ATA/100 compatible with ATA/33 or ATA/66?

[JWorld]

Hello, everyone,

My computer system only supports ATA/33 or ATA/66 IDE interface hard disks.

But the hard disks I found are mostly ATA/100. I wonder if I could install an ATA/100 hard disk on my computer. Would the new disk just operate at the speed of ATA/66, or it will generate too much heat and damage the system by operating at the speed of ATA/100?

THANKS

 

[edfair]

It will be backwards compatible to work with what you have.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[cdogg]

If you want to get the full speed out of the drive (or if you already have 3-4 IDE devices), you could buy an add-in PCI IDE card that supports ATA/100 or ATA/133. That way, the drive can have its very own channel and run at its spec.

Of course, getting the full speed out of the drive might not really matter when there are bigger bottlenecks (CPU, RAM, etc) as there are in older PC's. So in that case, the PCI card option might not be too important.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884