What is the difference between a SATA, PATA, and OEM hard drive?

Question

3.5" internal

Answer 1

PATA:  Old technology that uses a flat 80pin ribben cable for data.

SATA:  Newer technology that uses a thin (usually red) cable.  SATA is a bit faster than PATA.

RETAIL:  Means that the hard drive is purchased with all the extras (cable, manual)

OEM:  Just the hard drive, no extras.

Answer 2

each one of those has a diffrent way to conect with the motherbored.

Answer 3

The S stands for Seriel.

The P for Parallel.

Those are the connectors that the harddrive uses.  You have to get one that is compatible with your motherboard / harddrive controller.  With newer computers its usually seriel, that's faster, but there's occasionally still IDE / PATA compatible boards made.

OEM is what a company would buy if it was building a computer to sell.  You can get them yourself, too, sure.  There's a few differences though:

There's no partition table made, though this is sometimes true of retail, you KNOW you'll have to create one.

There's no warranty. (as the reseller would normally provide this)

There's no fancy box.

----

oh yes, the above answer pointed out which I didn't that OEM wouldn't come with cables, but the most important thing is the _no warranty_ part.  If you buy Western Digital, for example, definitely do retail.

---

Nicki: your link refers to consumer products, which includes retail harddrives, not OEM.

Answer 4

All previous info is good, but...

All HDD have warranty. How long depends on where you are located, OEM has actually a longer warranty than retail. Seagate gives up to 5 years warranty on the HDD.

Answer 5

i want to konow what the deference between hard sata and hard power

Answer 6

PATA (IDE) Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment.  Data transfer rate of up to 133 megs/sec.

SATA Serial Advanced Technology Attachment. Data transfer rate up to 300 megs/sec.  

OEM  Original Equipment Manufacturer.  These drives were built for computer manufacturers.  They usually come without a packing box or software.  They are the same as a boxed drive in all other respects except warranty.