ATA-5 versus ATA-6

Jeffrey:

Since ATA-6 is backwards compatible you'll be fine either way.

Good luck.

cornelius

Jeffrey,

No, all modern 2.5" HDs are ATA-6 and compatible with the black G3 powerbooks.

If curious, here is a list of drives offered by OWC:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/2.5-Notebook/

jpl:

all modern 2.5" HDs are ATA-6 and compatible with the black G3 powerbooks.

Just a point of interest: how inclusive is that "all"? Does that include serial IDE drives etc.?

cornelius

PS: Back in WI after a wonderful month in India.

Cornelius,

Welcome back! That was quite a long visit in India. Hope it was safe, healthy, and enjoyable.

I did not mean to jump on your thread. When I posted, no one had replied, yet there is a 30 minute difference between our posting times, so I don't what the problem is.

The faster Serial ATA (SATA) drives do not have the ATAxxx interface speed rating; as of today, they are rated at 150MBps throughput. These are the drives used in the new Intel Macs. Possibly in the future a faster interface for SATA drives may have a name like Serial/Ultra ATA.

The older Parallel ATA (PATA) drives do have the ATA-5/6 or ATA-66/100/133 speed rating and are the drives used in the non-Intel Macs. So I hope when I said ATA-6 for example, the person will know the correct drive to buy.

So the answer to your question...

"how inclusive is that "all"? Does that include serial IDE drives etc.?"

...would be no; Serial ATA (SATA) are not compatible with the black G3s. In addition, my statement "all modern 2.5" HDs are ATA-6" is just plain wrong; a better wording would have been "all modern PATA 2.5" HDs are ATA-6 (or ATA-133) and are compatible with the black G3s." Thank you for pointing that out (and it still may need correcting!).

I am starting to see ATA/IDE replaced by the name PATA in an effort to have a little more order in differentiating the various drives. Nonetheless, you will undoubtedly see SATA drives being ordered for a PATA drive bay.

Hi jpl,

Not meaning to intrude, but your post seems to suggest that serial and parallel ATA drives are sorta compatible. Well, I've had no experience of notebook versions of SATA drives (I've used a MacBook Pro, if that helps), but the interface for SATA and PATA drives in desktops is completely different - PATA uses a wide ribbon, whereas SATA runs through a small plug, which are in no way interchangeable. I'd expect that the same kind of connectors have been ported to notebooks, as the laptop versions are just small desktop drives - the 40-pin IDE interface of a standard 3.5" drive has been shrunk to a 44-pin interface, with the wide connector sorting both data and power. I've seen photos of the MBP hard drive, and I think (although unclear) that the small plug interface has been ported onto these kinds of drives.

So, in a nutshell, serial drives are completely incompatible on every level right down to the interface. However, I agree than practically all ATA-6 drives are ATA-5 compliant (although my Hitachi TravelStar IC25N030ARCS04-0 (phew) drive really doesn't like my Pismo, or vice versa). PATA drives have gone the way of the Ni-Cad battery, steam engines and DOS because they're slow and basically obsolete. SATA is far faster and is much better at RAID, but it's more expensive, naturally.

Hope this helps, and adios,
Rob

P.S. The faster SATA interface is named SATA-II and offers either 1.5 or 3Gb/sec - I should know, since my Windows rig has it, but I don't have any SATA drives, so I have no idea what performance is like. Also, please excuse any spelling mistaakes - my Pismo's in the middle of a hard drive clone and I'm typing on the unclipped keyboard.

Rob,

Thanks for the comments. I was hoping to make clear the SATA and PATA drives were not compatible but maybe I was not successful. I did mention the SATA drives were used in the new Intel Macs and not compatible with the black G3 powerbooks but I guess I should also mention in the future the cables are entirely different. I did not know about the SATA-II protocol so I have a little boning up to do.

jpl:

I was not complaining about jumping on the thread, nor questioning what you said. I have always had some questions about the difference between ATA and SATA HDDs. You answered my question.

Thanks.

cornelius

PS: We were in Kerala and Bombay (landed in Bombay at the time the bombings were happening, but did not find out about it until we were on the way in a cab) meeting and getting to know our one of sons-in-law's family. It was all great! and the bombings were big in the headlines, but life in Bombay paid hardly any notice.

Cornelius,

I know you were not complaining but I thought you were due an explanation.

I was going to ask about the Bombay bombings but did not realize how close you were to the event. It is curious how humans can quickly adapt to new and/or dangerous circumstances. As you say, Bombay hardly flinched and their stock market was up 3% the next day.

jpl:

Thanks for the explanation, but it is completely unnecessary.

In terms of the Bombay bombings, most people are so preoccupied with the business of staying alive amid difficult circumstances that news events are more esoteric than of the substance of their lives. The people I talked with explain it by saying, "it's all politics."

Cheers.

cornelius

I just up graded my pismo with a ATA-7. I installed a dictionary program and it seams to have vanished. Does anyone know if this ATA-7 is compatible with the pismo, or was just some fluke?

Thank you.

I didn't know there was an ATA-7. I was told that Pismo needed ATA-5. I bought an upgrade, a Toshiba, that specifically stated ATA-6, but compatible with 5 (and lower). So if you look at the docs, and it is backwards compatible, it is probably fine (but I don't know what happened to that file).

Marco:

Welcome to Apple Discussions.

ATA-7 standard issued in 2005, is expected to be the last upgrade as it is being superceded by SATA drives. These drives are backwards compatible with preceding versions. However, be sure it is ATA standard or IDE not Serial ATA, as the G3 PBs do not support it.

In terms of your particular issue, it may not have to do with compatibility, but may have some other cause. Were you able to format it Mac OS Extended? Does your computer recognize it? Were you able to install to it? Apart from the particular issue you mentioned, do you have any other problems with it?

Good luck.

cornelius

Thanks for the info.

I guess I need to give more info. I purchased a fujitsu mo.# MHV2100AH 100gig drive. I checked the specs. on their web site. They said the interface is ATA-7, so that would probably be standard ATA ?

I figured out what the other problem was. Yes, I was able to install os 10.3.9 and afterwards I installed an os 9 dictionary program while booted in 9. When I tried to run the program from the alias put on the desktop a dialog window said it could not find the program. I did a search for the program and saw it that it was in a hidden folder called "network" which I was unable to access.

The next day while in os 10 I went to a folder called "network" and there was the program. I'm not sure why an os 9 program would load into an os 10 network folder while booted in os 9?

Anyways all that made me nervous and I thought maybe the drive was not completely compatible with my pismo.

Ps. You might wonder why I am running a dictionary program in os9, it's because I haven't found a dictionary program that works in os10.3.9.

Thanks for your help.

Marco

Regarding a dictionary, I like this free app from Nisus Software

http://www.nisus.com/Thesaurus/

In addition to launching from the Applications folder, it also gives you a new item in the Services menu (under the application name). Highlight a word in most programs, then

Menu -> [App name] -> Services -> Nisus Thesaurus -> Look Up Selection

It is a called a thesaurus, but it gives definitions as well, like a dictionary program.

Marco:

Check out the Omni Dictionary. It is an excellent dictionary and works with OS 10.3.9 and later.

Good luck.

cornelius

Message was edited by: cornelius