220-1101 Question 242
Single answerSolid-state drivesA technician upgrades an older desktop by replacing its hard drive with a new SATA SSD and cloning the existing Windows installation. After the upgrade, the PC boots successfully, but the user reports that performance is worse than expected and the SSD's manufacturer utility shows the drive is connected at only 3 Gb/s. The motherboard has both SATA II and SATA III ports. Which action should the technician take FIRST to restore expected SSD performance?
- A
Move the SSD's data cable to a SATA III (6 Gb/s) motherboard port
- B
Run a full defragmentation on the SSD to optimize file placement
- C
Increase the size of the page file so Windows can cache more data
- D
Convert the SSD from GPT to MBR so the BIOS can access it faster
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
This question tests practical SSD troubleshooting in a hardware upgrade scenario. A SATA SSD connected to a SATA II port will still function, but its maximum interface bandwidth will be limited to 3 Gb/s rather than 6 Gb/s on SATA III. When a manufacturer utility explicitly reports a 3 Gb/s link on a board that supports 6 Gb/s ports, the technician should first verify the physical port and cabling before making software changes. This aligns with standard troubleshooting best practices: identify the simplest, most direct cause based on the evidence. CompTIA A+ Core 1 expects candidates to understand SSD characteristics, SATA standards, and appropriate maintenance practices. As a best practice, technicians should also confirm the motherboard documentation to identify which ports are SATA III and ensure the SSD is attached to the correct controller-supported port.
- A. Correct.
Correct. If the SSD is negotiating at 3 Gb/s on a system that has both SATA II and SATA III ports, the most likely practical issue is that it was connected to a slower SATA II port. Moving the drive to a SATA III 6 Gb/s port is the first and most direct step to restore the expected interface speed and improve throughput. This is a common real-world issue after upgrades on older motherboards with mixed port speeds.
- B. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Traditional defragmentation is not an appropriate first step for an SSD performance issue like this and can cause unnecessary write activity. SSDs do not benefit from defragmentation in the same way spinning disks do because they have no read/write head seeking across platters. Modern operating systems typically use SSD-aware optimization methods instead of classic defrag.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Increasing the page file does not address the underlying problem that the SSD is linked at only 3 Gb/s. Paging and caching settings may affect memory-related behavior, but they will not change the negotiated SATA link speed or fix a port-speed bottleneck.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Partition style such as GPT or MBR does not determine SATA interface speed. GPT is commonly used for modern systems and larger disks, while MBR is older and more limited. Changing partition style would not make the SSD communicate faster with the controller and could create unnecessary deployment issues.