What are the hard drive connectors?

A hard disk is a simple and small “box” with a look that stores huge amounts of information in the computer of any modern user.

It seems to be just that from the outside: a fairly straightforward little thing. It is rare that when recording, deleting, copying and other actions with files of various importance, one thinks about the principle of interaction between a hard disk and a computer. And more precisely - directly with the motherboard itself.

How these components are connected into a single trouble-free operation, how the hard drive itself is arranged, what kind of connection connectors it has and what each of them is for is key information about the familiar storage device.

HDD interface

This term can correctly be called the interaction of the hard disk with the motherboard. The word itself has a much broader meaning. For example, the program interface. In this case, the part is meant that provides a way of human interaction with software (convenient “friendly” design).

However, the interface to the interface is different. In the case of the HDD and the motherboard, it does not present a pleasant graphic design for the user, but a set of special lines and data transfer protocols. These components are connected to each other using a loop cable - cable with inputs at both ends. They are designed to connect to ports on the hard disk and the motherboard.

In other words, the entire interface on these devices is two cables. One is connected to the hard drive power connector from one end and to the computer’s PSU itself from the other. And the second of the loops connects the HDD to the motherboard.

How in the old days connected a hard drive - IDE connector and other remnants of the past

The very beginning, after which more advanced HDD interfaces appear. Ancient by today's standards, Integrated Drive Electronics appeared on the market around the 80s of the last century. The IDE literally translates to "embedded controller."

Being a parallel data interface, it is also called ATA - Advanced Technology Attachment. However, over time, the new SATA technology appeared and gained huge popularity in the market, as the standard ATA was renamed to PATA (Parallel ATA) to avoid confusion.

Extremely slow and very crude in terms of its technical capabilities, this interface in the years of its popularity could pass from 100 to 133 megabytes per second. And only in theory, since in real practice these indicators were even more modest. Of course, newer interfaces and hard drive connectors will show a noticeable lag IDE from modern developments.

Do you think you should not play down the attractive sides? Older generations will probably remember that the technical capabilities of PATA allowed servicing two HDDs at once with the help of only one cable connected to the motherboard. But the line capacity in this case was similarly distributed in half. And this is not mentioning the width of the wire, one way or another preventing its dimensions from the flow of fresh air from the fans in the system unit.

By our time, the IDE is already naturally outdated both physically and morally. And if until recently this connector was found on motherboards of the low and middle price segment, now manufacturers themselves do not see any prospects in it.

Everyone's favorite SATA

For a long time, the IDE has become the most popular interface for working with information storage devices. But the technology of data transmission and processing did not stagnate for a long time, soon offering a conceptually new solution. Now it can be found at almost any owner of a personal computer. And his name is SATA (Serial ATA).

Distinctive features of this interface are parallel data transfer, low power consumption (compared to IDE), less heating of components. Throughout the history of its popularity, SATA has gone through three stages of revision development:

1. SATA I - 150 mb / s.
2. SATA II - 300 mb / s.
3. SATA III - 600 mb / s.

By the third revision, a couple of updates were also developed:

• 3.1 - a more advanced bandwidth, but still limited by a limit of 600 mb / s.
• 3.2 with the SATA Express specification - a successfully implemented merger of SATA and PCI-Express devices, which allowed to increase the read / write speed of the interface up to 1969 mb / s. Roughly speaking, the technology is an “adapter”, which translates the usual SATA mode to a faster one, which is the line of PCI-connectors.

The real indicators, of course, clearly differed from the officially announced. First of all, this leads to excessive interface bandwidth - for many modern drives, the same 600 Mb / s is unnecessary, because they were not originally designed to operate at such a read / write speed. Only with the passage of time, when the market will gradually be filled with high-speed drives with performance indicators that are incredible for today, the technical potential of SATA will be fully utilized.

And finally, many physical aspects have been finalized. SATA is designed to use longer cables (1 meter versus 46 centimeters that connected IDE hard drives) with much compact dimensions and a nice appearance. Support for “hot swapping” of HDDs is provided - you can connect / disconnect them without turning off the computer’s power (however, you must first enable AHCI mode in the BIOS).

