ATA vs SATA in an internal hard disk?

Question

I am soon to buy a 250GB Seagate hard disk and need to understand the difference between Serial ATA/SATA interface?

Answer 1

Serial ATA and SATA are the same thing, just abbreviated differently. Ther is however, a difference between just ATA and SATA

Serial ATA is a newer technology then just ATA, also reffered to as IDE or PATA (Parallel ATA)

Background on the underlining technology....

Back in the day, serial connections were actually slower then parallel connections because they sent their data in a line.. bit 1 had to arrive first, before bit 2. Thus there was a limit to how many bits you could force thru the line in a given time period. Parallel technology, however side stepped the limitation of serial technology by increasing the number of wires and sending bits of data across multiple wires simultaneously and then re-assembling them in the right order after the fact. Thus bits 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, etc. could ALL arrive at the same time.

Parrallel cables were bulky however..with IDE and CDROM drives requiring 40 wires.


PATA has one major draw back, however, there is a limit to how many devices you can attach to it. You are limited to 2 devices per ATA slot. Motherboards can only address 2 PATA slots, so that limits the number of devices to a maximum of 4 PATA devices per computer.
This is usually fine for Personal computers but not Servers or high end computers which require multiple hard drives.

Fast forward 10 to 15 years and Serial technology has sped up sooo much that it is now actually FASTER then Parrallel technology It is now possible to burst 3 gigabits of data down a small serial cable in a second compared to sending 133 megabits down 40 wires. SATA also has a limitation of 1 device per SATA slot, however the motherboard can handle MORE then just 2 SATA slots, Some motherboards have up to 4 SATA slots and 2 PATA allowing for a total of 8 devices to be connected to a single computer.

Another benefit of SATA is that fewer wires take up less room inside your computer case, allowing air to flow more freely then when wide PATA cables are used, so some computers run slightly cooler using SATA then PATA.

SATA is still considered a 'new' technology as there have only been 3 revisions to the original standard. As the SATA interface matures, newer drives might go even faster.

So to simplify things.. if the Drive says it's SATA or Serial ATA get it.. if it just says ATA, IDE, or PATA, then DON'T get it

Answer 2

Sata Vs Ata

Answer 3

Ata Vs Sata

Answer 4

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RE:
ATA vs SATA in an internal hard disk?
I am soon to buy a 250GB Seagate hard disk and need to understand the difference between Serial ATA/SATA interface?

Answer 5

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PATA, ATA, and IDE are generally synonymous, all referring to the same connector. You are probably thinking of PATA and SATA, which do use two different connectors, but to which you can attach an adapter to convert from one to the other. If your current drive is a PATA drive, and your Seagate drive is also a PATA drive, then it is very easy to swap them out. You can look at the connectors on the backs of the drives to figure out whether they're the same - either you'll see a long connector with a lot of pins (ATA / IDE), or a small one that looks like a thin strip of plastic (SATA). Edit: SATA by virtue of being a much faster interface and supporting some features that IDE does not, for instance, hot-swapping. ATA can transfer data at a max of 133MBps, vs SATA3 at 600MBps.

Answer 6

Sata is much faster than ATA
ATA max transfer is 100mbit/s, compared to Sata 1.5 gbit/s, 3.0 gbit/s respectively