How many SATA hard drives can connect to a single SATA interface?

How many SATA hard drives or devices can connect to a single SATA interface on a motherboard?

A) One

B) Two

C) Four

D) Sixteen

The answer: A) One

Unlike PATA or SCSI technology, SATA interfaces support only one device at the end of the cable. If you’ve ever had to fight with the master/slave configuration in PATA technology, you’ll appreciate the difference!

The incorrect answers:

B) Two
PATA is a good example of a drive technology that supports up to two devices per motherboard interface.

C) Four
There’s no common hard drive interface type that has a maximum of four devices per interface, although SCSI can easily support four drives on a single interface.

D) Sixteen
Most SCSI standards support a maximum of sixteen drives on a single interface. If you want to surround yourself with storage, this is the interface type for you!

Want to know more? Watch “SATA Drive Technology.” Serial ATA is the latest standard in high-speed hard drive storage, and it’s used in both large enterprise networks and consumer laptops and desktops. In this video, we’ll show you how SATA cables and configuration options are different than other available storage formats.