Largest Capacity 7200RPM IDE HDD?

Hi All,

I'm looking to get a larger HDD for my Inspiron 6000 (IDE), and want to buy the biggest drive I can find. I would like it to be:

1) IDE (This way I can use it )
2) 7200 RPM (I can feel the controversy looming)
3) As many of the GB's as I can get

The biggest I have found so far is the Seagate Momentus 7200.1 ST910021A 100GB 7200 RPM ATA-6 HDD.... Anyone know of anything larger?


Thanks for the help,

-Fonz

 

At lot of the newer large 5400RPM drive benchmark pretty close to the older 7200RPM drive if you need a lot of space.

 

100GB is the largest capacity, I think. If you really want storage space, go for the 250GB 5400RPM drive, it benchmarks not that far behind the 100GB 7200RPM one.

 

Thanks for the replies! I was unaware that some of the newer 5400rpm HDDs performed that fast. Do you have any series of drive in mind?

I'm going to do some searching for benchmarks to back this up... You don't have any links, do you?

I have a HD camcorder and am not currently dropping frames during capture to the computer (fire wire) using my 7200 drive... I just want to be sure I have the same experience with one of these newer 5400 drives. I would love the extra space!

Thanks again,

-Fonz

 

Do you know what the model number of your current drive is?

Also, for the 5400RPM drives, I'd recommend something like a Western Digital Scorpio, or a Seagate Momentus 5400.3

 

Hold on! We are looking for an IDE (PATA) interface. I think the latest and fastest drives come with SATA only.

This site lists a pretty good selection (no Samsung for some reason) and the IDE interface tops out at 100GB / 7200rpm or 160GB / 5400rpm.

I also believe that some of the older BIOSes may have an addressing limit of 137GB but I don't know if this includes the I6000.

John

 

Well, most notebook drives aren't limited by the connection interface. And you can get the latest generation Seagate Momentus 5400.3 160GB, or even a 250GB 5400RPM Western Digital Scorpio. It's true about the BIOS thing though, you should check if your notebook has full LBA support for the newer drives.

 

Odin, John,
My current drive is a Hitachi HTS726060M9AT (60GB). I'm running low on space and started looking at larger drives just to find that the IDE interface, and my love for speed, has limited me to a 100GB drive max.

I know, I wish my notebook had a SATA interface... it would make my search for a larger HDD a lot easier! Unfortunately, I'm stuck with IDE: The ageing interface that the manufacturers aren't building for anymore.

Thanks for the link... FYI: It looks like IDE doesn't top out at 160GB. Check out the drive that Odin turned me onto before, the Western Digital Scorpio WD2500BEVE. 250GB of 5400rpm fun --but at a cost of about $0.80/GB! A little too rich for my blood.

I didn't think about the bios limitation, but I thought that was a limitation of FAT32 and not the BIOS? I would be surprised if the BIOS couldn't handle drives that large as the computer is only ~2yrs old. Either way, I'll check that out... Thanks!

I agree with you that the bandwidth of the interface is much greater than the sustained transfer rate of either HDD, so that’s not my reason for wanting SATA on my notebook. It's just that the manufacturers are only building for the newer SATA platform, so I'm sort of stuck with lower capacities, myself currently having IDE.

I have found a couple of direct benchmark comparisons of the few drives that I am looking at: The 100GB Seagate from before and the 160GB 5400rpm models, but I am having a hard time deciphering what that performance hit will mean to me under real use cases. The 7200rpm Seagate looks to win in every category (but one) and I think that I'm going to have to just break down and order the 100GB 7200 model.

What do you guys think?

Thanks,

-Fonz

 

If you can't afford the 250GB drive, then you're right that the 100GB 7200RPM will be your best bet for absolute best performance, though the 160GB 5400RPM isn't far behind. Check out the difference between the Hitatchi 7K100 and the Hitatchi 5K160 here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/08/02/speed_or_capacity/page8.html#write_transfer_performance

And LBA support is needed in the BIOS for large drives, though most newer computers have it (or have BIOS updates that support it). Check on your manufacturer's details page for more info.

 

There's not a lot of difference between data transfer rates for 160GB/5400 and 100GB/7200 because the higher data density largely offsets the lower rpm. However, 7200 will always win on access times because the data will get to the head a bit faster.

One other aspect is that 7200rpm will tend to run a little hotter. See the power consumption data on Tom's Hardware.

I still believe that EIDE / PATA tops out at 160GB. Pull down the Scorpio menu on the Western Digital site.

John

 

Agreed.

http://www.wdc.com/en/partners/PDF/2178-001010.pdf
Check out the EIDE section under Notebook hard drives.

 

I stand corrected.

And Googling for WD2500BEVE reveals that it exists in the retail chain, even in the UK.

John

 

Alright, so I've done a little more research and you guys are totally right about the speed of the 250GB 5400 drive (Not that I ever doubted you )

It's sitting in my shopping cart now --but I'm hesitant... I'm reading that a lot of these drives are dying after just a few weeks and the ones that aren't are having all sorts of problems with the SMART system on the drive.
Has anyone heard anything about problems with these drives? Maybe they're not quite ready for prime time.