The convenience of connecting the cable to the connectors has also increased. At the same time, all versions of the interface are backward compatible with each other (the SATA III hard drive is easily connected to the SATA II connectors on the motherboard, SATA I to SATA II, etc.). The only caveat - the maximum speed with data will be limited to the most "old" link.

Owners of old devices will also not be left behind - existing adapters from PATA to SATA will save us from the more expensive purchase of a modern HDD or a new motherboard.

External SATA

But the standard hard drive is far from always suitable for the user's tasks. There is a need to store large amounts of data that require use in different places and, accordingly, transportation. For such cases, when you have to work with only one drive not only at home, and external hard drives have been developed. Due to the specifics of their device, they need a completely different connection interface.

Such is another kind of SATA, created under the connectors of external hard drives, with the prefix external. Physically, this interface is not compatible with standard SATA ports, but at the same time it has the same bandwidth.

There is support for "hot swapping" HDD, and the length of the cable itself is increased to two meters.

In the initial version, eSATA only allows for the exchange of information, without supplying the necessary electricity to the corresponding connector on the external hard drive. This drawback, eliminating the need to use two loops for connection at once, was corrected with the arrival of the Power eSATA modification, combining eSATA technology (responsible for data transfer) with USB (responsible for power supply).

Universal Serial Bus

In fact, having become the most common standard for a serial interface for connecting digital technology, Universal Serial Bus is nowadays known to everyone.

Having endured a long history of constant major changes, USB is a high speed data transfer, power supply to an unprecedented multitude of peripheral devices, as well as simplicity and convenience in everyday use.

Developed by companies such as Intel, Microsoft, Phillips and US Robotics, the interface has become the embodiment of several technical aspirations:

• Extending the functionality of computers. Before the advent of USB, standard peripherals were quite limited in variety, and each type required a separate port (PS / 2, port for connecting a joystick, SCSI, etc.). With the advent of USB, it was thought that it would become a single universal replacement, greatly simplifying the interaction of devices with a computer. Moreover, it was also supposed by this new development for its time to stimulate the emergence of non-traditional peripheral devices.
• Connect mobile phones to computers. The tendency of the transition of mobile networks to digital voice transmission in those years revealed that none of the interfaces developed then could provide data and voice transmission from the telephone.
• The invention of the “plug and play” comfortable principle, suitable for “hot plugging”.

As in the case with the vast majority of digital technology, the USB-connector for the hard drive over the long time has become completely familiar to us. However, in different years of its development, this interface has always demonstrated new heights of speed indicators for reading / writing information.

In addition to this specification, various versions of USB are implemented for different types of devices. Among the varieties of cables and connectors of this interface are:

USB 2.0	Standard	Mini	Micro
Type A
Type B

USB 3.0 could already offer another new type - C. Cables of this type are symmetrical and can be inserted into the corresponding device from either side.

On the other hand, the third revision no longer provides Mini and Micro “subspecies” of cables for type A.

Alternative FireWire

For all its popularity, eSATA and USB are not all options for connecting an external hard drive to a computer.

FireWire is a slightly less well-known high-speed interface. Provides serial connection of external devices, which also includes the HDD.

Its property of isochronous data transfer has mainly found its application in multimedia technology (video cameras, DVD players, digital audio equipment). Hard drives are connected to them much less often, preferring SATA or a more advanced USB interface.

This technology acquired its modern technical indicators gradually. So, the original version of FireWire 400 (1394a) was faster than its then main competitor, USB 1.0 - 400 megabits per second versus 12. The maximum allowable cable length is 4.5 meters.

The advent of USB 2.0 left the rival behind, allowing you to exchange data at a speed of 480 megabits per second. However, with the release of the new FireWire 800 (1394b) standard, which allowed transferring 800 megabits per second with a maximum cable length of 100 meters, USB 2.0 was less in demand on the market. This triggered the development of the third version of the serial universal bus, which expanded the data exchange ceiling to 5 Gb / s.

