ATA -vs- IDE

I have a Western EIDE drive that ist kaput,10 years old. Documentation for my mama board(P6BX-Me) does not indicate if it will support an ATA drive. I have looked at the description of the drive I want to purchase ( 80 gig for 80 $ u.s.) but it is a seagate ATA drive.
If I purchase this, will I need any other items (or interface as indicated on box) This is my first try at installing any hardware so I am thanking people in advance for any help. P.S.- this is the stand alone "i/we/geeks" got up and running last year.
tanx

 

ATA usually means IDE. The exception is S-ATA drives which aren't the same, and likely won't be supported (natively) by an older motherboard. To use a SATA drive, you may need a expansion card. I would recommend a good RAID controller, so that you have the option of mirroring, or striping your hard drives in the future. I think though, that you are considering a hard drive that will be supported by your system. You need to confirm whether it is P-ATA or S-ATA to know for sure.

 

Your motherboard will not suppot any SATA devices as it does not have any SATA connectors onboard. With the motherboard that you are using, I wouldn't suggest wasting money on buying SATA anyways, a single 80GB EIDE drive will do just fine.

 

OK....the store with the drive (office max) only has the ATA drive (no S or P designation) and they are out of "plain" EIDE stuff...so if I am understanding you correctly, a plain ATA drive will sufice???

 

Yes, "plain old" ATA drives are IDE drives. This will work for your system.

 

KOOL! thanx people....on the ball as usual...i must be off.
tata