The problem with assumptions is that you don't know your making them.

The assumption I made today was a pretty fair one in my opinion but it still made me feel kinda silly once I figured out what was wrong.

My motherboard has 4 SATA ports.  2 pairs of 2 to be precise.  The ports in each set is tightly positioned together, while the sets themselves are rather far apart.  So it came as a surprise when I realized my assumption that port 0 and 1 where together and ports 2 and 3 where together was completely and uterly WRONG.

So after fighting for about an hour with BIOS updates and googling the reason why I was getting "Drive ID = Unknown" in my BIOS, I discovered that when I put my SATA plug in the port next to the existing port I knew to be SATA 0, it was in fact SATA 2. 

Lesson learned:  When installing a new SATA device, just go into the BIOS and turn on EVERY SATA PORT, reboot, and then go back into the BIOS and read which one your new device is on, and then disabled the unused ones.  Sheesh.