IDE or ATA

[SlowChemical]

How do I tell which type of hookup my computer uses or is it universal? I have a Compaq that's a few years old and it was top of line at the time...

 

[FireMogle]

IDE = PATA

Unless you are talking about Sata then it all should work find and dandy.

 

[CCW]

Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) and Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) are both a Hard-Disk Drive implementation that puts the controller onto the Drive itself, they are both the same thing.

Craig

 

[NicePants42]

I get the feeling you're talking about Serial ATA (SATA). This is a relatively new technology that even now is not offered on most OEM assembled PCs. IDE is still the standard with most compaqs, dells, etc.

I can tell you with 99% certainty that your compaq does not support SATA. However, you can buy a PCI card that has a SATA controller on it in order to use SATA hard drvies if you want.

As a side note, SATA drives also use different power connectors than IDE drives, so make sure to get the appropriate adapter(s) if you end up buying SATA drive(s).

 

[Quailane]

Your compaq 100% does not use serial ATA. I have one from that time period and top of the line too. Serial ata is rather recent and I doubt many major manufacturers (compaq, dell) are using it. What your compaq has is ata-100 or at least ata-66 if it's any older than mine. I was confused by ATA IDE and UDMA for a while there too.