Types of Drives

SATA Drives

Serial Advanced Technology Attachment

What is SATA?

It is an IDE standard for connecting devices like optical drives and hard drives to the motherboard. The term SATA generally refers to the types of cables and connections that follow this standard.

Further Information

SATA replaces PATA as the IDE standard of choice for connecting storage devices inside of a computer. SATA storage devices can transmit data to and from the rest of the computer over twice as fast as an otherwise similar PATA device.

Features

· Long & Thin cable

· 7-pins

· One end plugs to the motherboard

· Other end plugs back of a hard drive

· 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 Drives

Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment

What is PATA?

It is an IDE standard for connecting storage devices like hard drives and optical drives to the motherboard. PATA generally refers to the types of cables and connections that follow this standard.

Further Information

PATA was originally named as before the newer Serial ATA (SATA) standard came into being.

Features

· Long & Flat cables

· 40-pins or 80-pins

· One end plugs to the motherboard (IDE - Integrated drive electronic)

· Other end plugs back to the hard drive

· Additional plug that connect to another storage device.

· Data is sent 16 bits at a time through a single 16-bit connection that is used for data traveling in both directions.

Advantages & Disadvantages Between SATA & PATA

· SATA is the current standard while PATA is already obsolete

· SATA is much faster than PATA

· SATA is equipped with NCQ while PATA isn’t

· SATA drives are hot pluggable while PATA drives are not

· SATA provides an external interface while PATA does not

· SATA uses smaller cables than PATA

· PATA uses a slave/master arrangement while SATA does not

SCSI Drives

Small Computer System Interface

What is SCSI?

it is a type of a local bus type that connects to storage and other devices in a PC. Generally, it refers to the types of cables and ports used to connect certain types of hard drives, optical drives, scanners, and other devices to a computer.

Further Information

SCSI interfaces can be used internally to connect these types of hardware devices directly to a motherboard or storage controller card. External connections are also common for SCSI and typically connect via an external port on a storage controller card.

Features

· Allows up to 5 mb per sec. data transfer rate.

· 220/330 Ohms For lower data transfer rates