ALL ABOUT HDD

HDD means Hard Disk Drive; They are the secondary storage devices, and they store all the stuffs on our computer. All the programs and our personal documents, photos and recordings are saved here even our OS lies here and when system boots up, the necessary files of OS are loaded in primary memory aka RAM (Random Access Memory). These Hard Disk have evolved over time because there were older and slower hard disk with lower storage capacity.

PATA vs SATA

Here we will know the difference between PATA and SATA hard disk, because they look similar but their technology is a little different.

Both of these are two different versions of Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA). PATA is basically an earlier technology and comes with various limitations. SATA, on the other hand, is a later technology. It is much smaller in size, faster, and more efficient as compared to the PATA.

PATA (Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment)

The term PATA is an acronym for Parallel ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment). Western Digital and Compaq first introduced it in 1986. We used this technology to connect our secondary storage devices like hard drives and optical drives. The maximum transfer speed was 133 MB/s. It was named Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment because it used a parallel ATA interface to connect to the computer. It was previously called Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) and Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics (EIDE), but the term PATA became popular to distinguish it from the newer tech. SATA.

SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment)

The term SATA is an acronym for Serial ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment). It is also a type of bus interface that connects the optical drives, hard discs, etc. SATA is more technically advanced and gives more advantages as compared to PATA. It is newer to PATA much faster. It uses thin cable with 7 pins as compared to PATA that used a flat cable of 40 pins. It has many versions which have been improved over times in terms of speed.

Versions of SATA

SATA I : 1st gen. of SATA with max speed of about 150 MB/s.

SATA II : 2nd gen. of SATA with max speed of about 300 MB/s.

SATA III : 3rd gen. of SATA with mx speed of about 600MB/s.

Hope this article help you in uderstanding the older PATA and newer SATA 😊