ATA or SCSI drive

[Guest]

Can someone please tell me how I can conveniently determine whether my
internal hard drive and my external hard drive are ATA or SCSI or some other
dsignation? Thank you

 

[R. McCarty]

Conveniently ? perhaps with Device Manager, Disk Drives. Examine
the Vendor/Model descriptor, such as ST33206... Then look up the
specifications on the vendor's web site. Physically opening the case &
checking cables is another option but isn't always practical if the PC
is hard to access. You can also use a Hardware/Software inventory
tool like Belarc Advisor to get technical information.
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html
*You have to be careful, some SATA controllers are categorized in
XP as SCSI but aren't since SCSI is a parallel technology and SATA
is Serial format.

 

[Lil' Dave]

With more detail, possibly with the external drive. Am not assuming
anything.
Dave

 

[Not Me]

Sometimes you can tell by looking in Device Manager.
Get the model number & look it up on the manufacturer's website.
But you can also physically look at the drives.
A SATA drive is connected to the board with a small cable and the connector
is about 1" wide; a PATA/EIDE drive is connected by a cable with a connector
more than twice as wide.
Having a SCSI except in a server would be a little unusual, but they have
several formats of cable, all over 1.5" wide.
An external drive is most likely PATA/EIDE in a USB enclosure.

 

[Guest]

R. McCarty; Lil' Dave; Not Me:
I want to thank you for your response to my query.
It was nice of you to help me.

 

[Bob I]

ATA uses a 40 pin data connector, SCSI uses at least a 50 pin connector
at minimum.