[gr8joel]

Hello my fellow geekstogo members,

After many hours of searching on how to find out if I have SATA ports, I have given up and turned to you guys lol.

As far as I know a SATA port has an L-shaped connection, with 7 contacts. This is what I am looking for.So far I have managed to follow the following steps:

"Start > Run > msinfo32 > Components > Storage > SCSI (or IDE) and afterwards I looked for a driver with Serial ATA or RAID in the name."

I was told that this would be my SATA controller.
Anyways I am still confused.

Here is my first computer and the link to the gateway manufactures website:
http://support.gatew...n=CCH6581010443

And here is an image I found on this website,and I believe that the image corresponds to this computer because I found it under the "my support documents" for this computer. http://support.gatew...006105Rnv.shtml

And the next computer I have is a newer model. Here is it's manufactures website page: http://www.gateway.c...t/529668220.php

Can someone please tell me if I have SATA ports on any of these computers

Thank you so much ^^

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for the second one.....if your machine is configured exactly as what's shown in the link you gave...then it's got SATA ports internally

Hard Drive 640GB 7200rpm Serial ATA II/300 hard drive with 16MB Cache4

Serial ATA = SATA

for the first....that image is useless as it's way too small...the quickest solution would be to open the side of the case and look for a sata port which looks something like this
though it may be a different color or look a little different...but basically similar to that image

[dsenette]

for the second one.....if your machine is configured exactly as what's shown in the link you gave...then it's got SATA ports internally

Hard Drive 640GB 7200rpm Serial ATA II/300 hard drive with 16MB Cache4

Serial ATA = SATA

for the first....that image is useless as it's way too small...the quickest solution would be to open the side of the case and look for a sata port which looks something like this
though it may be a different color or look a little different...but basically similar to that image

[gr8joel]

Ok for the first computer that I posted above, my girlfriend says that when they purchased the pc, it was configured a bit differently meaning they got some things put in it.

She followed these exact steps "Start > Run > msinfo32 > Components > Storage > SCSI (or IDE)" and found the words "Serial ATA controller"

Does this mean she has an internal SATA port?
Here is the image of what I captured, and the words are underlined in red.
Can someone please tell me if this means that we have SATA port in this computer.

Attached Files

•  sta.bmp   393.8KB   356 downloads

[123Runner]

On the 1st computer, if you look at the SPECIFICATION sheet it shows a primary ide, secondary ide, and 2 SATA ports.

With the given info, there is no way to know if you have a ide or sata hard drive.
If you need that info, you will need to look at the computer inside at the drive or at the board.

[gr8joel]

Ok I think I got everything so far. Thanks to all who helped me so much. I really appreciate it.
Now I have just one last question. How do you go about checking that you have SATA ports?
What is it that I am generally looking for when I visit a manufactures website?
Like what section should I generally look at?
Also where is the SATA port actually located at, is it on the motherboard, hard drive, optical drive?
It is all coming down to me actually opening these computers which I will in a day or two.
Now I just want to know how one would go about actually determining if they have SATA ports other than opening the case.

Thank you all

Also I wanted to know if anyone knows what a "VIA card" is?

Edited by gr8joel, 07 October 2009 - 08:36 PM.

[rshaffer61]

Maybe I can help with this alittle. Take a look at this example at the right lower corner of the MOBO where you will see the SATA connectors.

[dsenette]

Now I just want to know how one would go about actually determining if they have SATA ports other than opening the case.

...if you want to know if you've got sata ports...then you're probably asking the questions because you're wanting to install some hardware...so you're going to have to open up the computer to install that hardware anyway....so why not just open the computer and look? believe me...it will take two seconds and it will be definitive

[gr8joel]

Thank you everyone, I have just opened up the case and found out that there are no sata ports for the first computer. On the second I still need to open up. Thanks to everyone who helped me.

I would say this topic is just about closed now lol.
closed.