Upgrading HDD, need help on which ones will fit!!!!

I have a 60GB 4200rpm hardrive at the moment in my notebook (see my sig). I am hoping to get a Seagate momentus 120GB 7200rpm. The QUESTION is would it fit in my notebook????

Thanks for any help!!!

 

Dependst. It's not about the amount of gb, it's about the actual size of the drive. Laptops take 2.5" ones, so as long as u get that kind, it doesnt really matter what the specs of it are.

 

What is the model number of your current HDD? (Look in Device Manager). Then check the specs for the HDD. Almost all recent / current notebook HDDs are 2.5" size and 3/8" (9.5mm) thick although a few are 1/2" (12.5mm) thick. However, some HDDs have the PATA (IDE) interface while others have the SATA interface. Getting a new HDD with the right interface is your main requirement.

John

 

Yeah i forgot to say that the seagate momentus i was looking at was 2.5''

Secondly the interface is what i am not sure about! I know its not PATA, its say ATA.

here is more info about my existing hdd: http://www.netcomdirect.com/tomk60at942n.html

 

Mine says ATA but I know it is PATA, so be careful!

 

oh bummer! How can I tell?

 

You need another ATA-6 drive, I believe, such as these.

 

How did you know its ATA-6????

Edit: HDtune tells me its ATA/ATAPI-6 im so confused!

 

Because you posted it?? The link you gave to it's specs specified the interface type, ATA-6.

ATA-6 is also known as ATA/ATAPI-6 and Ultra ATA/100.

 

Oh yeah..... how the heck did I miss that out!?!?! lol

Thanks for all the help guys!!!

Edit: Is there a guide here on NBR about all the interfaces that I could read up on???

 

Try this, it should explain some things.

 

Thanks odin! That will be my reading for tomorrow

 

This site says

The 44 pin connector indicates Parallel ATA.

This site gives you a good selection of 120GB PATA HDDs. (It's a British site but is one of the best sources for seeing different makes of HDDs all together (except for no Samsung HDDs listed). There may not be a 7200 120GB Seagate with PATA. 160GB 5400rpm will give very similar performance.

John

 

Man.....I am even more confused now! Is ATA-100 and PATA the same thing??? or even ATA-6?!?!?!

 

Yes.

Just avoid anything which says SATA and you will be fine.

John

 

Hi,
I purchased a Seagate Momentus 5400.3 160GB ATA for my Gateway 3550gz.
I installed windows xp sp1 and the laptop cannot boot into windows. I keep getting the blue screen error with "invalid work queue item" as an error message.

I can boot into safe mode fine though. Any clues to what's wrong?

Thanks in advance

Nathan

 

Yes, Parallel ATA is merely a retroactive renaming of the original ATA connection, to limit confusion between ATA and Serial ATA.

Any 2.5" ATA-6 hard drive should work.

 

The problem is the driver for the HDD interface. Your hardware is newer than the interface driver built into XP SP1. Safe mode doesn't use a special driver. I would recommend that you get the XP SP2 file from Microsoft then use nLite to build a new XP installation CD which includes SP2. You can also build all the specific drivers for your notebook into the installation CD so there will be less work to do after XP installation.

John