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Questions tagged [ata]

ATA is the primary way that mass storage devices are internally attached to PCs.

ATA is the primary way that mass storage devices are attached to PCs.

Mass storage devices include hard disk drives (HDD), solid state drives (SSD), optical disk drives (including CD, DVD, and Blu-ray Disc drives), and more.

ATA was introduced with the IBM PC AT, and stands for "AT Attachment". This family of technologies includes multiple generations of:

  • IDE
  • Parallel ATA (PATA)
  • ATA Packet Interface (ATAPI)
  • Serial ATA (SATA)
  • external SATA (eSATA)

Even external hard drives and optical drives that don't have an eSATA connector are usually ATA drives connected to an ATA-to-USB/FireWire/Thunderbolt bridge chip inside the enclosure.

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What's the difference between ATA, PATA, and IDE?

If I am not mistaken these names all referrer to the same technology. Are there any differences between them? If not, why does this technology go by so many different names?
에이바
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What are the differences between Host Protected Area (HPA), Device Configuration Overlay (DCO), and service area of a HDD/SSD?

I'm confused about the differences between the Host Protected Area (HPA), Device Configuration Overlay (DCO), and the service area of a HDD or SSD. From what I gather on the wiki pages, disks can have the HPA, DCO, or even both, but it's not clear…
user301234
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Why does disabling ATA fix "run_interrupt_driven_hooks still waiting after 60 seconds for xpt_config" in FreeBSD?

Why did it work? Why did the 5. step solve the problem? What is so special about disabling ATA which removed the run_interrupt_driven_hooks still waiting after 60 seconds for xpt_config error? My optical disk drive is Samsung CD-RW / DVD ts-l462d if…
Mateusz Piotrowski
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Check HDD connection mode (SATA or ATA)

Is it possible under Windows 7 to check whether a particular disk is recognized by Windows as SATA or ATA? I've installed Windows 7 on an old HP laptop with SATA drive. Laptop's hdd in Device Manager appeared as Hitachi HTS541612J9SA00 ATA This hdd…
Alexander Gromnitsky
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How do hdparm's -S and -B options interact?

These two options seem confusing. For example: according to the man page -B 254 "does not permit spin-down". However, testing with -B 254 -S 1 the drive does spin down after 5 seconds. -B Query/set Advanced Power Management feature, if the drive…
user697683
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Why is "hdparm -w" considered dangerous?

I have an old disk that often gets stuck in some form of loop, and often I need to perform a full reboot to get it "unstuck", whereupon I had found out about the hdparm -w command. However, its manpage lists this command as dangerous: -w Perform a…
nanofarad
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MBR vs GPT (Logical Block Addressing)

Going through MBR/GPT I'm a bit confused on the transition from MBR (2^32) to GPT (2^64). If you breakdown the history from CHS-to-LBA addressing: CHS (24Bits) - 8GB Limit (1979 - Introduced with "fixed-block-architecture") CHS (28Bits) - 128GB…
Jordan Davis
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Error wiping device: Failed to probe the device 'dev/-sdb' (udisks-error-quark, 0)

My Hard disk was totally fine since I tried to format it using the 'ATA Enhanced Secure Erase' option on gnome disk utility. Now I can not formate or use it. Every time I try to format it this error is showed: "Error wiping device: Failed to probe…
Santo Shakil
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Adding Serial ATA driver Windows 7 clean install for Dell Inspiron n5110

I want to try format my Dell notebook with Windows 7 Ultimate. But my ISO pack doesn't have any HDD driver in it. When I come to step 2 for installing Windows 7 the system says "You should have to install driver for HDD" bla bla... My machine is…
Fatih Toprak
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ATA controller on SATA hard disk

I have a small ATA disk, a big SATA disk, and an old computer that supports only ATA. Can I unscrew the ATA controller from the disk and attach it to the other disk?
Mike
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Removing the ATA master password

I was playing around with the ATA security erase on my SSD using hdparm, and I noticed that it works with both user and master passwords. However, I also noticed that invoking a security erase removed the user password, but not the master password,…
Delan Azabani
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ATA Security (Disk Password) support by Intel P67 chipset motherboards?

I've posted a question about securing data on a HDD, but I believe I won't get much answers, so I'm going on my own idea, that is to use ATA Security feature now present on most drives. My need is to prevent disk data to being accessed without…
bitlocked
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HDD Guardian reports ATA error

I have just ran HDD Guardian on my Hitachi Travelstar 7K1000 hard drive (2.5, 7200rpm) and noticed that the drive reported an ATA error. The error occurred 37 hours (of disk power-on time) ago, and it has been working fine since then. I hadn't even…
vagaerg
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Connect a ssd externally such that hdparm is fully supported

I am just trying some hdparm magic with my new ssd (samsung 840 pro). However I don't want to change my drive over and over so it would be great if I could connect it externally to my laptop. I have a cheap sata-usb adapter, but I feel it doesn't…
student
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ata1:comreset failed (errno=-32) error while booting brand new computer

I try to install fedora to a new desktop computer I have but I am getting ata1:comreset failed (errno=-32) error while starting fedora installation. After a long while it stars with the installation interface but errors with that specific one all…
erogol
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