SATA Hard Drive Explained: Better Than Other Storage Interfaces?

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By Okedigba Dorcas

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Are you planning to buy a laptop with SATA hard drive and want to learn more about this technology? You are lucky to find this article that thoroughly explains all you need to know.

I have divided this article into five major sections. The first section explains the overview of a SATA hard drive while the second section explains how it works.

There is also a section that discusses the features of this technology and another section where I listed some pros and cons.

Finally, you will find useful answers to some relevant questions in the FAQ section. Basically, reading each section of this article will help you get familiar with the tech term – SATA.

Overview

SATA Hard Drive: Overview

SATA, an abbreviation for Serial Advanced Technology Attachment is a computer bus interface that connects storage devices like HDD, SSD, and DVDs to a computer. In other words, SATA is not a hard drive in itself, it is a standard for connecting mass storage devices to a computer.

Therefore, a SATA hard drive is a hard drive that connects to a computer via a SATA interface. SATA was introduced in 2003 as a replacement for the older PATA (parallel ATA) interface which was used for IBM PC-compactible computers.

Just as it should be, a SATA hard drive is notably faster than a PATA hard drive. Precisely, SATA III hard drives write at 600 MBps which is quite faster than PATA hard drives’ write speed of about 133 MBps.

In the tech market today, computer producers use SATA drives widely in devices such as laptops, desktops, gaming consoles, and servers. Laptops use a 2.5-inch SATA hard drive while desktops use a bigger 3.5-inch hard drive.

Proceeding in this article, I will discuss how SATA hard drives work in the next section.

How Does SATA Hard Drive Work?

As I said earlier, SATA hard drives connect to the computer’s motherboard via SATA connectors. As its name implies, SATA connectors use a serial mode of data transmission to transfer data in bits.

A SATA connector uses a 4 conductor cable with two shielded pairs for data transmission. Internal SATA connectors are long cables that come in common lengths like 305, 457, and 914 mm.

Both ends of some SATA connector are straight while some has one end angled to the right (90 degrees) or to the left (270 degrees). One end of the connector connects to a port on the motherboard while the other end connects to the SATA hard drive.

Meanwhile, SATA hard drives do not limit their connections to internal, they also support external connections. External SATA connector plugs into an eSATA port on the computer.

External SATA connectors (eSATA) are usually longer than internal SATA connectors. You can find eSATA connectors in a length of 914 or 1829 mm.

Features Of SATA Hard Drive Technology

Features Of SATA Hard Drive Technology

Up to this point, I have discussed an overview of the SATA hard drive technology. I have also explained briefly how this technology works.

At this point, I will discuss some important features of this technology.

SATA HDDs Are Available In Multiple Sizes (Form Factors)

You can get SATA drives in four sizes or form factors:

  1. 3.5-inch SATA: The 3.5-inch SATA is also known as a large form factor (LFF). This form factor has a size of 101.6 Ã— 146 Ã— 25.4 mm (W x L x H).

The 3.5-inch drives are not as common as the 2.5-inch SATA drives. However, you can find them as HDD and SSD drives used for large business enterprise computers and desktops.

  1. 2.5-inch SATA: The 2.5-inch SATA is also known as a small form factor (SFF). This form factor has a dimension of 69.85 x 100 x 7 mm (W x L x H).

Furthermore, the 2.5-inch drive has become the standard for all SSDs and HDDs. 2.5-inch drives are common in devices such as PlayStations 3 & 4, music players, Xbox 360 & One, laptops, desktops, and servers.

  1. mSATA: mSATA (mini SATA) is a smaller form factor for SATA SSDs. It is more compact than the 2.5-inch form factor. Specifically, mSATA is roughly one-quarter the size of a 2.5-inch SATA drive.

Moreover, mSATA drives have a width of 30 mm and a length of 50.95 mm. The mSATA drive uses the same port and connectors as mini PCIe (mPCIe) SSD drives.

Furthermore, mSATA drives are also not as common as the standard 2.5-inch drives but, you will find them in some small and ultrathin devices.

  1. M.2 SATA: An M.2 drive is also known as the Next Generation form factor (NGFF). It is more compact than an mSATA drive having a width of 22 mm.

For its length, an M.2 drive can be 30, 42, 60, 80, or 110 mm. The M.2 form factor for SSDs is new and apparently more preferable over the mSATA.

