1.Can someone explain to me the differences between:

SATA
SATA 2
SATA 2.0
SATA II
SATA I
SATA 1.0
SATA 150
SATA 300
SATA 150MByte/s
SATA 300MByte/s
SATA 1.5Gbit/s
SATA 3Gbit/s

2. Can someone tell me the combatibility inter-compatibility of the interfaces listed above?

3. A HDD's manufacturer part number should be the best way to identify a HDD, however there are many online sellers with poor product labels/names that are really confusing. What do you guys usually do to aviod buying the wrong product?

Someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think I am.

All of the above that you are asking about are different ways of displaying the two levels of SATA that are currently on the market.

SATA I
Transfers data at upto 150 Mbytes per second (1.5Gbits/second)

SATA II
Is more recent and transfers at upto 300 Mbytes per second (3.0Gbits/second)


Eventually there are plans to release a SATA III, though I have no idea when that will be released, much less when a product will be availible. Hope this helps.

From what i know:

SATA, SATA I, SATA 1.0, SATA 150 are all the same, as well as
SATA 2, SATA 2.0, SATA II, SATA 300 are also all the same.
The 150MByte/s or 1.5Gbit/s | 300 MByte/s 3Gbit/s refer to the theoretical top transfer speed of the drive, SATA I being 150 MByte/s and SATA II being 300MByte/s.

They will all work in either SATA or SATA 2 ports.

EDIT: The poster above beat me to it. He is bang on. There is only 2 different types of SATA drives on the market. SATA 1 and SATA2.

Thanks. That solves all my questions about interfaces, as well as online product names.

If it's like this, then I think there is no point in creating 2 SATA interfaces, since they ALL work in all SATA I or II ports.

If it's like this, then I think there is no point in creating 2 SATA interfaces, since they ALL work in all SATA I or II ports.

There is only one port type used by both SATA and SATA II. There aren't two types.

All the ports are compatible but if you pkug a SATA 2 drive into a SATA 1 port, it will run at SATA 1 speeds. Sorry, forgot to mention that.

Also I've found some interesting articles on google.

Basically, SATA II is not a specification of interface type for SATA devices. SATA II is rather the name of the organization formed to author the SATA specifications. They changed their name to SATA-IO (Serial ATA International Organization). However, this have created real pain and confusions for customers, because many sellers use "SATA II" to represent the 3Gb/s specification hard drives, or even SATA 1.5Gb/s drives. There is no such thing as a second generation of SATA ("SATA II" ). So, in conclusion:

SATA 1.0 = "SATA I" = SATA 150 = SATA 1.5Gb/s = SATA 150MB/s
SATA 2.0 = "SATA I" = SATA 300 = SATA 3.0Gb/s = SATA 300MB/s

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-ATA#SATA.2F300

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2450

http://www.sata-io.org/namingguidelines.asp

Ah but then again what is the real difference between the sata 1 and sata 2. Even though the large glaring speed difference is obvious, don't forget about sata 2 new features like

command queing
hot swap
delayed startup
and some more I've probably forgotten.

The gotcha is that sata 2 (sata-io) does not mandate these features, it is up to the hard drive manufacturer to decide on which features they want to emplement on a hard drive. So if you are looking for these features be very careful the hard drive you buy actually has what you're are looking for!