Hard drive compatibility: IDE vs ATA vs SATA

[T. Waters]

I would like to install a second (slave) hard drive in my computer. I have
an ATA 60GB HDD right now and am looking at Newegg's offerings. It seems
that IDE, Serial ATA and SATA are the choices. Are the last two the same
thing? Are they all compatible with my existing drive? Here are the stats
for my drive, courtesy of Everest Home Edition:

ATA Device Properties
Active UDMA Transfer Mode UDMA 5 (ATA-100)
Buffer 2 MB (Dual Ported, Read Ahead)
ECC Bytes 74
LBA Sectors 117231408
Max. PIO Transfer Mode PIO 4
Max. UDMA Transfer Mode UDMA 5 (ATA-100)
Model ID WDC WD600BB-00DKA0
Multiple Sectors 16
Parameters 116301 cylinders, 16 heads, 63 sectors per track, 600 bytes per
sector
Revision 77.07W77
Serial Number WD
Unformatted Capacity 67080 MB

ATA Device Features
48-bit LBA Supported
Advanced Power Management Not Supported
Automatic Acoustic Management Supported
Device Configuration Overlay Supported
Host Protected Area Supported
Power Management Supported
Power-Up In Standby Not Supported
Security Mode Supported
SMART Supported
Write Cache Supported

ATA Device Manufacturer
Company Name Western Digital Corporation
Product Information http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products

 

[Brett Caton]

I think IDE and ATA are the same and the issue is with SATA (serial
ATA), which is supposed to be better. I presume it's different cabling etc.

 

[Guest]

SATA & Serial ATA are the same however,a SATA hd requires a SATA
controller to operate.Usually they come with the board,however you can
connect one to a pci slot.They are compatable,SATA runs at 150 trs,IDE
runs at 100 trs.Also most SATA controllers allow for a RAID set up(2 or more
hds),thier are a rare amount of IDE RAID...

 

[Stubby]

I installed a SATA drive about a year ago. You need to load the driver
from a floppy everytime you boot from the Windows CD say to get into the
repair console. Also, you need to select "SCSI" in the boot sequence
to make it work. In actual use, I have had one major crash that seems
to have been caused by a disk error. So, I'm a bit gun shy. I'm now
considering adding a more normal EIDE drive to replace the SATA unit.

 

[Adam]

If you had linux than adding an SATA drive wouldnt be a problem, but I
personally dont like linux, because there seems to be no support for
anything.

 

[Anna]

I would like to install a second (slave) hard drive in my computer. I have
an ATA 60GB HDD right now and am looking at Newegg's offerings. It seems
that IDE, Serial ATA and SATA are the choices. Are the last two the same
thing? Are they all compatible with my existing drive? Here are the stats
for my drive, courtesy of Everest Home Edition:

ATA Device Properties
Active UDMA Transfer Mode UDMA 5 (ATA-100)
Buffer 2 MB (Dual Ported, Read Ahead)
ECC Bytes 74
LBA Sectors 117231408
Max. PIO Transfer Mode PIO 4
Max. UDMA Transfer Mode UDMA 5 (ATA-100)
Model ID WDC WD600BB-00DKA0
Multiple Sectors 16
Parameters 116301 cylinders, 16 heads, 63 sectors per track, 600 bytes per
sector
Revision 77.07W77
Serial Number WD
Unformatted Capacity 67080 MB

ATA Device Features
48-bit LBA Supported
Advanced Power Management Not Supported
Automatic Acoustic Management Supported
Device Configuration Overlay Supported
Host Protected Area Supported
Power Management Supported
Power-Up In Standby Not Supported
Security Mode Supported
SMART Supported
Write Cache Supported

ATA Device Manufacturer
Company Name Western Digital Corporation
Product Information http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products

T. Waters:
I have the feeling some of the responses you received to your query might be
a trifle confusing to you, so let me add my comments...

The designations, "Serial ATA" and "SATA" refer to the same type of HD.

