On Thu, Sep 28, 2017 at 05:36:40PM -0700, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote: [...] > What I find perplexing is the acronym "SATA" for "Serial ATA". The name would > imply that a drive can be connected to a 5170, but I'm not aware of any SATA > adapters for the 5170 PC/AT.
SATA has a different electrical interface, but otherwise speaks the same protocol as the older (P)ATA protocol. Converters are cheap and readily available. So yes, you could stick a SATA disk in your old 5170, assuming that the BIOS doesn't immediately faint when presented with a very large disk.