Do I need a controller card to run an ATA hard rive?

[Bedlamite]

Greetings,

What do ATA and IDE stand for? Do I need a controller card to run an ATA hard rive? Or do I just use an ATA cable? Thanks

Sorry I?m new.

 

[Moonbeam]

How about what drive is it and what are you going to run it on. The ata 100 controler, for example is only necessary if you want to run ata 100 on a board that does not have an ata 100 controler built in. Seems like mine was blue.

 

[Bedlamite]

It?s going into an old gateway 450. I would think there is no ATA built in? How much should I pay for a controller card? What if I get an external box that supports ATA and uses USB2 for transfer?

That might be the best thing for me, cuz i used all my IDE slots?

 

[ku]

tell us what drive. If the drive is ATA100 or higher, your motherboard probably doesn't support it, but look it up anyways. Then you would need to get a new controller card to run it at ATA100 but it's prolly not worth the money. You'll barely be able to tell the difference between ATA100 and ATA66 or even ATA33.

 

[Moonbeam]

OK, I'm not a big expert here, but I seem to be here, so I'll help as best I can. ATA and IDE are different but kinda the same. I don't know the technical details. I know there are a couple of four or more modes that drives run under PIO this and that. Then there is ATA 33 66 100 and now 133. When you say ATA card and then say you need all your IDE slots, I think you may be confusing IDE with ISA or PCI. The ISA and PCI slots are long black ones and shorter white ones respectively and a card goes into them and sticks out the back of your computer to attach something to. Your hard drive goes in a little socket on the motherboard usually next to where the floppy attaches and a ribbon from the hard drive goes in there. Those hard drive sockets can be up to ATA 66 or on newer machines can be 100 or 133 as well as anything below. It sounds like you want to add a drive to an existing old machine. To use USB2 you will also have to buy a USB2 card which will need to go into a PCI slot. Do you have any of those with no card in them?

 

[oldfart]

Your Gateway 450 has (2) ATA33 controllers built in. You can run up to 4 drives total. You dont need to buy a controller card.

 

[Bedlamite]

Thanks everyone,

Can I run an ATA100 HD on my Gateway (that has ATA33) I know this will be slower but will it run at all? I?m looking to get a WD1200BB, or 120GB Deskstar. I might just use an external box for the HD with USB2. and try swapping one of my PCIs out for the USB2 card...
bad idea?

?I think you may be confusing IDE with ISA or PCI?
Thanks: oops typo

 

[oldfart]

For that drive, I'd put a good ATA100 controller card. For one, it will be faster, also, your motherboard may not recognize that big a hard drive properly. The cards are not expensive. Be sure to get an 80 wire IDE cable to go with it if the drive didn't come with one.

 

[Bedlamite]

Just out of curiosity, you said to get an 80 wire IDE; do they make a 100 IDE that would be better? And what does the 80 and 100 mean? 80MB a second?

Thanks again!

 

[AndyHui]

Please read the FAQs:

Hard drive interfaces and standards

Are ATAxx hard drives compatible with other ATAxx standards?

 

[oldfart]

I said to get an a 80 wire IDE cable.

 

[sandorski]

An ATA100 drive will run fine on your controller, although it will only run at ATA33 speeds. One issue you may have however, is whether the BIOS can recognize/use all the space on your hard drive. Check the hard drive manufacturer's website for utilitues that allow large drives to be used.