Talk:Parallel ATA

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Floppy disk

Unless I'm missing something, while the lead mentions this connector is used for floppy disk drives, there doesn't appear to be any discussion of the actual floppy disc connector (which looks similar, but has fewer pins and also uses a different power connector (at least for 3.5" drives)). If there is an article already for that connector, we should probably link to it from here as they look very similar. —Locke Cole • t • c 17:27, 5 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

See Floppy disk drive interface, also linked to from Shugart bus. The original ST-506 interface was derived from the floppy interface, but PATA isn't. There were quite a lot of interfaces with ribbon connectors around back then. --Zac67 (talk) 18:15, 5 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

So is the lead accurate that the connection was used for floppy drives (I've only ever seen the one you linked at floppy disk drive interface)? —Locke Cole • t • c 20:05, 5 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The lede says "connection" not "connector." Apparently one can buy an IDE FDD which would make the lede correct. I believe the 3.5-inch FDDs use a 34 pin version of the type of connector, originally from 3M, that is used in 50 pins for some forms of PATA interface. I suggest there is no need for a discussion of the connector similarities in this article. Tom94022 (talk) 07:10, 6 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed. The lead talks about connecting floppy disk drives using PATA, which is/was the common thing for SuperDisk and Zip drive. --Zac67 07:41, 6 July 2025 (UTC)

OK, but the lead links to actual floppy disks, so either an explanation about why we're linking to that needs to be in the body somewhere (per summary style writing), or the link needs to be removed. —Locke Cole • t • c 14:06, 6 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Why? The lede also links to optical disc drives and tape drives some which also can connect thru PATA and it doesn't mention SSDs - if anything, we should add them. Tom94022 (talk) 15:57, 6 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Optical disc drives used the connector discussed here. Floppy disk drives, to my knowledge, never did (and at any rate, this article never discusses them directly, but rather Superfloppy variants that never had the wide acceptance of what most people would consider a floppy disk). I never used a tape drive so I can't speak to that. I'm also not aware of any SSDs that utilized PATA (AFAIK they began as PCIEx initially, then SATA, before NVME and M.2 took over).

Just to be crystal clear here: if there's some reliable sources that discuss actual floppy disk drives using PATA (and the 40-pin connector described in this article) then let's add it. I can't possibly know everything.

Also, you keep using the term lede, just to be clear, Wikipedia does not have "lede" sections, we have lead sections (see WP:NOTALEDE for more on that and why the distinction is important, at least on this project). —Locke Cole • t • c 20:54, 6 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]