In addition, a distinctive feature of FireWire is decentralization. Transferring information via the USB interface necessarily requires a PC. FireWire allows you to exchange data between devices without necessarily involving a computer in the process.

Thunderbolt

Intel, together with Apple, showed their vision of which hard drive connector should become the unconditional standard in the future, introducing the Thunderbolt interface (or, according to its old code name, Light Peak).

Built on PCI-E and DisplayPort architectures, this design allows data, video, audio, and power to be transmitted through a single port with a truly impressive speed of up to 10 Gb / s. In real tests, this indicator was a bit more modest and reached a maximum of 8 Gb / s. Nevertheless, even so, Thunderbolt overtook its closest analogues FireWire 800 and USB 3.0, not to mention eSATA.

But this promising idea of ​​a single port and connector has not yet received the same mass distribution. Although some manufacturers today successfully integrate external hard drive connectors, the Thunderbolt interface. On the other hand, the price for the technical capabilities of the technology is also relatively high, which is why this development is found mainly among expensive devices.

Compatibility with USB and FireWire can be ensured using the appropriate adapters. Such an approach will not make them faster in terms of data transfer, since the throughput of both interfaces will still remain unchanged. There is only one advantage here - Thunderbolt will not be the limiting link for such a connection, allowing you to use all the technical capabilities of USB and FireWire.

SCSI and SAS - something not everyone has heard about

Another parallel interface for connecting peripheral devices, which has shifted the focus of its development from desktop computers to a wider range of technology at one point.

The Small Computer System Interface was developed a bit earlier by SATA II. By the time the latter was released, both interfaces were almost identical to each other in their properties, able to provide a hard drive connector stable operation from computers. However, SCSI used a shared bus, which is why only one of the connected devices could work with the controller.

Further refinement of the technology, which acquired the new name SAS (Serial Attached SCSI), was already deprived of its previous drawback. SAS provides the connection of devices with a set of controlled SCSI commands via a physical interface, which is similar to the same SATA. However, wider capabilities allow you to connect not only the connectors of hard drives, but also many other peripherals (printers, scanners, etc.).

Supported by "hot swap" devices, bus extenders with the ability to simultaneously connect multiple SAS devices to one port, and also provides backward compatibility with SATA.

NAS Prospects

An interesting way to work with large amounts of data, rapidly gaining popularity among modern users.

Network Attached Storage or NAS for short is a separate computer with some disk array, which is connected to the network (often to the local one) and provides storage and data transfer among other connected computers.

Acting as a network storage, this mini-server is connected to other devices via an ordinary Ethernet cable. Further access to its settings is carried out through any browser with a connection to the NAS network address. The available data on it can be used both via Ethernet-cable, and using Wi-Fi.

This technology allows you to provide a fairly reliable level of information storage and provide convenient easy access for proxies to it.

Features of connecting hard drives to laptops

The principle of operation of the HDD with a stationary computer is extremely simple and understandable to everyone - in most cases it is required to connect the power connectors of the hard drive to the power supply with an appropriate cable and in the same way connect the device to the motherboard. When using external drives, you can generally get by with just one cable (Power eSATA, Thunderbolt).

But how to use laptop hard drive connectors? After all, a different design obliges to take into account slightly different nuances.

Firstly, to connect information storage devices directly “inside” the device itself, it should be borne in mind that the HDD form factor should be designated as 2.5 ”

Secondly, in a laptop, the hard drive is connected directly to the motherboard. Without any additional cables. Simply unscrew the cover for the HDD at the bottom of the previously turned off laptop. It has a rectangular appearance and is usually fastened with a pair of bolts. It is in that capacity that the storage device must be placed.

All laptop hard drive connectors are absolutely identical to their larger "brothers" designed for PCs.

Another connection option is to use an adapter. For example, a SATA III drive can be connected to USB ports installed on a laptop using a SATA-USB adapter (there are a lot of similar devices on the market for a wide variety of interfaces).

Just connect the HDD to the adapter. It, in turn, connect to a 220V outlet to supply power. And already with a USB cable to connect all this design with a laptop, after which the hard drive will be displayed during operation as another partition.