by: Allen Drake

There are SATA cables that lock into place and do not fall out. SATA beats those cumbersome IDE cables hands down. There are devices that can be used to convert one to the other and attach to drive or motherboard. There are PCI cards that add SATA ports to motherboard. You can totally trash your old style cables in favor of SATA at very little cost. SATA speeds are increasing from SATA I to SATA III.

Al.

by: Porkus_Bellus

Same problem, especially the first generation sATA data cables. Had an experience with an A-Bit motherboard where the cable kept falling out of the SATA-1 header. Just get a squeeze tube of clear silicone (GE Silicone II), apply a dab to an ice cream stick, and then cover the connector at the joint. So, we’ve gone from the really nice serial port connectors and printer parallel port connectors that all joined securely with metal screws to the crap that sell now. How pathetic.

by: Anonymous

I find SATA far better almost in every way, but there are some flaws.

I find SATA far more likely to breakdown as the cable connections are flimsy compared to IDE, you only have to sneaze and the SATA cable falls out of it’s socket.

I find IDE a lot more rugged and reliable although far slower with data transference. My parents have a SATA hard drive and they have had nothing but problems with it and often it’s due to loose wiring.

IDE despite being old-fashioned (out of date) does have some advantages in reliability. SATA will soon replace the IDE HDDs, which is already happening, I just hope that connections would be more modified to be more reliable.

by: Reuben

Yeah mate, I agree with you. The SATA cables always fall out of my computer to, and force my PC to start on my second hard drive.

It’s annoying I need to keep plugging the SATA cable back into the hard drive…