Can anyone with the WD MyBook Essential 500GB external drive tell me if the hard drive inside the case uses a SATA or IDE interface? Thanks. Yes, I've googled it and couldn't find a thing. My Super P3: Pentium III-S 1.4GHz @ 1.58GHz, 512K L2 X800XT All-in-wonder, overclocked to 580/600. 250GB HD 2 gigs of PC2100 RAM QDI Advance 12 mobo, this baby rocks! SB Audigy 2

What is in the enclosure is essentially an IDE drive, but as opposed to being PATA, it is a 7200 RPM/16MB SATA Caviar from WD. "Both SATA and PATA drives are IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) drives, although IDE is often misused to indicate PATA drives."

Great! Thanks for that and the link to wikipedia. I learned something new. :) So now I can buy the thing, tear the drive out, and use it as an internal SATA drive (surprisingly cheaper than an internal 500 gig drive)! My Super P3: Pentium III-S 1.4GHz @ 1.58GHz, 512K L2 X800XT All-in-wonder, overclocked to 580/600. 250GB HD 2 gigs of PC2100 RAM QDI Advance 12 mobo, this baby rocks! SB Audigy 2