I remember back in da day using RLL, MFM, SCSI, IDE, and that was it....I kinda lost touch after that. What is SATA all about? I have been seeing them advertised a lot lately. What is ATA? I haven't seen the term Ultra DMA for a while, why not? What is all this all about? Is my Compaq 5005SR PIII 933 mobo interface IDE ot ATA or what?

SATA is Serial ATA. It's pretty much considered the heir apparent to SCSI. Uses a very narrow cable. My WD 80 gig SATA drive is very quiet and very fast--a lot faster than ATA133 -- takes about 20 seconds (more or less) to completly format the drive. There are some problems because SATA is new -- some Linux versions have trouble seeing the drive and you have to load drivers from a floppy during windows install. The next version of SATA is supposed to up the speed considerably. Don't know about your Compaq.

You have to load drivers from a floppy during windows install Some of the new PC's don't have floppy drives. How would one load the SATA drivers while installing Win XP on a brand new SATA drive? Is it necessary to hve a floppy drive or a second CD-ROM drive for installing Win XP on a new SATA drive?

got to have a floppy for the install of a SATA drive at the very beginning of an XP install...that's the only way i know of..floppy drives are only 10 bucks.. zorki1c said: "takes about 20 seconds (more or less) to completly format the drive." are you sure you didn't mean minutes? because my raptors are fast, but not that fast and how are you formatting? Abit NF7-s 2500+ @ 3200+ 512 Corsair XMS PC3200 128 meg Radeon 9800 Pro 2 X 36 GIG WD Raptors 3+ Mbps cable connection

Serial ATA is here to stay...even with it's reported problems. MSI is pushing and announcing SATA combo drives: http://www6.tomshardware.com/storage/20040709/index.html http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=XA52P&class=osd As far as SATA currently being "a lot faster than ATA133", it's a 133 vs 150 thing. That's all. If it seems much faster, is because of the faster interface or usually because someone built a totally new system and everything is faster. My ATA133/8Mb drive transfers at about 48Mb/sec. A SATA drive would be hard pressed to beat this on my motherboard that limits hdd's to ATA100 spec. I'll buy SATA everything for my next build. I'll also purchase a 64bit processor and pci express. I've built my last low dollar machine and next year I intend to spend the bank's money like a madman. The days of measuring Mhz, Ghz, Mb/sec etc. are nearly over for new rigs. It's all going to boil down to "mine's faaast" and "mine's faaast too". The new board technology may allow SATA to really do 150Mb/sec on a continual basis. I just wouldn't hold my breath while I wait. Skip

You only need the drivers if you want to run a RAID array which SATA drives will do very nicely like their SCSI cousins. I have installed dozens of WD SATA drives in a standalone situation and never installed any drivers.

is ATA 100 and 133 a form of IDE? what is ultra DMA all about too? or did that pretty much become old as it was still new? seems like the term "ultra dma" didn't last long. Than all this ATA crap came out. I just wanna know if I get an ATA HD if it will work in my compaq 5005SR which I think is IDE.