Do I Have a SATA Harddisk Or PATA?

[BALLARI]

Hello To All , My Question Can be Really Simple I want Know What is the difference Between the Sata Harddisk and Pata Harddisk and Also Want to know how to identify Them As I do not what Harddisk is installed in my Pc and I Want yo Upgrade my Hardisk and which i Cannot Do Without Knowint the type of Hardidk Install in my system , and For your information I have Both Windows XP and Vista installed in my System please. Thank you in advance For your Replies

[RoninBlade]

The SATA hard disc is serial hard disc which is the latest one and much fater than the PATA har disc which is parallel hard disc. SATA hard disk transfers data at a maximum of 3gb/s but PATA is much slower. The size of the cables also differs. SATA has thin cables where PATA has large cables. so it would be convinent to manage cables in your system.

[deoWo]

PATA cables are large and bulky and can easily restrict airflow. With the onslaught of better and faster devices, computers continue to generate more heat and this can cause many problems including complete computer failure. PATA cables are 40 wires wide and they block precious space, which can restrict airflow greatly. SATA cables are only 7 pins wide and, with their longer maximum length, can be easily routed to not restrict any airflow at all. The change to serial transfer is what allows the cable to be so thin, only two data channels are required, one for sending and one for receiving data. Parallel cables use multiple wires for both sending and receiving and this technology uses a total of 26 wires for data transfer.

[Rawko]

SATA or Serial ATA is a computer bus technology primarily designed for transfer of data to and from a hard disk. It is the successor to the legacy AT Attachment standard (ATA). SATA is the next-generation internal storage interconnect, designed to replace parallel ATA technology. SATA is the proactive evolution of the ATA interface from a parallel bus to a serial bus architecture. This architecture overcomes the electrical constraints that are increasing the difficulty of continued speed enhancements for the classic parallel ATA bus while PATA or Parallel ATA is the primary internal storage interconnect for the desktop, connecting the host system to peripherals such as hard drives, optical drives, and removable magnetic media devices.

[T.J.]

Check this image You Will Know the difference

A simple, you open the Cabinet and you look at the connectors.
Top => pata, bottom => sata.

SATA is MORE than a different kind of connector. A good analogy is: ATA is to SATA as PARALLEL port is to USB. SATA is specifically a SERIAL (i.e. bit-at-a-time) interface for connecting hard drives to a controller. It was designed as a replacement for ATA and was intended to provide better performance at a lower cost for drives, connectors, cabling, and controllers than ATA. Since the cabling is thinner is also is purported to improve airflow and therefore cooling inside a PC case.

[raphaelriv]

Check this image You Will Know the difference

A simple, you open the Cabinet and you look at the connectors.
Top => pata, bottom => sata.

SATA is MORE than a different kind of connector. A good analogy is: ATA is to SATA as PARALLEL port is to USB. SATA is specifically a SERIAL (i.e. bit-at-a-time) interface for connecting hard drives to a controller. It was designed as a replacement for ATA and was intended to provide better performance at a lower cost for drives, connectors, cabling, and controllers than ATA. Since the cabling is thinner is also is purported to improve airflow and therefore cooling inside a PC case.

that PATA picture looks like an IDE, are both the same?