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ATA133 on ATA66 bus

me hate windows

me hate windows

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 18, 2002
420
0
This is kind of a stupid question, but I am confused.:D
I want to purchase an 80gig ATA133 hard drive. But my ATA bus runs at 66.
Would the drive work? If it did, would it just be slower? I will get a PCI controller later, but I want to get the drive now.

So my quesion is: will an ATA133 hard drive work on a ATA66 bus?

Thanks in advance:)
 
Catfish_Man

Catfish_Man

macrumors 68030
Sep 13, 2001
2,579
2
Portland, OR
As far as I know...

...it will work at ATA66 speeds.

[disclaimer] I don't know all that much about hard drives, so I'm not sure about this.[/disclaimer]
 
AlphaTech

AlphaTech

macrumors 601
Oct 4, 2001
4,556
0
Natick, MA
Hard drives are backwards compatible. You could use an ATA133 drive all the way down to an ATA33 bus. You won't get as good of performance that you would see from a higher ATA interface speed. You might want to pick up an ATA100 or ATA133 PCI card to get the best speed from the drive though. There are several makers out there. With a little research, you should be able to find more then a few.
 
me hate windows

me hate windows

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 18, 2002
420
0
Originally posted by AlphaTech
Hard drives are backwards compatible. You could use an ATA133 drive all the way down to an ATA33 bus. You won't get as good of performance that you would see from a higher ATA interface speed. You might want to pick up an ATA100 or ATA133 PCI card to get the best speed from the drive though. There are several makers out there. With a little research, you should be able to find more then a few.
Click to expand...

I am going to get a 133 card, but I only have money for the drive right now.



Thanks for the help guys
 
AlphaTech

AlphaTech

macrumors 601
Oct 4, 2001
4,556
0
Natick, MA
Originally posted by me hate windows
I am going to get a 133 card, but I only have money for the drive right now.
Click to expand...

The drive will be usable. When you get the ATA133 card, you should notice a performance increase (depending on what you will be using the drive as). Especially if you are booting from that drive.
 
arn

arn

macrumors god
Staff member
Apr 9, 2001
16,363
5,795
Yep... should work as others have stated...

the only thing to note is that drives >120gigs will not be recognized entirely on anything less than ATA133.

It will work - but you will only be able to use 120megs of it.

arn
 
C

Choppaface

macrumors 65816
Jan 22, 2002
1,187
0
SFBA
Originally posted by arn
Yep... should work as others have stated...

the only thing to note is that drives >120gigs will not be recognized entirely on anything less than ATA133.

It will work - but you will only be able to use 120**GIGS*** of it.

arn
Click to expand...

he he ya.....a lot of people were pretty mad when they got the newer 160gb drives and could not use all of it on their ATA100
 
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