Toys arrived - technical help sought

[ciphergoth]

Toys that arrived today:

- Pocket DV cam and 512 Mb flash card (only a toy video camera but will still be fun)
- USB 4-port hub (I was running out of ports)
- DVD +- rewriter (good for backups and for making my own DVDs)
- 120 GB SATA hard drive

(This on top of toys that arrived the other day, viz two DDR mats and PS2 - USB adapter)

The hard drive does not have the connectors I'm used to. I thought that SATA was like any other upgrade to the IDE standard, where the connectors stay the same and the drive and controller talk the best protocol that they both know. Now I have no idea how to plug my new hard drive in, or even how to give it power. Anyone know the story?

Comments

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

SATA: Um, yeah. You need a whole new controller, (purchasable as a separate add-in PCI-card if there's not an integrated controller on your motherboard). You also need a power adapter cable. Have a look at this article (http://www.ata-atapi.com/sata.htm) and this (http://www.serialata.org/) website.

[skx.livejournal.com]

Sata is a new kind of drive interface serial based.

If you want to use it then ideally you'll have a motherboard with the correct sata port on it, or an PCI expansion card which will do the same thing. (Also you'll need the cabling to string the two together).

Sata card and cable costs around 15 quid; A quick google search landed this one from Dabs - you might be better off buying one local though...

[synthclarion.livejournal.com]

SATA requires a supporting motherboard or card, I'm afraid. The data cable is a tiny little jobbie, looks nothing like IDE.

As for power, I haven't a clue.

Which PocketDV cam did you get? I'm in the market for a toy-quality, toy-priced one too...

[lproven.livejournal.com]

No indeed. SATA is Serial ATA; same API, different signalling protocol. No faster today but has more room for growth than parallel ATA, which is just about maxed out at UltraDMA/166 speeds.

You'll need a new disk controller card - or to exchange it for a parallel-ATA drive.

[purplefreakgirl.livejournal.com]

Hello! Remember me? I have no friends on this thing so you've been added to my list whether you like it or not :P
Unless you do really object that is, but im lovely really!!!

[hughe.livejournal.com]

basicaly USB-for-HardDisks.... wouldn't recomend, but it looks like everything is going that way. quite error-prone atm. and as usualy they will continue to push speed on the edge or reliability instead of just improving reliability and then thinking about speed.