I also had the Ethernet initializing issue with one of the PATA to SATA converters. The one with the Marvel chip of a certain revision didn't do it but had other issues.

I never got a good solution for SATA with large drives.

Ross
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In SI, a little termination and attention to layout goes a long way. In EMC, without SI, you'll spend 80% of the effort on the last 3dB.