2013-01-26, 03:58
Are the new SATA III Hard Drives backward compatible with the older SATA specifications? I have an older Gateway Desktop (bought around 2008) which has 500GB, I want to add 2 internal drives. I am guessing it supports SATA I, because it has IDE port. I am not sure if the motherboard will recognize the new drives ( I have about 4 SATA connectors available). I want to rebuild the OS, originally had Vista, but want to install Windows 7 or 8 on a new hard drive. I would be fine if the drive transferred slightly slower until I buy a newer NAS. I would be using it to stream 720p/1080p HD content to 2 ( and 1 ipad ) different XBMC HTPC's. I am thinking it wouldn't be too much slower slower than the USB 2 1.5GB external drive I have.