Thanks again for all the help,

-Fonz

 

I have never used the 250GB 5400RPM EIDE drive, but the SATA version of it seems to work fine, if that's any help. Also, you have to remember that laptop hard drive, especially high end one's, tend to have more problems relative to desktop drives, so you tend to hear lots of reports of bad drives, which can be misleading (since not as many satisfied customers post comments as the dissatisfied ones).

 

Hey have you considered getting a SATA hdd in external format and tying it to your system through the PCMCIA slot?

 

I've been running the WD2500BEVS for nearly 2 months with no hint of any problems.

I previously had a Samsung HM250JI which went back because the firmware didn't work properly with the Intel 945 chipset (I think it is now fixed, but I couldn't get any sense out of Samsung support in UK - they blamed the computer).

I would expect that the WD2500BEVE currently offers the best performance for the EIDE / PATA interface.

John

 

Have you considered the fact that your notebook has a SATA interface? Correct me if you have some strong evidence to the contrary, but my Inspiron 9300 definitely used a SATA interface internally - The Linux and Windows Device managers both saw it as a SATA interface, and HDTune confirmed a SATA HD. The Inspiron 9300 and 6000 both use the 915PM chipset (or the nearly-identical 915GM if you have integrated graphics), which definitely supports SATA. Regrettably, none of the online Dell documentation specifically mentions SATA, but some other online sources (pardon the Linux-fest, those were just the first relevant results that came up in a google search for "Inspiron 6000 SATA") seem to indicate it does. Definitely worth checking out, since you're obviously willing to open the notebook anyways.

 

There's no need to open up to check the HDD interface. Use Device Manager to check the HDD model number and then Google to check the details.

It's not a safe bet to assume that chipset support for SATA means that SATA is actually used. I got a Samsung Q35 earlier this year which still used PATA but had a T5600 CPU. It seems that Samsung didn't like the higher idle power drain of SATA and were still using the older interface.

John

 

Well, here's the easy way to check. Go to your device manager, expand the "IDE/ATA ATAPI Controllers" section, and see if you have SATA controllers with drives attached (check the advanced properties -> "Drive 0" and/or "Drive 1" tabs). If your HD shows up as a SATA/SCSI device or is attached to the SATA controller, then obviously it's a SATA disk.

 

Hmmmm... The chipset may support it, but my notebook doesn't use it
I do have the 915 chipset. And you are correct -It supports SATA but, unfortunately, it's not wired out on my notebook. I checked the old fashioned way... Pulled the drive out and looked!
Thanks for the help though... I wish it did have SATA!

Odin, I totally agree with your theory. People most often don't post if the transaction goes well, and seem to always post if something does goes wrong. However, in the past I have found that on Newegg, for what ever reason, people also often chime in to discuss the positive. Here are the reviews I am talking about.

Anyone else have good luck with this drive (or problems?)

Thanks again,

-Fonz

 

Yeah, I've thought of that, but then it makes my portable laptop not so portable! I do have a 500GB USB drive that I use for backing up, but it would be nice to have everything self contained.

I expect that it would also be a more expensive solution.


Thanks for the help,

-Fonz

 

Anyone?

 

The WD diagnostic software thinks my WD2500BEVS is healthy. However, some other software isn't able to read the SMART data correctly.

Newegg seems to have the only reports of problems with that HDD. Perhaps they had a batch with some problems?

John

 

Thanks for all the help everyone. I decided to bite the bullet and buy the WD2500BEVE 250GB 5400RPM drive.

I got it in the mail today and, John, you were totally correct... The BIOS can only address the 1st 137GB

I upgraded the Inspiron 6000 BIOS to the latest version A09 (From Oct 2005... Why no more updates?) and still, no love.

I have been doing a lot of reading on the subject and there is some debate as to weather or not I can still use the drive --As long as I format it in a computer that can do LBA for >137GB.
The thought behind this is that the BIOS only needs to write and read from the drive at post (real mode), and after that it is the operating system that communicates to the drive in protected mode.

I planed on partitioning it into 2 drives: 60GB (WinXP NTFS) + Remainder_of_drive(~190GB) using my desktop which can address the entire drive.

Has anyone used a >137GB HDD in a computer who’s BIOS cannot address >137GB? Anyone know if this will cause corruption?


Thanks again,

--z

 

Read this WD support answer.

Towards the bottom it suggests the use of the Intel Application Accelerator.

I suggest you try this suggestion.

John

 

Hi John,

Thanks for responding. I know I'm long-winded, and so I was not clear...

That support answer looks like it is for if the BIOS can access >137GB, but WinXP cannot. I have the opposite problem: My BIOS can't address >137GB, but I hear WinXP should be able to!

Since we are getting off topic anyways (This should be about the largest 9.5mm IDE drive available), I have opened a new thread here:

Once again, thanks for all the help --And please continue to help out in the new thread!

Thanks,

--z