Information about SATA, IDE (PATA) controllers

Question

I have a remote computer on which I want to install a new hard drive for rsync backup. The problem is, I don't know what controller technology is used (PATA, SATA, SATA2, ...) and how many available slots are left. I'd like to obtain this information remotely, rather than physically opening up the chassis and looking at wires.

How do I query the SATA or PATA controllers? I'm interested in the following points:

• Which controllers exist in the machine
• How many (and which) disks are attached to each controller
• How many available slots are there

Solution 1

I can only link you to one of my answers on Which hard disk is which.

Basically what you are looking for is hwinfo --disk and hwinfo --storage-ctrl.

Solution 2

You can also use the "Disk Utility" found in system/administration. Or type Disk Utility in HUD.

Solution 3

I think what you are looking for is lshw.

Comments

[Allan]

you should find what you need here askubuntu.com/questions/27997/which-hard-disk-drive-is-which‌​/…

[Adam Matan]

Couldn't find the CLI tool that would work for a remote server.