[LPDad]

Hi Sam

IDE drives are those that connect to the motherboard with a wide flat Cable. Typically these drives are found on all Computers that older than 2 years. These drives are currently slower the the newer drives and will probably be phased out completely in the near future....in fact Seagate announced a few months ago that they will stop producing them at years end.

ATA (SATA... for Serial ATA) drives are the newer drives and were first introduced about 2-3 years ago. These drives are used in most of the new computes being sold today. They connect to the motherboard via a very small flat cable. Recently the newest SATA drives have 2 settings, the original 1.5 speed and a newer 3.0 speed. to use the 3.0 speed you need a newer motherboard that supports it. typically these drives have a little switch that lets you choose between the 2 speeds.

The SCSI drives are pretty damn fast, they have been around for a long time, and are typically VERY EXPENSIVE. Very few home computers have these kind of drives. Most of the time you need a special controller card plugged into your motherboard that controls the SCSI.

If your computer is 3 years old the you most probably need a IDE Drive.
if your computer is 2-3 years old you could have either an IDE or a SATA. Simply open the case and look at the type of cable that connects your motherboard to the hard drive. If it is wide and flat you have an IDE.
If it is connected with a small cable (about the size of a childs finger) then you have a SATA drive.

I doubt if you have a SCSI drive.

Hope this helps.

-Kim