ATA vs. SATA compatibility question

Post #318,342 by drook 12/9/09 4:27:26 PM Reply	ATA vs. SATA compatibility question According to lshw, I've got an SATA controller, and and ATA disk. -ide:1 description: IDE interface product: 82801FB/FW (ICH6/ICH6W) SATA Controller vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 1f.2 bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.2 logical name: scsi2 version: 03 width: 32 bits clock: 66MHz capabilities: ide pm bus_master cap_list emulated configuration: driver=ata_piix latency=0 resources: irq:19 ioport:1818(size=8) ioport:1830(size=4) ioport:1820(size=8) ioport:1834(size=4) ioport:14f0(size=16) -disk description: ATA Disk product: SAMSUNG SP0411C/ physical id: 0.0.0 bus info: scsi@2:0.0.0 logical name: /dev/sda version: UU10 serial: S0DAJ10YB26132 size: 37GiB (40GB) capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos configuration: ansiversion=5 signature=7656cf87 Will a disk marked as SATA have the same connectors and be compatible here? -- Drew
Post #318,343 by Another Scott 12/9/09 4:41:11 PM Reply	ATA and SATA are different connectors and interfaces. ATA is a parallel interface. It is similar (identical?) to the IDE (integrated drive electronics) interface. SATA is a serial interface. There are some variations (1.5 Gb/s, 3.0 Gb/s, 6.0 Gb/s (the very latest)) but AFAIK they use the same connectors. There are adapter boxes that will let you use an ATA disk on a SATA connection, but they're different beasts. The Intel controller probably knows how to talk to both. http://en.wikipedia....wiki/Parallel_ATA HTH a little. Cheers, Scott.
Post #318,346 by drook 12/9/09 5:06:19 PM Reply	Guess I need to crack the box open and check No, wait ... when I bought the new box, the disk was not interchangeable with the one in the older box. So this must have the newer interface on it. Oh well, too late anyway. Woot had a factory reconditioned 500G Barracuda for $40. But it's gone now. I need to keep a list of things I need and the specs on them so I can jump on deals. -- Drew
Post #318,358 by scoenye 12/9/09 8:12:55 PM Reply	Power connectors can be different Early SATA PCs did not necessarily have SATA disk power connectors. Older SATA disks could use the stock IDE 4 pin power connectors but the new ones do not. It may still be worth cracking open the box to figure out if an adapter cable is needed.
Post #318,352 by static 12/9/09 5:39:34 PM Reply	This is an area ripe for confusion. ATA and IDE are effectively identical and refer to the practice of moving the drive controller logic to the mass-storage, the reasonably high-level protocol between the drive and the computer and the standard cabling to do it. The cabling was retroactively renamed PATA when SATA was developed. A SATA drive will identify itself as such but this is not much more than information. It still communicates using the ATA protocol and the layer that works with that will not care if the cable is PATA or SATA. Thus the potentially misleading information in your printout. :-) Wade. Q:Is it proper to eat cheeseburgers with your fingers? A:No, the fingers should be eaten separately.

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