What is the difference between PATA and SATA hard disk drives.?  

ATA is advanced technology attachment. PATA or Parallalel ATA, is the old standard for connecting Disk Drives, while SATA is the newer ones. PATA , in comparison with SATA, has
1) Bulky Connectors which could restrict airflow, maximum length is restricted to 18 ".
2) PATA requires 5 V to run against SATA's 250 mV.
3) PATA is slow, with max transfer speed of 133 MBps while SATA is currently at 400 or 500 MBps.

Answered by Aliabbas at 10:14 PM on July 26, 2008

Well Sachin,

ATA is advanced technology attachment. PATA or Parallalel ATA, is the old standard for connecting Disk Drives, while SATA is the newer ones.

The main difference between both type of drives is...
1) PATA has bulky Connectors which could restrict airflow, maximum length is restricted to 18 ".
2) PATA requires 5 V to run against SATA's 250 mV.
3) PATA is slow, with max transfer speed of 133 MBps while SATA is currently at 400 or 500 MBps.

Answered by Bishan Preet at 2:24 AM on July 18, 2008

DMA:Direct Memory Access. A technique for transferring data from main memory to a device without passing it through the CPU. Computers that have DMA channels can transfer data to and from devices much more quickly than computers without a DMA channel. This is useful for making quick backups and for real-time applications. Some expansion boards, such as CD-ROM cards, are capable of accessing the computer�s DMA channel. ...

SATA:Often abbreviated SATA or S-ATA, an evolution of the Parallel ATA physical storage interface. Serial ATA is a serial link -- a single cable with a minimum of four wires creates a point-to-point connection between devices. Transfer rates for Serial ATA begin at 150 MBps and SATA II 300MBps. One of the main design advantages of Serial ATA is that the thinner serial cables facilitate more efficient airflow inside a form factor and also allow for smaller chassis designs.

Answered by Gyan Singh at 7:12 PM on July 16, 2008

DMA:Direct Memory Access. A technique for transferring data from main memory to a device without passing it through the CPU. Computers that have DMA channels can transfer data to and from devices much more quickly than computers without a DMA channel. This is useful for making quick backups and for real-time applications. Some expansion boards, such as CD-ROM cards, are capable of accessing the computer�s DMA channel. ...

SATA:Often abbreviated SATA or S-ATA, an evolution of the Parallel ATA physical storage interface. Serial ATA is a serial link -- a single cable with a minimum of four wires creates a point-to-point connection between devices. Transfer rates for Serial ATA begin at 150 MBps and SATA II 300MBps. One of the main design advantages of Serial ATA is that the thinner serial cables facilitate more efficient airflow inside a form factor and also allow for smaller chassis designs.

Answered by Anju Singh at 6:24 PM on July 16, 2008

DMA:Direct Memory Access. A technique for transferring data from main memory to a device without passing it through the CPU. Computers that have DMA channels can transfer data to and from devices much more quickly than computers without a DMA channel. This is useful for making quick backups and for real-time applications. Some expansion boards, such as CD-ROM cards, are capable of accessing the computer�s DMA channel. ...

SATA:Often abbreviated SATA or S-ATA, an evolution of the Parallel ATA physical storage interface. Serial ATA is a serial link -- a single cable with a minimum of four wires creates a point-to-point connection between devices. Transfer rates for Serial ATA begin at 150 MBps and SATA II 300MBps. One of the main design advantages of Serial ATA is that the thinner serial cables facilitate more efficient airflow inside a form factor and also allow for smaller chassis designs.

Answered by jaivir at 6:28 PM on July 15, 2008

DMA:Direct Memory Access. A technique for transferring data from main memory to a device without passing it through the CPU. Computers that have DMA channels can transfer data to and from devices much more quickly than computers without a DMA channel. This is useful for making quick backups and for real-time applications. Some expansion boards, such as CD-ROM cards, are capable of accessing the computer�s DMA channel. ...

SATA:Often abbreviated SATA or S-ATA, an evolution of the Parallel ATA physical storage interface. Serial ATA is a serial link -- a single cable with a minimum of four wires creates a point-to-point connection between devices. Transfer rates for Serial ATA begin at 150 MBps and SATA II 300MBps. One of the main design advantages of Serial ATA is that the thinner serial cables facilitate more efficient airflow inside a form factor and also allow for smaller chassis designs.

Answered by Nagendra at 7:52 PM on July 13, 2008

. PATA or Parallalel ATA, is the old standard for connecting Disk Drives, while SATA is the newer ones. PATA , in comparison with SATA, has
1) Bulky Connectors which could restrict airflow, maximum length is restricted to 18 ".
2) PATA requires 5 V to run against SATA's 250 mV.
3) PATA is slow, with max transfer speed of 133 MBps while SATA is currently at 400 or 500 MBps.

Answered by priyanka at 10:08 PM on July 04, 2008

ATA is advanced technology attachment. PATA or Parallalel ATA, is the old standard for connecting Disk Drives, while SATA is the newer ones. PATA , in comparison with SATA, has
1) Bulky Connectors which could restrict airflow, maximum length is restricted to 18 ".
2) PATA requires 5 V to run against SATA's 250 mV.
3) PATA is slow, with max transfer speed of 133 MBps while SATA is currently at 400 or 500 MBps.

Answered by banish at 6:56 PM on July 04, 2008

The differences between these 2 devices are as below:

1) Existing parallel ATA (PATA) drives transfer data concurrently on multiple parallel wires within an 80-wire cable. In contrast, SATA drives transfer data at high speeds over a thin 7-wire cable.

2) Serial ATA drives offer several advantages over parallel drives, not the least of which is speed. The maximum data transfer rate (or burst rate) for most parallel drives is 100 to 133 megabytes per second. Whereas Drives using the first generation of the SATA interface can reach 150 MB/s and SATA/300 interface effectively doubling maximum data throughput from 150 MB/s to 300 MB/s.

3) The thin cables SATA drives use also allow cooling air to flow more freely within PC cases, and since you hook up only one drive per SATA connector, there are no jumpers to worry about.

4) Apart from these, ability to remove or add devices while operating (hot swapping) and more reliable operation with tighter data integrity checks are the notable differences between PATA and SATA.

Answered by shaista at 10:56 AM on July 04, 2008

Next-generation hard drives that use the new Serial ATA (SATA) interface are now becoming widely available. Here are the differences:

1) Existing parallel ATA (PATA) drives transfer data concurrently on multiple parallel wires within an 80-wire cable. In contrast, SATA drives transfer data at high speeds over a thin 7-wire cable.

2) Serial ATA drives offer several advantages over parallel drives, not the least of which is speed. The maximum data transfer rate (or burst rate) for most parallel drives is 100 to 133 megabytes per second. Whereas Drives using the first generation of the SATA interface can reach 150 MB/s and SATA/300 interface effectively doubling maximum data throughput from 150 MB/s to 300 MB/s.

3) The thin cables SATA drives use also allow cooling air to flow more freely within PC cases, and since you hook up only one drive per SATA connector, there are no jumpers to worry about.

4) Apart from these, ability to remove or add devices while operating (hot swapping) and more reliable operation with tighter data integrity checks are the notable differences between PATA and SATA.

Answered by A.R.Karthick at 8:56 AM on July 04, 2008