IDE vs ATA

[insomniac321123]

What is the difference between IDE and ATA hard drives? Are they interchangeable in external enclosures?

 

[flopticalcube]

They are the same thing except for serial ATA.

 

[insomniac321123]

So PATA, IDE, EIDE, those are basically the same? They will all work in the same enclosure. What is the performance difference between SATA and IDE?

 

[sushi]

Just to add...

Serial ATA is referred to as SATA.

IDE/ATA has now become referred to as PATA, or Parallel ATA.

 

[janey]

So PATA, IDE, EIDE, those are basically the same? They will all work in the same enclosure. What is the performance difference between SATA and IDE?

different name, essentially same thing.

as for performance differences, it depends on which SATA and which IDE you're talking about. And it sort of depends on your entire setup in general. for enclosures though, do you honestly care about nitpicking performance?

 

[insomniac321123]

Thanks for the quick answers. I was just trying to clear it up in my mind.

 

[mkrishnan]

If you're buying a new external drive, get SATA, merely because there're more things you can do with the drive later (i.e. put it in as an internal on another computer, etc). Almost all new computers use SATA now, so you might as well, also, unless you're saving rather a lot of money on the PATA drive.