Serial Advanced Technology Attachment is a standard for connecting internal storage drives, such as hard disks and optical drives, to a computer motherboard. It replaced the older parallel ATA (PATA) standard by using serial signaling over a compact, seven-pin cable, which improved airflow and increased data transfer speeds. While still ubiquitous for bulk storage, it is being superseded by NVMe for high-performance solid-state drives.
Make sure you plug the boot drive into the first SATA port on the board.
Also heard as
- Serial ATA
Related terms
PATA
An older computer bus standard for connecting storage devices using parallel signaling.
IDE
An older interface standard used to connect storage devices to computer motherboards.
EIDE
Extended Integrated Drive Electronics was a standard interface for connecting storage drives.
Hard disk
A rigid magnetic platter used for non-volatile data storage inside a drive mechanism.