That is because the M.2 is compatible with more advanced interfaces. Moreover, it plugs directly into the host device’s motherboard without the need for cables.

You will mostly find M.2 SSDs in compact devices such as ultrabooks and tablets.

SATA Has Multiple Standard Revisions With Backward Compactibility

SATA-IO (SATA international organization) is the body responsible for regulating the standards of SATA. Over the years, the SATA-IO has made three major standard revisions of the SATA technology as well as five minor sub-revisions.

  1. SATA 1.0 revision: The first version of the SATA interface also known as SATA I was released in 2003. This version of SATA hard drives supports a transfer speed of up to 150 MBps.
  2. SATA 2.0 revision: The second generation of SATA also known as SATA II was released in 2004. This version of SATA supports a transfer speed of up to 300 MBps.

This generation of SATA drives also supports NCQ (Native Command Queuing). I will touch more on that later in this article.

  1. SATA 3.0 revision: The third generation of the SATA interface also known as SATA III was released in 2009. This version of SATA allows SATA drives to transmit data at a maximum speed of 600 MBps.

In this version, the NCQ feature has also improved thereby, making SATA drives more efficient.

  1. SATA 3.1 revision: The first minor sub-revision of the SATA interface was released in 2011. This revision features queued trim commands for improving the performance of SATA solid-state drives (SSDs).

Additionally, the SATA 3.1 revision introduced the mSATA form factor that I discussed previously. Another feature of this revision is a zero-power optical disk drive which prevents power consumption by an idle optical disk drive.

Hence, conserving energy.

Another feature of the SATA 3.1 that helps conserve energy is the required link power management. This feature helps to manage power efficiently in all SATA devices.

Finally, this revision introduced hardware control features that help host devices use SATA drives more effectively.

  1. SATA 3.2 revision: SATA-IO released the second minor sub-revision of the SATA interface in 2013. This revision also introduced SATA Express (SATAe) bus interface that supports both SATA and PCIe SSDs.

Therefore, allowing SATA SSDs to transmit at a higher speed – up to 1600 MBps. This revision also introduced the M.2 form factor discussed previously.

Another feature of this revision is DevSleep which is useful for shutting down a drive when not in use. Furthermore, there is a feature called transitional energy reporting which helps manage power more efficiently.

  1. SATA 3.3 revision: SATA-IO released the third minor sub-revision of the SATA interface in 2016. The major feature of this revision is the Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR).

SMR is a hard drive technology that allows the overlapping of the tracks on a media in order to increase the media density. The SATA 3.3 revision also introduced a feature called power disable.

This feature helps with the remote power cycling of SATA drives to help ease maintenance in the data center.

  1. SATA 3.4 revision: In 2018, SATA-IO released the fourth minor sub-revision. This version aims at monitoring the storage device’s health without impacting overall performance.

The first feature of this revision is the ordered write notification. This feature writes critical cache data to the storage device in other to ease data recovery in case of a crash.

Another feature of this revision is the temperature monitoring which reads the device’s temperature constantly.

  1. SATA 3.5 revision: At the time I wrote this article (June 2022), the SATA 3.5 was the latest minor sub-revision. The SATA 3.5 transfers data at a maximum speed of 1,969 MBps.

This revision also introduced other features such as device transmit emphasis, defined ordered NCQ commands, and command duration limit. The device transmits emphasis feature helps align the SATA interface with the characteristics of other I/O interfaces for better integration.

Meanwhile, the defined ordered NCQ commands help the host to set the order of processing commands in the queue. Finally, the command duration limit feature helps to reduce latency.

Supports Native Command Queueing (NCQ)

SATA drives support native command queueing (NCQ). This is a technology that allows these drives to optimize their data processing arrangement.

This will make processing faster and improve the lifespan of the SATA drives.

SATA Has Separate Connectors For Power And Data

SATA connections use two connectors, one for transferring data and the other for connecting power. The data connector is typically a red cable with an “L” shape.

Also, the data connector has 7 pins while the power connector has 15 pins. It is also possible to buy an all-in-one (combined data and power) SATA cable with 15 pins.

You can connect multiple SATA drives to the same host. To do that, each SATA drive requires a separate connection.

