Storage units have evolved over time, adapting to market demands. At the same time that new technologies are developed to create storage units, they develop new connectors. That is why we are going to see what the most common hard drive connectors are today without going into many details, since each one has many peculiarities.
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Table of Contents
Hard drive power connectors
For a hard disk to work we need to inject a voltage into it, which will depend on several factors. The most common connectors are:
- Molex: Power connector for IDE hard drives (also called PATA). Currently this connector is in disuse, but it is still included in power supplies to power different solutions with adapters. This cable has four wires that go to four pins, whose colors are:
- Red: 5V
- Black: negative
- Black: negative
- Yellow: 12V
The black wire is also called 'grounding', but its function is the return of the voltage, it would be like the neutral of a house.
- SATA: It is based on the same four power cables as the Molex, although the type of connector and number of pins changes.
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Hard Drive Data Connectors
We have seen the standard power cables for hard drives. The Molex is now deprecated because it was used to power IDE (also called PATA) hard drives. We will see the most common data connectors or connection ports on current hard drives.
IDE (LEG)
Integrated Derive Electronic (IDE) connectors were developed in 1986 by Western Digital, Control Data Corporation and Compaq. This standard also received the designations ATA, P-ATA or PATA. Something interesting is that this connector has up to 8 different versions, reaching speeds of up to 166MB / s.
If something characterizes it, it is that it is a 40-pin connector with a central notch for the correct installation of the cable. This connector really is a pretty crude data bus. Something that also characterizes it is that between the data connector and the power connector there is a set of pins and jumpers. These were used to set the unit as primary or secondary (slave), although there were other possible configurations.
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SATA
We move on to the SATA connector, an evolution of the PATA connector that was first introduced in 2000. It is simplifies the number of data connectors necessary, wiring and connection are simplified. Something very interesting about this connector is that it allows hot removal, something that the PATA did not allow.
As with the previous model, the data connector has a design that allows it to be connected in only one position. The data cable is usually flat and very compact, unlike the PATA cable, which was wide and more difficult to manage.
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SAS
The SAS connector physically does not differ at all from the SATA connector. Something interesting about SAS hard drives is that they can be plugged into a motherboard with SATA connectors, but not the other way around. SAS hard drives are typically used for servers and advanced storage systems that require high transfer speeds.
Note that a SAS port can support the connection of multiple hard drives. SATA ports only support one storage drive, so for every SATA hard drive we need one SATA port.
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M.2
It appeared as a replacement for the mSATA port in 2009 for notebook computers. The M.2 connector is also known as Next Genration Form Factor (NGFF). Its main feature is that the storage unit is installed on the motherboard, so there are no cables.
The M.2 connectors are based on the PCI-Express 3.0 interface and more recently on the PCIe 4.0 interface. This connector can work under the PCI-Express interface and also under the SATA interface. It should be noted that the M.2 NVMe SSDs can support PCI-Express and SATA drives, while the M.2 SATA only support SATA drives.
Under PCI-Express 3.0 are achieved speeds up to 3.000MB / s (PCIe 3.0 x4) and with PCI-Express 4.0 you get up to 6.000MB / s (PCIe 4.0 x4). The M.2 bass SATA are limited by bus type to 600MB / s.
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PCI-Express
There is a variant of the M.2 that makes use of the PCI-Express ports on the motherboard, to put it simply. Storage drives based on the PCI-Express data bus can be based on combinations of M.2 drives or specific solutions.
These types of units are currently rare in the general market, but useful for professional segments. They are much more expensive units than M.2 units, although they tend to offer higher capacities and better transfer speeds.
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USB
The USB port quickly became the standard for external hard drives. Over time this connector has evolved up to the standards USB 3.0 (USB 3.2 Gen1), USB 3.1 (USB 3.2 Gen2) and USB 3.2 (USB 3.2 Gen 2 × 2). In addition to varying the standard, the type of connector also varies.
The most typical connectors are the mini-USB and micro-USB to communicate the hard disk with the computer. We must distinguish between those based on the USB 2.0 standard and the USB 3.0 standard and later. Those based on the 2.0 standard require additional power, while those based on USB 3.0 and later are typically powered directly from the USB port. This reduces the number of cables.
More recently, hard drives based on the Type-C connector, also known as reversible USB or universal USB, have been launched. This connector is beginning to be standardized, with few external hard drives still integrating it. It also has the ability to power the hard drive without the need for other connectors.
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