First of all, you should do a Google search of "sata hard drives" to learn
something about the basics of these drives as they compare with PATA HDs
(such as the 60 GB WD HD presently in your system; the "P" stands for
"parallel"). Also access the SATA-IO organization (http://www.sata-io.org/)
to learn about the latest type of SATA HD known as SATA-IO (commonly
referred to as SATA-II) which has a data transfer rate of 3 Gb/sec as
compared with the 1.5 Gb/sec data transfer rate of the "older-type" SATA
HDs.

PATA & SATA HDs can peacefully coexist with each other. In your situation
the determining factor (in my opinion) as to whether you should add a SATA
(rather than a PATA) HD to your system is whether your motherboard contains
SATA connectors. Virtually all motherboards manufactured over the past three
years or so contain these SATA connectors. It is true that even if your
motherboard does not contain SATA connectors, you can gain SATA capability
by installing SATA controller cards in an available PCI slot. Frankly, my
advice would be *not* to go that route. The cards are an additional expense
and there's little to gain performance-wise from using a SATA HD rather than
a PATA one in your system. And we've encountered some other performance
issues with these cards. On the other hand, if your motherboard does contain
SATA connectors you might want to add a SATA HD. But keep in mind there may
be a driver issue involved here. In many cases the motherboard's SATA
controllers contain "built-in" drivers for the SATA HD so that the
installation of a SATA HD is no more difficult than installing a PATA HD.
However, in many cases you will need a SATA driver (controller) that you
install via a floppy disk. So you should consult your motherboard's user
guide for information on this process should it be needed.

All in all, I would think in your situation you might be best served by
purchasing a PATA HD at this time, especially given the current
extraordinarily low prices of those devices and the fact that from a
price/performance point of view, a SATA HD will not yield any appreciable
advantage for you over a PATA one.
Anna

 

[T. Waters]

T. Waters:
I have the feeling some of the responses you received to your query
might be a trifle confusing to you, so let me add my comments...

The designations, "Serial ATA" and "SATA" refer to the same type of
HD.

First of all, you should do a Google search of "sata hard drives" to
learn something about the basics of these drives as they compare with
PATA HDs (such as the 60 GB WD HD presently in your system; the "P"
stands for "parallel"). Also access the SATA-IO organization
(http://www.sata-io.org/) to learn about the latest type of SATA HD
known as SATA-IO (commonly referred to as SATA-II) which has a data
transfer rate of 3 Gb/sec as compared with the 1.5 Gb/sec data
transfer rate of the "older-type" SATA HDs.

PATA & SATA HDs can peacefully coexist with each other. In your
situation the determining factor (in my opinion) as to whether you
should add a SATA (rather than a PATA) HD to your system is whether
your motherboard contains SATA connectors. Virtually all motherboards
manufactured over the past three years or so contain these SATA
connectors. It is true that even if your motherboard does not contain
SATA connectors, you can gain SATA capability by installing SATA
controller cards in an available PCI slot. Frankly, my advice would
be *not* to go that route. The cards are an additional expense and
there's little to gain performance-wise from using a SATA HD rather
than a PATA one in your system. And we've encountered some other
performance issues with these cards. On the other hand, if your
motherboard does contain SATA connectors you might want to add a SATA
HD. But keep in mind there may be a driver issue involved here. In
many cases the motherboard's SATA controllers contain "built-in"
drivers for the SATA HD so that the installation of a SATA HD is no
more difficult than installing a PATA HD. However, in many cases you
will need a SATA driver (controller) that you install via a floppy
disk. So you should consult your motherboard's user guide for
information on this process should it be needed.

All in all, I would think in your situation you might be best served
by purchasing a PATA HD at this time, especially given the current
extraordinarily low prices of those devices and the fact that from a
price/performance point of view, a SATA HD will not yield any
appreciable advantage for you over a PATA one.
Anna

Thank you, Anna. I was becoming concerned that nobody would answer my
question! I will bypass the SATA drives and go with PATA. This newsgroup
comes through for me once again!