Editing SATA (section)

=== SATA and PATA ===
[[File:PATA hard disk with SATA converter.png|thumb|PATA hard disk with SATA converter attached]]
At the hardware interface level, SATA and PATA ([[Parallel ATA|Parallel AT Attachment]]) devices are completely incompatible: they cannot be interconnected without an adapter.

At the application level, SATA devices can be specified to look and act like PATA devices.<ref>
{{cite web |url=http://www.sata-io.org/documents/serialata%20-%20a%20comparison%20with%20ultra%20ata%20technology.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120327214126/http://www.sata-io.org/documents/serialata%20-%20a%20comparison%20with%20ultra%20ata%20technology.pdf |title=A comparison with Ultra ATA Technology |publisher=SATA-IO |archive-date=2012-03-27 |access-date=2014-08-15}}</ref>

Many motherboards offer a "Legacy Mode" option, which makes SATA drives appear to the OS like PATA drives on a standard controller. This ''Legacy Mode'' eases OS installation by not requiring that a specific driver be loaded during setup, but sacrifices support for some (vendor specific) features of SATA. Legacy Mode often if not always disables some of the boards' PATA or SATA ports, since the standard PATA controller interface supports only four drives. (Often, which ports are disabled is configurable.)

The common heritage of the ATA command set has enabled the proliferation of low-cost PATA to SATA bridge chips. Bridge chips were widely used on PATA drives (before the completion of native SATA drives) as well in standalone converters. When attached to a PATA drive, a device-side converter allows the PATA drive to function as a SATA drive. Host-side converters allow a motherboard PATA port to connect to a SATA drive.

The market has produced powered enclosures for both PATA and SATA drives that interface to the PC through USB, Firewire or eSATA, with the restrictions noted above. [[Peripheral Component Interconnect|PCI]] cards with a SATA connector exist that allow SATA drives to connect to legacy systems without SATA connectors.