When 2.5-inch SATA SSDs finally became affordable, the popularity of hard drives naturally saw a huge dip. Switching from a hard drive to a SATA SSD promised an instant boost to system ...

There is no need for a master or slave distinction with SATA drives because they each connect to the motherboard with their own SATA cable. Two IDE/PATA drives, on the other hand, could share the ...

Some older models are SATA internally, but those are increasingly rare. See also PCWorld’s guide to the best external drives if you’re looking strictly for a portable storage solution.