It’s Hot-pluggable

SATA drives are hot-pluggable or hot-swappable. This implies that you can remove or insert the SATA storage devices without shutting the computer down.

While this is true, it is important to mention that the host device must also be hot-pluggable. By this, I mean that the host device of the SATA hard drive (or any other SATA storage type) must support this feature.

For example, you cannot hot-swap a SATA storage device on a laptop because the laptop is usually covered, with the storage device hidden away. However, you can hot-plug a SATA-to-USB HDD because you plug it into the external USB port on the computer.

This is beneficial because it saves you time since the host device recognizes the drive as soon as you plug it in.

Pros And Cons Of SATA Hard Drive

In this section of the SATA hard drive technology explained article, I will discuss the pros and cons of this technology. This will help you weigh the good sides of SATA hard drives against their downsides.

Below are the pros and cons of SATA hard drives.

Pros Of SATA Hard Drive

  1. Flexible usage: The cables used in SATA connections are much longer than those used in PATA connections. Hence, there is the flexibility of using a SATA connection over PATA.
  2. Energy-efficient: Unlike PATA hard drives which consume a lot of energy, SATA hard drives are more energy efficient.
  3. Compatibility: You can use SATA drives on almost any device. Moreover, different versions of the SATA standard are compatible with each other.

    This means that you can operate older SATA drives on newer controllers. However, the controllers will only support the features and speed standards of the SATA drive.

    Also, you can operate devices built for a newer standard with an older SATA drive.
  4. Improved speed over PATA: SATA is a point-to-point interface where each device directly connects to the host via a dedicated link. As a result of that, the SATA connection is faster than PATA which uses parallel connections.

    Another reason why the SATA connection is faster is that it transmits data one bit at a time which makes the transmission less susceptible to interference. So, since SATA drives do not share their connections, they operate at higher speeds than PATA drives.

    Speaking of the speeds, the first generation of SATA known as SATA I can deliver up to 150 MBps data transfer speed. This speed is faster when compared to PATA which delivers a maximum of 133 MBps.

    Also, SATA II delivers up to 300MBps while the last major revision (SATA III) can deliver up to  600MBps. There have been several minor sub-revision, the most recent version allows speed transfer up to a maximum of 1969 MBps.
  5. Storage Upgradability: There are multiple SATA controllers on computer motherboards. you will find about 4-8 slots on some computers based on their size.

    As a result of the multiple ports you can upgrade the computer’s storage by adding more drives to the SATA ports as needed.

 Cons Of SATA Hard Drive

  1. Slower than NVMe: SATA drives are slower than other forms of storage interfaces such as NVMe. This implies that if you buy a laptop with SATA HDD, its storage performance will be slightly slower than a laptop with an NVMe HDD.
  2. Lower bandwidth than NVMe: SATA drives have lower bandwidth than even the early standard of NVMe drives. The bandwidth of a device affects its speed.

    So, like my previous point, it is better to buy a laptop with an NVMe hard rather than a SATA hard drive.
  3. Multiple cables can lead to clutter: Every SATA drive connects to individual ports on the motherboard. Hence, SATA connections require multiple cables.

    This could result in disorganized clutter of cables, especially in workstations where multiple storage devices connect to the computer. Having said that, this will not be a problem for you as a user.

    I say this because the SATA cables I am talking about are hidden away inside the computer.
  4. Only one device per SATA cable: A PATA data cable can have two devices connected to it. However, a SATA cable can only connect to one storage device.

    Hence, in situations where you need to connect more storage drives, you need to use an individual SATA cable for each.
  5. Not supported by old OS: Old operating systems such as Windows XP do not support SATA by default.

    If for any reason you’re still installing Windows XP in 2022 and beyond, you need to install the SATA driver before you can successfully complete Windows XP installation.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What Is SATA Express Used For? 

SATA Express is a bus interface that connects storage devices to a computer’s motherboard. The SATA Express interface supports both SATA and PCIe NVMe drives.

2. What Is The Transfer Speed Of SATA Drives?

SATA 1 transfers data at 150 MBps while SATA 2 transfers data at 300 MBps. Also, SATA 3 transfers data at 600 MBps.

There are also five minor sub-revisions – SATA 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, and 3.5. The latest sub-division was released in 2020 and this revision supports a maximum transfer speed of 1,969 MBps.

