IDE/ATA/EIDE/ATAPI What?

[Nominus Experse]

IDE/ATA/EIDE/ATAPI, etc... are all those capable of being connected via the same connector, or do they require different ones?

The reason I ask is because I considering the purchase of a DVD burner, and its connection interface is one I've never really heard of until now. Basically, I aim to understand if it is capable of working in my computer.

I believe I have a standard IDE/ATA interface, but I was wondering if that would also support an EDIE/ATAPI connection, if in fact such things are different.

Here is a link to the product if such a thing would be helpful:

http://www.shop4tech.com/user.htm?go=view_item&id=5906&siteID=CPqWkHwkNyo-6yyzFXjwrobv4oFdpJGM1Q

[Samuraid]

They are essentially the same. I haven't researched the details however, so I cannot provide an explanation.

[ValiantKnight]

IDE - Original standard for 40pin connections to hard drives, CD-ROM, Tape Drives, etc... Supports 2 devices connected to 2 "controllers" or connections on the motherboard. You can have a max of 2 Drives on a typical IDE motherboard.. before adding extra cards.

EIDE - Updated version of IDE for 40pin connection hard drives, CD-Roms, Tape Drives, etc. Supports IDE devices I believe. Capability for faster speeds, and 2 devices per channel for a total of 4 devices.

ATA - A drive standard for data speed if memory serves.
ATA66
ATA100
ATA133
They all relate to bandwidth on the drives/cables/connection

ATAPI - not sure here, but is seen on alot of CD-ROM drives.

Moreover, all motherboards except SCSI motherboards made in the last X years have had EIDE or at the very least IDE controllers. I'd probably say you have a 99.9832% chance of your motherboard supporting that drive, just by the sheer amount of motherboards that have EIDE controllers. Now as for other compatibility I'm not sure.

As far as connecting drives to computers, there is:

SATA - Serial ATA, a new standard mostly for hard drives, most motherboards still have IDE/EIDE connections as well

EIDE/IDE - Standard connection for a long time for drives, still on most new motherboards for backward-compatibility and because i haven't seen many SATA CD-ROM drives.

SCSI - Server-type connection for drives, more expensive, faster, completely different than EIDE/IDE. Uses terminators and a bus system to connect printers, drives, and other hardware.

[bipper]

ATA was Standardised by X3/INCITS committee t13 (werd). IDE is simply a synonymous abbreviation. This has to do with Western Digital branding the name IDE (later EIDE) to describe its drives. A standard others conformed to. As of 2003, the offical name for ATA has been changed to PATA (Parallel ATA), to differentiate it with SATA (serial ATA) and to better describe the method of data transfer.

Much to the same affect, the AT Attachment Packet Interface (ATAPI) was another branded standard by Western Digital (I think it is ANSI now) which is now known as the more robust term ATA/ATAPI which simply transcribes the differences between this connection and traditional ATA which was designed fro Hard disk drives only. This is the evolved version of ATA for other perifs basically.

In short, yes, it will work. Hardware wise there are a few more supported features that you will not really need to worry about.

I think this is all accurate, as it is going of some older information from teh brain, and I Did not bother to check the post for accuracy, but it should be close. Being a programming major, I do not know why I remember this, but I remember some of the stupidest <img src="/xxx.gif"><img src="/xxx.gif"><img src="/xxx.gif"><img src="/xxx.gif">.

[Nominus Experse]

Many thanks you two. EDIT: Three, bipper

I figured that they were all essentially the same. I was also somewhat guessing that since my computer is only two years old, it could handle it, but I wished to be certain.