|
Serial ATA hard drives are also referred to as SATA hard drives.
System requirements
- Serial ATA (SATA) compatible logic on the motherboard or on a SATA adapter card
- SATA compatible BIOS
- SATA-aware device driver for the operating system
- Generation 1 or Generation 2 SATA device such as a hard drive
- SATA data cable
- SATA power cable
How to install a Serial ATA hard drive
Use the following steps to install a SATA hard drive.
| Note |
You should always carefully follow any instructions that come from the hard drive manufacturer. | |
- Attach either end of the data cable to the connector (A) on the motherboard.
- Attach the other end of the cable (B) to the connector on the SATA hard drive.
- Attach the power cable to the connector on the SATA hard drive.
Serial ATA data cables
SATA data cables are 7-pin cables. Either end of the SATA data cable can be connected to the SATA hard drive or the connector on the motherboard. SATA data cables can be up to 1 meter (39 inches) in length. The following illustration shows an example of a SATA data cable.
Serial ATA power cables
SATA power cables are usually 4 or 5-pin cables with 15-pin connectors. They use an IDE/ATAPI to SATA power adaptor. One end of the SATA power cable has a typical 4-pin IDE/ATAPI power connector that gets connected to an unused power cable from the power supply. The other end has a 15-pin connector that gets connected to the SATA hard drive. The following illustration shows an example of a SATA power cable:
Can I mix and match SATA and IDE hard drives?
If your motherboard provides both IDE and SATA connections, you can use both SATA and IDE hard drives in the system. However, SATA hard drives use different data and power cables than IDE hard drives.
This applies to:
| 
