Is there a benefit from using a SATA harddrive compared to IDE when using external cases?
492226
STA drives are much faster nowadays but you need the hardware for it.
578161
Yes, your computer will read it just like another hard drive but it will be a bit slower if external. Also in an enclosure it will be more suceptible to damage. Safer to keep it in the computer case itself as a second drive if possible.
471873
it would be better to just buy a new drive
275221
According to the Dell web site, it uses SATA drives.  If you have an IDE connector in there, you should able to connect it to that.  If it's already connected, you'll need to get an IDE cable that supports two drives and then make sure both drives have their jumpers properly configured.  If you aren't interested in all of that, just buy a USB hard drive enclosure and put your old drive into that.
424155
external is better.because it can be used for other computers too.\nyou can use it as a large cooldisk.
409877
If you still have the other harddrive then I would reccomend that you make in the Master drive and the new drive the Slave.  This way you will not need to reinstall your office programs because they will be on your primary drive.
557215
Yes, without a doubt.  And you won't need drivers for it, unless your new PC is running Windows 98.  If it's a DVD-Rom drive, put it anywhere you want it.  If it's a DVD-RW (a burner), then it has to be the Master drive on IDE 1 (IDE 0 is where the hard drive is installed).  Of course, if either is SATA, it won't matter where it's installed.
29204
Buy whatever internal drive you like and then buy a drive enclosure.
765375
sata = fast\nIDE = slow.\n\n\nbecarefull thought if you get a sata drive make sure your motherboard can take it.\n\noh and sata stands for Serial ATA.\n\noh and i might add that sata are noticible faster on the propper motherboard, hey can have transfer rate of upto 2giga bits(pretty fast), IDEs dont, again you have to check what mother board you have because some do have the correct connection but you cant connect them at full speed, and as for that guy below, Sata drive are generally cheaper. because there new and IDEs are old and are becomming obsolite, jsut like new and old types of memory!!!
479047
The faster the disk turns the less time waiting for disk to turn to where data is waiting. With an external drive it may not be as important as the throughput could be limited by the interface used.
281281
Parallel ATA (PATA) is what we know of as IDE hard drives, or basically the ones that have been around for a long time. SATA is a new hard drive interface which is faster and has significantly different cables (thin and flat rather than big ribbons) Your motherboard needs to have a SATA interface in order to use SATA hard drives.
444762
The best thing to do with hard drives is prevent problems from occurring, rather than try to recover from problems after they occur.  You may want to look at Spinrite.
765039
Hi. It gives you more storage space and allows you to backup important data to both. Useful if you have a failure.
627519
You will cause a short in the IDE bus and frag the motherboard. Really bad idea.\n\nBuy an external caddy (USB2) and it will do the job. You can use the 'disconnect usb device' feature in Windows XP when you are finished dumping data.
495676
it depends on the machine itself, for home usage\ni would suggest the following\n1) Maxtor\n2) Western digital \n3) Seagate\nall have good warrenty, and i would suggest getting SATA rather than IDE for home usage.
475473
Medic was right, except he/she didn't realize you are trying to run IDE raid with two different IDE controllers.  You can't do that.  If your motherboard doesn't support IDE RAID, then you are going to have to use both hard drives through the PCI IDE controller, assuming it's RAID capable.  If it isn't, I'd go with 4 SATA drives.
500761
check if you have SATA ports on yer motherboard..nowadays motherboards are pretty much labelled or atleast the cabinets have a diagram of the motherboard with labelling.. if ya have sata go for it..(if yer budget allows)\n\nthe basic diff between ATA and SATA is the RPMs