Hi, I just purchased a 160GB pata (ide) hard disk today. I had hoped to use my older 40GB HD till it would die on me, but it was just impossible to continue with only 40GB anymore. Whenever I have to buy hardware I find it extremely confusing to decide. I had thought that the best would be if my next HD was a sata2 high capacity hard disk. Obviously, this would be with my new computer. My m/b is already 3 years old, and it is going strong. But I was wondering if the motherboars available within the next year will offer pata slots for me to connect my hard disk? Suppose I need to buy a new motherboard after 2 years, will the motherboars then also support atleast one slot for my pata hard disk? Or will I have to get a new hard disk of sata type? It would be nice to read your opinions if you have any. Thanks very much, Sarosh. Sarosh

If you do get a motherboard at some time in the future that only has a SATA interface you can get adaptors to connect to PATA drive to a SATA interface. http://www.cooldrives.com/sata-adapters.html Having said that, I think PATA/IDE interfaces are going to around for a while to come yet. It doesn't take much to include and IDE interface on the motherboard as all the complicated electronics are on the hard disk itself. Alternatively you could get a IDE/USB enclosure and use it as an external drive. http://www.xpcgear.com/enclosures.html Stuart

It's difficult to say when, but eventually, boards will be SATA only. The vast majority of optical drives still use the PATA interface & there doesn't seem to be a big push to switch them over to SATA, so I'd say you'll be safe for a while. I realize that where you're from, hardware is more difficult to come by & more expensive. Here in the US, 160GB HDDs (PATA or SATA) are regularly on sale for less than $40 after rebates, so making the switch will be no big deal. I'm sticking with my PATA until SATA really has a substantial performance advantage. When the time comes, you can always pop your IDE HDD into an external box & connect via USB.

Just to round out your options, you can also add an ATA 100/133 PCI Controller Card if the mothherboard doesn't have a an IDE controller port such as this one for $20 ..... http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1070704&CatId=508 In any event, you needn't concern yourself because there are a lot of options. I - Sandor J Knowledge is the treasure, but judgment is the treasurer of the wise man. - William Penn (1614 - 1718)

I wouldn't worry about it. Drive sizes are growing exponentially. It probably won't be very many years before your 160gb drive will be too small to bother with. :-) Sorry, I do not check for private messages

Good point Sandor...I forgot about that option

Hi, Thansk to all. I have always found this forum extremely helpful. I am glad to know that I have many future options to keep using this HD. I think you are also right that 160GB may be less in a few years time. I had hoped to use my 40GB hard disk for as long as it lasts, but that was simply impossible and windows would keep warning me about low disk space in all the partitions. I am also glad to see that seagate has offered 5 years warrenty. That is some good news. Does anyone here have any experience with seagate warrenty issues? The serial no of my HD is ST3160021A. I read on the HD itself that its 7200RPM. But does anyone know how much buffer memory this HD has? I tried a google search, but I got some results with 2MB and some with 8MB. Sarosh