Hard Disk Drive Type

There are several types of interfaces available,
A brief history/guide to the various technologies are described below:

IDE - Integrated Drive Electronics
This is a popular term, it really should be called ATA - Advanced Technology Attachment. One of the earliest types. Also known as ATA-1. Data transfer rate of about 8Mbps (8 million bits per second).

EIDE - Enhanced IDE
Also known as ATA-2 or fast ATA, offered speeds of upto 16Mbps.

ATA-3
This was a minor revision to ATA-2.

ATA-4
Also known as Ultra ATA/33, Ultra DMA, ATA-33 and DMA-33. Transfer speeds of upto 33Mbps. This was revised to offer support for CD ROM drives and was known as ATAPI (ATA Packet Interface).

ATA-5
Also known as Ultra ATA/66, ATA-66 and Ultra DMA-66. Transfer speeds of upto 66Mbps.

ATA-6
Also known as Ultra ATA/100, ATA-100 and Ultra DMA-100. Transfer speeds of upto 100Mbps.

ATA-7
Also known as Ultra ATA-133, ATA-133 and Ultra DMA-133. Offers speeds of upto 133Mbps and is expected to be the last update to the ATA standard.

SATA - Serial ATA
This is one of the latest and popular developments. The high speed serialized AT attachment. Currently SATA offers ransfer speeds of upto 150Mbps. However, this technology can offer upto 600Mbps with further development. The next stage is increasing the speed to 300Mbps.