Will I Need to Buy an ATA 100 Card?

[QueHuong]

I just bought the Western Digital 160GB which uses the ATA 100 serial interface. I have an old Slot A Athlon motherboard (Asus KX3 or something like that) and I think it has an ATA 66 interface. I'm not concerned with running at ATA 100's speed, all I really want to do is just install the hard drive and use it to store data. So can I connect it to my computer from right out of the box or will I have to buy an ATA100 card?

 

[PlasticJesus]

It will work for you right out of the box.

 

[LTC8K6]

I concur.

However if you have any trouble, remember that you can use WD's tools to force the drive to run at ATA33 or 66 if necessary.

 

[AluminumStudios]

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I have a question in addition to the original.

What is needed to support ATA drives over 137 gigs? I've heard varying things about older motherboards built in IDE controllers not supporting over 137 gigs and know that some of the first drives above this size from Maxtor came with an ATA100 controller.

I've upgraded some older P4 and Athlon systems with 120 gig drives, but haven't gone larger yet.

 

[Sid59]

137 gig limit is from 2 things

1. bios. either flash to a newer bios that supports larger hard drives or use a CONTROLLER CARD
2. the OS limits the size. In XP, you gotta enable a setting, this is usually done with SP1
2a. you can also go to the hdd maker and they usually have a dl that will edit the registry to add large hdd support.