IDE Hard Drive

Ide Hard Drive

By Anne Ahira

IDE stands for Integrated Drives Electronics. There is something called Parallel ATA or PATA. This is an interface that is used to connect storage devices to computers. It connects things such as hard discs and Cd ROM drives into pcs and laptops. This technology utilizes AT Attachment standards. IDE is used today as a synonym for ATA . A company called Western Digital developed this ATA technology and is calling it IDE. IDE refers to the connector and the interface but also to the drive controller that is built into the drive, unlike having a separate controller on the computer’s motherboard. IDE was made standard in the mid 1990s and newer versions of this are known as ATA-1.

On early computers there was only one IDE controller that supported two hard drives. This was good enough for most people and it became common practice to have two hard drives installed on home computers.

If you have an older computer and want to increase the hard drive space, you may have just an IDE interface. Serial ATA is the main interface on today’s computers. The bad news is that most hard drive makers have stopped producing IDE drives in large amounts. The IDE drives available today on the market are of a smaller capacity and can be hard to find.

The Seagate Barracude is one of the highest capacity drives available for the older IDE interface. If you want to get the most space on a drive with the IDE interface, this is a good choice. Western Digital has a hard drive that has just half of the capacity of the SATA drives but the performance of this IDE hard drive is good because it has a high data density.

When it is time to install you IDE hard drive there are a couple of things you should do before you insert the drive into your computer. You should be sure to keep the drive in the anti-static cover until you are going to install it. You should wear a grounded wrist strap to protect the IDE hard drive from static discharge. Do not apply any pressure of any kind to your circuit board or on the top of the drive and be sure to turn off the power to the computer before installing. You will need a phillips screwdriver and an drive power cable for your new drive.

Set the jumper on the new IDE drive to Slave and mount it below your primary drive and be sure to use hard drive screws that are available at a computer store. Connect the data cable and then the Master drive to the end the of your IDE cable and then the Slave to the center. To finish, just connect the 4 pin plug to each drive. When you have closed the computer and power it up, it should recognize the new IDE hard drive you just installed.

Compare and review:

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I suggest you check out my other guide on sharp toner and electronic book readers

Here's Ide Hard Drive Selections:

USB 2.0 to IDE 2.5" Hard Disk Drive HDD Aluminum E...	Customer Review: This product was a great purchase. It took me all of 3 minutes to put it together and install the drive. Sure, it's not tough as nails and I wouldn't feel comfortable tossing it around, but it is very functional and a very inexpensive way to turn t... Read More	(53)
Acomdata Samba USB 2.0 3.5-Inch IDE/SATA Hard Driv...	Customer Review: I have bought this to use with couple IDE (PATA) drives that I have from an old computer. I also wanted it to be compatible with SATA for future! $30 is a bit expensive but I couldn't find anything cheaper that can use PATA as well as SATA. The insta... Read More	(67)
USB 2.0 to IDE SATA HDD Hard Drive Converter Cable...	Customer Review: exactly as described, exactly what I was looking for. fast delivery and great price... Read More	(36)
Sabrent SBT-EKU25 Ultra Slim USB 2.0 2.5-inch IDE/...	Customer Review: I bought this to facilitate replacing a hard drive in an older model notebook using Arconis True Image. I didn't need a high quality enclosure, just one that would get the job done while transfer files from my old hard drive to the new one. This encl... Read More	(66)
ineo I-NC05, 3.5-Inch SATA/ IDE Hard Drive Protect...	Customer Review: Great way to store naked hard drives. You can stack them and they keep the dust off the drives. The one problem is it is not waterproof.... Read More	(3)