All About SATA Or IDE Cables & How To Replace It

Just like a human being, a computer also comes with a brain which helps in operating the whole computer system known as a motherboard. For the computer to operate properly there are some devices that need to be connected to the motherboard, like a hard drive, solid state drive and of course yes, your optical drives too.




And that’s where Serial Advanced Technology (SATA) comes in;

As it connects such devices to the motherboard. Generally, SATA is just a type of interface which provides a connection between the motherboard and other SATA devices. Nowadays most of the latest drives come in the SATA interface.

SATA comes as a replacement Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment (PATA), which mainly use IDE Cables. Although it similar to PATA, SATA can transmit data over twice as fast as PATA to and from the rest of the PC.

PATA is sometimes referred to us (Integrated Drive Electronics) IDE.

PATA and SATA are the types of interface that act as a connection between the PC and the storage devices, such as your hard drives and etc.

IDE and SATA come with a slight difference in features. While IDE has maximum compatibility, SATA comes with a large storage capacity. Another thing is that SATA transfers data at the rate of up to 6GP per second while IDE transfers at a very low rate (133MB per second).




And you know, you can actually use your old IDE Hard drives or Optical disc Drivers, into the SATA connector too. And to do that, you’ll definitely need to buy an “IDE to SATA Convertor”;  

Click On Link To Check Out The Price Of New IDE to SATA Convertor @Amazon, @Newegg

But with the SATA Drives, hotplugging is not supported by the IDE interface.

And there is one more thing, you know, that in your desktop, you can actually use any of your small 2.5 inches SATA HDDs and SSDs drives, by just directly plugging it into the SATA Port with using an SATA Cable with the SAME PSU SATA Connector; which you cannot do with the OLD IDE (PATA) Laptop’s hard drive, cuz you’ll need an extra converter for that.

Click On Link To Check Out The Price Of New Laptop IDE to SATA Converter @Amazon, @Newegg

And that the answer for those of you who are wondering about to use their old laptops hard drive into the desktop computer.

So, What Happens When SATA Or IDE Cable Gets Faulty;

Nothing frustrates a person like a sudden PC malfunction. You PC have to undergo a series of diagnosis to figure out what is the actual problem.

The problem comes when determining whether you need a simple repair or replacement of a certain PC component. One of the issues that your PC might face is a faulty SATA/IDE Port on the motherboard or generally a faulty SATA or IDE Cable;

And yes, just like most of the times IT’S THE CABLE WHO GOT FAULTY!!

Mainly when an SATA cable gets faulty you might experience occasional blue screen crashes, and sometimes automatic restart or shut down might follow too;

Although these problems might be caused by other issues like a faulty software or hardware problem, but I know sometimes it might be due to a faulty SATA or IDE Cable.

Therefore, on a motherboard, you’ll always find more than one connector to connect your cable, so just like most of the times, having a faulty SATA/IDE Port won’t be a problem.

So, Why SATA Or IDE Cable Gets faulty;

It is crucial to take the backup of your hard disks as it will be very helpful in recovering lost files and data in case of hard disk formatting or accidental deletion. Computer malfunction can happen anytime due to virus attack, corrupt OS files, bad power supply and so on.

You PC might be working poorly due to a faulty SATA cable, but why do SATA or IDE cable get faulty? One of the main reasons that one of these two cables might get faulty is due to an aging of the cable.

An SATA or IDE cable might bring poor connectivity due to wear out which is caused by aging. Thus it is very crucial to change your SATA cable within time.

So Now Let’s See How To Change Or Replace An SATA Or IDE Cable;

If after diagnosing your PC you found out your SATA or IDE cable is faulty, you need to repair or change it. In a situation whereby your SATA cable or IDE cable is faulty due to aging, the best solution is to replace it with a new one.

The first thing to consider when working with a PC should be safest, thus it is very important to switch off your computer and unplug it from the power source prior to opening the computer cabinet. Below is step by step to changing a faulty SATA or IDE cable;

• Open your Computer’s cabinet; The first step to changing your faulty SATA or IDE cable is opening up your computer case. Switch your PC off and unplug it from the power source prior to opening it. To open your computer case, you should need to remove all the screws holding in place side panel. To do this you need a screwdriver. Secondly, slide the panel off and place it aside.
• Find which type of cable you have; The second step is identifying what kind of cable your PC has. Generally, IDE drive connectors’ arrangement moves from the Data connector, jumpers and then power, while the SATA drive connectors move from the Power, data and lastly jumpers. In short, you can tell whether your PC has a SATA or IDE cable by looking at the SATA/IDE hard drive connectors.

• Buy SATA if you have SATA, buy IDE if you have IDE; After identifying the kind of your SATA cable you should go to the market and purchase one. Make sure to purchase the SATA if your PC uses SATA or IDE if your PC uses IDE. It is very crucial to purchase the best SATA or IDE Cable from the market, if you need your PC to have a great connectivity. One of the challenges with IDE drives is that they are becoming very difficult to buy from the local market.

Click On Link To Check Out The Price Of New SATA Cable @Amazon, @Newegg / IDE Cable @Amazon, @Newegg

• Install the new one at the place of old one; Although all motherboards look slightly different, identifying SATA/IDE ports is not a big issue as they are usually well labeled. You need an SATA/IDE cable to connect the SATA/IDE hard drive to the motherboard. Connect one side of the SATA/IDE cable to the port on the motherboard, and while the other side is connected to the SATA/IDE port of the drives.
• At last close the cabinet and check in bios for connection status; Since you are done with the SATA/IDE cable installation, you should now close up your computer case. Turn on your computer, and start configuring your new SATA or IDE drive to make it useful.

Suggested Link: How To Change the Boot Sequence in BIOS?

“And that’s all for now, thanks for sticking with the article, and you know it will always good to let me know about the tutorial, in the comments down below.” 🙂