Can I mix SATA and an ATA/IDE HDD in the same machine?

[MaxDSP]

The mobos Im working on have 2 sata connectors and 1 IDE connector, which is used by the CDROM. If I was to remove the CD-ROM, can I plug in an IDE hdd and use the sata as the primary and the ide as the secondary? Would it cause any system problems/conflicts?

 

[CalvinHobbes]

Yep, it's fine to mix them.

 

[Zucarita9000]

Yes, you can.

However, some motherboard are a PITA when using SATA and PATA together, as they'll try to boot from the PATA drive no matter what boot order you set.

 

[corkyg]

No problem. I have two ATA ports and two SATA ports. I have 4 IDE devices and 1 SATA, plus several Firewire and USB externals. They all get along just fine in any combination.

My primary IDE port serves a Romtec Trios II system which lets me select from 3 IDE HDDs.

The secondary IDE port has DVD-ROM and LS-240 drive. The SATA1 port has an 80 GB HDD that serves as the data drive for all the rest.

 

[MaxDSP]

Dang, didnt get to try the combo, I was able to replace the faulty part in the original system. At least I know they're compatible in case I run into it again in the future.

Another question, does each mobo SATA port support 1 device per port, or can you use 2 devices on 1 sata channel/port (master/slave)?

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: MaxDSP
Dang, didnt get to try the combo, I was able to replace the faulty part in the original system. At least I know they're compatible in case I run into it again in the future.

Another question, does each mobo SATA port support 1 device per port, or can you use 2 devices on 1 sata channel/port (master/slave)?

Only one device/port. There is no 'master/slave' concept with SATA -- it's a direct, independent connection to each device (similar to PCI Express compared with legacy PCI).