ATA can mean either Serial ATA(SATA) or Parallel ATA(PATA)also called IDE.

"John E" <JCE@privacy.invalid> wrote in message
news:0DC49C37-92EA-4FA6-BCD1-B58524568343@microsoft.com...[color=blue]
> "Diamontina Cocktail" <lrb@australia.com> wrote in message
> news:OBUsbmpUHHA.1364@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...[color=green]
>>I don't normally use ATA as anything other than backup purely because C
>>drive has always been an IDE on this machine and I am not really wanting
>>to muck about with that for it. After all it isn't an expensive
>>motherboard so I am waiting till later this year before I replace it.
>>
>> Anyway, in the meantime, I needed more backup space so put an ATA in as a
>> backup drive only and what do you know, the minute it does, the IDE
>> drives go haywire, wanting to be installed all the time AS ATA drives. I
>> got sick of this, disconnected the ATA drive (the only 1) and then turned
>> ATA off in BIOS but still the ****ed IDE drives were playing up. I
>> attempted to make them show up as normal IDE drives by reinstalling the
>> drivers but it only resulted in both drives not being available to the
>> system and Vista refusing to boot. So I did a restore from image backup
>> to a day ago and still without the ATA drive attached and ATA being
>> disabled in bios, when it came back to Windows, it shows the IDE drives
>> as their model name and "ATA device" when they are IDE.
>>
>> So, does anyone have any idea how to make the drives KNOW that they are
>> IDE again please? Thanks.
>>[/color]
>
> [url]http://burks.brighton.ac.uk/burks/pcinfo/hardware/atafaq/atafq2.htm#ss2.2[/url]
> "2.2 IDE and ATA
> IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics--or numerous other interpretations) and
> ATA (AT Attachment) are one and the same thing: a disk drive
> implementation designed to integrate the controller onto the drive itself,
> thereby reducing interface costs, and making firmware implementations
> easier. This low cost/easy integration created a boom in the disk drive
> industry, as PC integrators readily ate up the low-cost alternative. Since
> the late 80's, ATA (as it is properly called) has become the drive of
> choice for the cost inhibited buyer."
>
> Maybe you shouldn't disable ATA in the BIOS.
>
>
>
> John.
>[/color]