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Please explain the different type of HDDs

Discussion in 'PC hardware help' started by LufianGuy, Oct 19, 2007.

  1. LufianGuy

    LufianGuy Regular member

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    So I have only ever worked with ATA IDE HDDs, my comp was built in 2002.

    I have a 250GB slave and a 80GB Master.

    I plan to be storing lots of anime and video games on my comp, so I think I need to buy bigger HDDs.

    The bigger HDDs seem to be cheaper if they are SATA and I don't know what PATA is.

    How do I know what is compatible with my Mobo and what is not?

    What are the differences between the types?

    How do they work? What do they need to work?

    Links are welcome too
     
    Last edited: Oct 19, 2007
  2. BigDK

    BigDK Regular member

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    Chances are that you won't be able to use SATA drives, if the machine is over few years old, or is a pre-build of low budget.

    The main difference in SATA and PATA is the way they connect to the PC, they use different power and data cables so they can not be just swapped over, you would need to use a SATA on a seperate connector if one was available on the PC.

    Another option would be to just but a SATA PCI controller card and connect to that, if your PC does not natively support SATA, or use an external drive.

    If you do go for a PCI card, then get a SATA 300 or SATA 2 card (both the same thing by the way) as SATA drives come in both SATA 1 (150) and SATA 2 (300) and most newer drives will be SATA 2, and although backwards compatible to controller ports, you may as well get the better one.

    If you post the motherboard details, or at least the PC make and full model number, then it will be easy enough to see if you do have support already.
     
  3. LufianGuy

    LufianGuy Regular member

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  4. BigDK

    BigDK Regular member

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    That link doesn't work without the cookies on my PC.
     
  5. LufianGuy

    LufianGuy Regular member

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  6. BigDK

    BigDK Regular member

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    Your PC won't take SATA drives directly on the motherboard.

    Your options are to use either a bigger ide drive (bios limitations dependant possibly) or use either the external drive via firewire or usb, or add a sata controller card and connect a sata drive to that.

     
  7. LufianGuy

    LufianGuy Regular member

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    Thank you for your time and advice, it is greatly appreciated!
     

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