ATA vs SATA

[henthorn]

I am new and don't know the difference between SATA abd ATA, Can a SATA device be plugged into an ATA socket?

[leprechaun_40]

Not without an adapter. They are different interfaces and have different controllers and connections Even the power connection is different from a standard molex.

[henthorn]

Thanks for the reply.

[Sterling_Aug]

ATA is also called IDE or EIDE.
SATA or SATA2 are the newer style drives and they are not compatible with the IDE drives.

If your computer is more than a few years old, then you may only have IDE controllers on it. If it is newer then you should be able to use either style hard drive.

[henthorn]

My new motherboard, ASUS p4s800D-X, userguide says this, "The motherboard supports two interfaces compliant to the Serial ATA (SATA) specification, an evolutionary replacement of the Parallel ATA storage interface." I guess that is why neophytes are confused. People in the know use the term ATA in two ways. I just bought a new DVD burner and got the IDE model because I was led to believe that SATA was newer than ATA. I do have SATA plugs in my computer. I guess, and didn't realize that there are two kinds of ATA.

[Peter M]

There aren't.

ATA is the name of the specification - and this specification defines two interfaces, IDE and SATA.

The SATA specification has spun off meanwhile.

The confusion exists because nobody bothers use the right terms for stuff.