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    Hard drive interfaces

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by lumberbunny, Mar 25, 2006.

  1. lumberbunny

    lumberbunny Notebook Evangelist

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    What's the difference between these hard drive types? ATA, SATA, ATA-6, IDE, etc...

    Also, which of them are intercompatible? That is, can an SATA hard drive be replaced by an ATA or vice versa? More specifically, can an SATA hard drive be put into an ATA external enclosure?

    Thanks
     
    lumberbunny, Mar 25, 2006
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  2. ZaZ

    ZaZ Super Model Super Moderator

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    They are not interchangeable.
     
    ZaZ, Mar 26, 2006
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  3. qwester

    qwester Notebook Virtuoso

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    ATA / ATA-6 / IDE are the same interface and compatible. They a have a Parallel interface, hence PATA.

    SATA is Serial interface

    SATA and PATA are physically different and hence not compatible

    There are very few SATA enclosures. Someone gave a link a few days ago. You can search for it.
     
    qwester, Mar 26, 2006
    #3