SATA revision 1.0: The first version of the SATA interface was released in 2003, supporting communication rates of up to 1.5 Gbit/s.There are three major revisions of the SATA interface and three minor sub-revisions: Members of this organization include Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, SanDisk, Western Digital, and many other major hardware manufacturers.
The specification of the SATA interface is maintained by the Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) non-profit organization, whose purpose is to provide the computing industry with guidance and support for implementing the SATA specification. Furthermore, the SATA interface supports faster data-transfer speeds through higher signaling rates. Additionally, SATA supports hot swapping, a feature that makes it possible to replace or add a hard drive without stopping or shutting down the system. Firstly, SATA cables consist of only 7 conductors instead of 40 or 80, making the interface much more suitable for compact desktop computers and laptops. But after the introduction of SATA in 2003, PATA started to fade away.Ĭompared to PATA, SATA has several key advantages. SATA is a successor to the Parallel ATA (PATA) standard, which was designed in 1986 and was for many years the most common and the least expensive interface for internal computer storage devices. SATA is an abbreviation of Serial Advanced Technology Attachment, a computer bus interface that connects host bus adapters to mass storage devices. SATA Hard Drive Definition and Technical Details The process of SATA hard drive data recovery is explained near the end of this article.
When that happens, you need a capable SATA hard drive data recovery tool. It’s only when critical system files become corrupted when you lose access to your operating system. After that, you may have trouble opening certain files, which could be an early sign of data corruption. Initially, your SATA hard drive diagnostics tool (if you don’t use any, we have a few recommendations for you near the end of this article) may give you a harmless warning, informing you about an unusually large number of bad sectors. Catastrophic SATA hard drive failures are quite rare, and most drives fail gradually over time. In fact, brand-new SATA hard drives are more likely to fail than hard drives that have been in use for a year and a half, which is when manufacturing defects stop showing up and long-term wear and tear becomes an issue.ĭon’t let these reliability statistics alarm you, however. SATA hard drives intended for laptops are typically 2.7 inches wide, 0.37 inches tall, and 3.96 inches long, and they are usually referred to as 2.5-inch hard drives.Īpart from desktop computers and laptops, SATA hard drives can also be found inside video gaming consoles, including the PlayStation 3 and 4, the Xbox 360 and One, and many others.Īccording to a comprehensive analysis of the performance of 25,000 hard drives by the cloud storage service BackBlaze, we know that heavily-used SATA hard drives are reliable for approximately 3 to 4 years. SATA hard drives intended for desktop computers are typically 4 inches wide, 1.03 inches tall, and 5.79 inches long, and they are usually referred to as 3.5-inch hard drives. It’s often easy to tell that your computer comes with a SATA hard drive because of the characteristic noise SATA hard drives tent to make when reading or writing data. SATA hard drive can be found inside desktop computers, laptops, and servers. What Is a SATA Hard Drive?Ī SATA hard drive is a type of rewritable mass storage device characterized by respectable transmission speeds, excellent storage capacities, and flawless support by virtually all operating systems and computer motherboards.
While not as popular in the current era of solid-state drives, SATA hard drives are still sold in large numbers, and there are several good arguments for picking up a SATA hard drive over an SSD. If you’re shopping for a new hard drive or just exploring the inner workings of your computer, you may have stumbled upon a type of hard drive called SATA.