3. What Is SATA Used For?

SATA is a computer bus interface that connects storage devices like HDD, SSD, and optical drives to a computer.

4. Is SATA Outdated?

Although there are now faster interface protocols, SATA is still popular. Its latest standard runs at a faster speed of 1969 MBps which is impressively fast.

The introduction of the mSATA (mini SATA) and M.2 form factors that are used in small devices will also keep SATA in business for a while longer.

5. What Is SATA-IO?

The Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) is an organization dedicated to the sustenance of SATA specifications. This organization works on the revisions of SATA and ensures that the SATA specifications meet newer technology standards.

The organization was officially introduced in 2004.

6. How Many SATA Ports Are On A Motherboard?

The number of SATA ports on a device’s motherboard is dependent on the size of the host device. Most devices have between 4 to 8 SATA ports.

This makes it easier to upgrade the storage capacity of your computer by adding more storage drives as needed.

7. What Size Is A SATA Drive?

SATA drives come in different sizes, the largest size is 3.5-inch which is used in large enterprise computers and desktops. The 3.5-inch SATA drives measure 101.6 × 146 × 25.4 mm (W x L x H).

SATA drives can also come in a 2.5-inch size. In fact, this form factor is the standard for most HDDs and SSDs used in laptops, PlayStations, and servers.

2.5-inch SATA drives have a dimension of 69.85 x 100 x 7 mm (W x L x H). There is also the mSATA (mini SATA) which is smaller than the 2.5-inch form factor.

mSATAs can be used in ultra-thin devices. In addition, SATA drives are also available in the M.2 form factor which is even smaller than mSATA.

M.2 SATA drives can be found in the thinnest devices due to their small size.

8. What Does Hot Plugabble Mean?

Hot-pluggable is a term that implies that devices (including SATA storage devices) can be removed or inserted into the computer without shutting down.

9. What Does A SATA Connector Look Like?

SATA connections use two connectors, one for transferring data and the other for connecting power. The data connector is typically a red cable shaped like “L” and has 7 pins while the power connector has 15 pins.

It is also possible to buy an all-in-one (combined power and data) cable with 22 pins.

10. Are All SATA Drives Compatible?

Yes, all newer SATA standards are backward compatible. This implies that an old SATA controller will work with new SATA standards and vice-versa.

However, the speed will be limited to that of the older standard. For instance, you can connect a SATA 3 drive to a SATA 1 controller, but the speed will fall back to the SATA 1 standard.

My Final Thoughts

SATA Hard Drive: My Final Thoughts

SATA drives are good options for users who need a large amount of storage at a small price. Also, SATA drives are non-volatile which means that you will not lose the data saved to the drives even when the host device loses power.

Another benefit of using SATA drives is that they are rewritable. Hence, you can change the data stored to SATA drives anytime you need to do so.

Although there are storage interfaces that allow faster speeds than SATA such as NVMe, the SATA interface still remains important.

To establish that fact, the latest SATA sub-revision transfers data at a speed of 1,969 MBps and that is commendable. Also, with the introduction of the mSATA and M.2 form factors for ultra-thin devices, the future of SATA looks promising.

Hence, if you are contemplating whether it is still worth getting yourself a SATA device, the answer is yes. You can go ahead and get yourself a SATA device or as many as you want.

I hope I was able to explain the SATA drive interface and how it compares to other storage drive interfaces. I also hope that you found this article helpful and easy to understand.

If you did, kindly share your thoughts with our community platform at [discourse_topic_url]. You can also ask questions or offer feedback concerning this article at [discourse_topic_url].

Finally, you may find other helpful articles on our Storage & Disk Technology Explained page.

References And Further Reading

  1. Lifewire – Serial ATA
  2. Ecstuff4u – advantages and disadvantages of SATA
  3. Delkin.com – Serial ATA
  4. Sata-io.org – The SATA Ecosystem
  5. Britannica.com – SATA
  6. [discourse_topic_url]
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About the Author

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Okedigba Dorcas

Okedigba Dorcas is a technical writer at Itechguides.com. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. She is a web development enthusiast. When she isn’t writing tech guides, she reads or codes web applications. Dorcas writes laptops, smartphones and desktops reviews for Itechguides.com.

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