Question : Problem: SATA and IDE Hard drives

What are the differences between a SATA and a IDE hard drive. I understand the physical differences (SATA with a serial cable) but what about performance? Whay is SATA so popular today?

Answer : Problem: SATA and IDE Hard drives

SATA is serial ATA, as opposed to parallel ATA (what most IDE drives are).  The connector for SATA is much smaller than PATA and the speed difference is SATA currently goes up to 150MBytes/sec versus 133MBytes/sec max for PATA.  In the future, this will be even greater (300MBytes/sec for SATA II).  SATA does not share connections with other devices: one cable per drive.

http://www.pcguide.com.au/Reviews/storage/satavpata/page1.php