SATA external drive via USB cable to legacy box?
 

Legacy box is SoYo MB PATA only; Slack10.2, 2.6.13 kernel..
All PATA drives I've tried with two IDE to USB cables work fine but was wondering if the cable will work with a SATA drive to the same box, or would I need a SATA to IDE converter, whatever..
Maybe this is a stupid query?? TIA..
Hal..

Why not plug it in and see?

One would normally convert an external drive to usb, then plug it in to the computers usb port - like this. Does not normally matter what sort of drive it is as far as the computer is concerned, its all usb.

You are writing as if you have a cable that plugs into the ide controller at one end and has a usb socket at the other.

There are similar cables to the one posted above that also support SATA. If you do not see a SATA connector on the adapter then the answer is no. PATA and SATA power cables are completely different too. If you do not have a power adapter then the answer is also no.

If you can post any additional information on your particular adapter it might help.

Thank you Simon and Michaelk; you answered my query.. I can now buy a SATA drive and know that it will work with my existing USB cables that do have the SATA power and data support..
Since the legacy machines don't have internal SATA support I thought there may be some hidden issues.. Computers are good for that, eh??
Thanks again, Hal.

There is one hidden issue.
SATA drives are found to be more fragile in handling by an IT manager friend of mine who buys disks in bulk, fills them with archive images (tiff) and moves them around. Let them stop before moving them, and don't be rough. ide were a lot tougher (Guess he lost a few :)