replace SATA drive with IDE?

jannowretired

My computer presently has a SATA hard drive and it seems to be on the way out as I keep getting loads of disk errors.

I did wipe it clean and re-install everything but it still acts up.

I have been given an IDE drive which I can fit into my computer but I will have to buy all the cables.

Will there be any drop in performance going from a SATA drive to an IDE drive and should I use the IDE drive or buy a new SATA drive?

Is going from SATA to IDE a backword step?

bod1467

jannowretired wrote: »

Will there be any drop in performance going from a SATA drive to an IDE drive?

In theory yes. But it depends on what you are doing whether it will be noticeable.

and should I use the IDE drive or buy a new SATA drive?

I would probably get a new SATA drive, if I was having to buy the IDE cables anyway.

Is going from SATA to IDE a backword step?

Yes, but see my previous answer above.

See quoted answers above.

steve1980

You can buy a new SATA hard drive for £30.00

jannowretired

You can buy a new SATA hard drive for £30.00

And?

Is this not a money saving site?

Why spend £30 if I don't need to?

I asked about substituting hard drives not about spending £30.

bod1467

jannowretired wrote: »

I asked about substituting hard drives not about spending £30.

Really? I guess we must have imagined this then.

jannowretired wrote: »

or buy a new SATA drive

Bollotom

jannowretired wrote: »

And?

Is this not a money saving site?

Why spend £30 if I don't need to?

I asked about substituting hard drives not about spending £30.

Will there be any drop in performance going from a SATA drive to an IDE drive and should I use the IDE drive or buy a new SATA drive?
There, fixed that for you. LOL

robmar0se

Assuming that yr motherboard has the IDE connector, secondly assuming you are not a heavy user of Virtual memory (ie heavy disk usage and not enough RAM) then probably you wouldn't notice too much difference.

Do you know the provenance of the old IDE drive? If it has been heavily used before you may find it won't last too long as all drives fail at some point (manufactures will tell you there is a "mean time to failure" which means "when" not "if").

A new Sata drive from a reputable manufacturer will give you a three warranty from date of manufacture which would give you perhaps more peace of mind.

However if you are short on the dosh side then certainly subject to the above assumptions using a secondhand IDE drive would get you out of a hole.

Cash-Strapped.T32

By all means use the IDE drive for a while; I'm a common mix & matcher & for the last 4 years my computer's used a host of different IDE drives for different purposes salvaged from old office machines plus other parts, and in that time has cost me a total of zero English pounds..
Of course I haven't been playing any demanding modern games, but haven't "suffered" in any other area or lacked any other capability.

I focussed on storage, and removed my optical drive in order to use the full 4x IDE positions for the most number of HDDs.
For sure I prefer C:/ to be a SATA drive for the virtual memory reasons mentioned above, but in that time it hasn't ever been a real problem to run on an IDE drive when I had to.


As long as yur machine can make use of them, the "older" standards/technologies are just as usable for most home users imo; Decent single core chips like Athlons or P4s, DDR/DDR2 or even SDram on older boards, solid AGP cards for desktop graphics & digital image editing under XP/Vista/Win7, basic but solid pci soundcards like soundblasters..
All these are just as capable for most users as the more current gear being sold with newer machines, but by being comfortable with treating the computer as a system (which it always was) and not just a consumer item where bits must be replaced like-for-like, you can save an awful lot of money, re-use old parts you've gathered, and not lose out.

Sorry to have gone on so long, but this is something I'm a little obsessive about; It maddens me to see daft money being spent by home users who don't require a fraction of the hardware's capabilities.



Anyhow I'd go with rob's answer above in a nutshell; as long as the drive is kosha go for it, but be aware that death come to all drives - It's just a matter of time.

Use the IDE drive to save some cash, but be aware that eventually it'll fail. That said, I've got 10yr+ IDE drives that I still swap-in & out now & again so don't be too pessimistic, and also be aware that an IDE drive will click & rattle a bit more, as windows loads up & it possibly uses the swap file, so don't panic if it's a bit clicky when you first boot up, but obviously if it constantly sounds like a rubbish truck t=rattling past the house then it's probably not too safe to use for a long time if you plan to use this for C:/.

Best of luck however you go.