I have recently changed my mother board and cpu. The new mother board supports both the SATA and PATA interfaces. I have my old PATA harddisk(40 GB) and considering to by a new 120 GB HDD.
When I enquire at the local computer shop, they said that 120GB now is coming only with the SATA interface. At present I want to know whether it is possible to keep and use both the SATA and PATA disk simultaneously before purchasing the 120 GB.Please help.
You can only use PATA and SATA simultaneously if your motherboard supports both since they are connected in a different way using different cables.
Every motherboard I have seen which allows for both lets you use them both at the same time, although I suppose there can be ones that don't.
If you really want to use the old disk but only have SATA on your motherboard then you could buy a USB caddy to slot it into. However, that's probably just as expensive as a new hard disk with much higher capacity.
It.s really possible to use SATA and PATA drives together. I have never seen a motherboard that doesn't support it. Also SATA really is taking over PATA so with an eye on the future you should buy a SATA disk. New motherboard mostly have only one PATA connector left for using with optical drives, hard-disks are expected to all become SATA.
Good luck 
Many computer only support one or the other. My new dell only supports sata. You do have options. One easy solution is to get a pata to sata adapter. If you have a compusa store near you you can get them at 30%off since they are going out of business. I bought 2 and they work great. You could also get a pci adapter card, or get an enclosure and make it a usb external drive.
if it has ports for both then u can use both. Plus i recommend sata since it'll be cheaper cause old tech. costs more. Thats just how tech works.
