284824>] device_release_driver+0x24/0x40
[  145.193697]  [<c128412a>] bus_remove_device+0x5a/0x80
[  145.193708]  [<c1281c37>] device_del+0xe7/0x150
[  145.193719]  [<c1281cb0>] device_unregister+0x10/0x20
[  145.193733]  [<c120078e>] pci_stop_bus_device+0x6e/0x80
[  145.193745]  [<c1200811>] pci_remove_bus_device+0x11/0xa0
[  145.193757]  [<c12008cf>] pci_remove_behind_bridge+0x2f/0x50
[  145.193780]  [<f8043657>] cb_free+0x17/0x1c [pcmcia_core]
[  145.193795]  [<f80426af>] socket_shutdown+0x9f/0xf0 [pcmcia_core]
[  145.193807]  [<c1281a5b>] ? dev_printk+0x2b/0x30
[  145.193823]  [<f80428fd>] socket_remove+0x3d/0x50 [pcmcia_core]
[  145.193842]  [<f8042ca9>] pccardd+0x229/0x360 [pcmcia_core]
[  145.193859]  [<f8042a80>] ? pcmcia_unregister_socket+0xa0/0xa0 [pcmcia_core]
[  145.193874]  [<c10524ad>] kthread+0x6d/0x80
[  145.193885]  [<c1052440>] ? kthread_stop+0xb0/0xb0
[  145.193897]  [<c1440146>] kernel_thread_helper+0x6/0x10
[  145.193905] ---[ end trace 9ad343631222bc9d ]---
[  145.197673] ata4.00: disabled
[  145.197719] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb]  Result: hostbyte=0x00 driverbyte=0x08
[  145.197731] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb]  Sense Key : 0xb [current] [descriptor]
[  145.197743] Descriptor sense data with sense descriptors (in hex):
[  145.197751]         72 0b 47 00 00 00 00 0c 00 0a 80 00 00 00 ff ff 
[  145.197775]         ff ff ff ff 
[  145.197787] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb]  ASC=0x47 ASCQ=0x0
[  145.197797] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] CDB: cdb[0]=0x28: 28 00 27 44 27 95 00 01 00 00
[  145.197821] end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 658778005
[  145.197873] JBD2: Failed to read block at offset 259
[  145.197891] JBD2: recovery failed
[  145.197901] EXT4-fs (sdb6): error loading journal
[  145.208667] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Synchronizing SCSI cache
[  145.208746] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb]  Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=0x00
[  145.208757] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Stopping disk
[  145.208778] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] START_STOP FAILED
[  145.208784] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb]  Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=0x00
[  145.214161] sata_via 0000:03:00.0: PCI INT A disabled

There can be issues with SATAII/SATAIII HDDs on the VIA VT6421 controller. Try setting the 'SATAI' jumper (if your drive has one).