Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
SATA and PATA are two different and incompatible disk drive interfaces. PATA's the old guard, but SATA's taking over. I'll look at the differences.
This “SATA” stuff is new to me. What does it mean? It's something about hard disk drives, I know, but I don't understand what. I went to get a new hard drive for my machine and the one that I wanted was SATA. But when I told the salesperson what computer I had, he said I didn't want it and instead, I needed something called PATA or IDE? I'm very confused.
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Well, one part of this is easy: IDE and PATA are two names for the same thing.
The rest - well, the easy part is that SATA and PATA are two different ways of connecting a hard drive to your computer. Your computer will have one or the other and what you purchase must, in general, match.
When we go further, however, things start to get a little complex.
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The Interface
SATA and PATA (aka IDE) are two different disk drive interfaces. By that I mean that the physical and electrical connection to a hard drive will use either a SATA or a PATA interface.
3.5 inch SATA (left) and PATA/IDE (right) drives
The picture above shows the physical difference: the SATA drive on the left is a pair of flat connectors - the larger one for power, then the smaller one for data. The PATA drive on the right uses the larger connector full of pins for data and the four-prong connector on the right for power.
SATA is an acronym for Serial Advanced Technology Attachment, often shortened to Serial ATA. Serial refers to the fact that data is sent one bit at a time down a single connection in each direction. There's a separate connection for data going into and out from the device.
PATA is an acronym for Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment, often shortened to Parallel ATA. Parallel refers to the fact that data is sent 16 bits at a time through a single 16-bit connection that is used for data traveling in both directions.
While it might seem faster to send 16 bits at a time, the PATA actually transfers data more slowly for a variety of reasons. Current PATA interfaces can transfer at up to 133 megabytes per second, where as SATA interfaces can transmit up to 150, 300, or 600 megabytes per second depending on the version of the interface being used.
The History
PATA is the older interface. Originally known as IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics), it was the connection of choice not only for hard disks, but for floppy and optical (CD/DVD) disk drives as well.
In recent years, the PATA interface has been slowly disappearing. Most new machines today come with SATA hard disk drives and may use a PATA interface only for the optical drive. As expected, optical drives are now also becoming available with SATA interfaces, so we could soon see the end of the PATA interface completely.
Compatibility
As for compatibility, there is none. SATA and PATA drives are completely incompatible at the interface. They can certainly co-exist in a machine but only if that machine has both SATA and PATA interfaces.
If a computer has only one of the two styles of interface, then only drives compatible with that interface can be used.
What it all means
In practical terms, what this really means is simply that you need to know what you have when you replace a drive or get drive-related equipment.
When replacing the drive in your computer, you must know whether your computer uses a PATA or SATA interface and make sure to get a replacement that uses the same.
If you decide to take a hard drive and put it into an external disk enclosure, you'll need to know whether it's a PATA or SATA drive and get a compatible enclosure. It's not the actual enclosure that's different, but the small amount of circuitry included that physically connects to the drive to provide the USB interface.
Article C4968 - October 28, 2011 « »
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
November 2, 2011 12:11 AM
My 6-year old Dell Dimension 9100 has two EIDE drives using RAID to get a grand total of ~30Gb. When I bought it, I figured I'd never fill them, but now I'm getting close. I've been thinking about replacing them with a single larger (1Tb?) drive, but most of what I see available are SATA drives. Apparently they're faster and I think I still have an open PCI slot. Do you think switching the drive to SATA with an appropriate interface, would be a good idea? I'm also wondering if these drives are nearing the end of their lives. If one goes, all data is lost - except for the images on external USB drives.
02-Nov-2011
November 2, 2011 12:15 AM
After proofreading and hitting "submit," I didn't notice until posted - I now have slightly >300Gb; not 30Gb. Sorry!
November 2, 2011 4:55 AM
Very good description.
Thanks !
November 3, 2011 4:14 PM
Isn't that a SCSI drive on the right?
03-Nov-2011
November 4, 2011 8:06 PM
Actually, they do sell adapters to change IDE to SATA and viceversa. Small PCB with IDE interface on one side and SATA on the other. Both for desktop and notebook computer drives. I carry one with me.