ATA is the standard for connecting hard drives to computers. IDE/PATA is a newer standard for connecting floppy disks and other storage devices to computers.
When you are shopping for a new hard drive, it can sometimes be a bit confusing when similar, or not so similar terminology is all mixed together in the product’s description. With that in mind, today’s SuperUser Q&A post has the answer to a curious reader’s question.
Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites.
Photo courtesy of William Warby (Flickr).
The Question
SuperUser reader learnprogramming wants to know if ATA is the same as IDE/PATA or SATA:
Is ATA the same as IDE/PATA or SATA?
Drive interface: Serial ATA, Revision 2. 6 / ATA-8
I know that SATA uses a SATA interface and ATA uses an IDE interface, but why is it using different “terms” in the same sentence? An HDD has either a SATA interface or an IDE interface, but not both at the same time.
The Answer
SuperUser contributor Mokubai has the answer for us:
Have something to add to the explanation? Sound off in the comments. Want to read more answers from other tech-savvy Stack Exchange users? Check out the full discussion thread here.
To be clear, IDE defined that a hard drive should have Integrated Device Electronics (I.e. a controller) onboard and communication with the host should be done according to the ATA specifications. While IDE and ATA are very closely related, they are not the same thing.
IDE has been reverse-acronymed as PATA since the interface was a parallel connection using the ATA standard. SATA is a Serial ATA connection.
