how to install sata hard drive in ata-100 ideinterface

hi,
i have a NOTEBOOK compaq v2300 series which came with 40gb ATA-100 ide 4200rpm hard drive. now, i wanted to upgrade to a 160gb sata WD or hitachi.
wanted to know:
1- how is it possible(interface converters if any?)
2- will i be able to take full advantage of sata speed with the old interface?
thanks in advance

 

ok gone thru a few but not too similar posts which say either controller or BIOS limits the transfer rate so even SATA will perform within the controller or bios limits...any ideas if even that can be changed to perform sata speed?

worst comes to worst if i have to buy an 'ata-100 160gb' does capacity and lastly manufacturer matter?

 

The only problem with convertors in a laptop would be the lack of space to accomodate the convertor & HDD. The HDD bays are designed to fit a 2.5" HDD and nothing else. So, if you want to use a convertor the HDD would probably be hanging out of the drive bay and you wont really be able to use it as a laptop anymore.

As for as the advantages in speed, there will be none since all you are doing is basically convert it back to PATA.

 

ok so i should stop thinking of any higher speeds than ATA-100.

there are ATA-100 high capacity hard drives available. will there be any problem in going for as much as 160gb?(since there is no interface issue)

 

The extra speed provided by SATA only matters for data transfers of a few MB to/from the HDD's on-board cache. Otherwise the data transfer bottleneck is the head's read/write rate which is a maximum of around 50MB/s for 160GB 2.5" HDD. so SATA offers little performance benefit and actually uses more power when on idle.

I believe that some of the older hardware has problems addressing above 137GB. I don't know the underlying reason but you won't be missing out on much since "160GB" is actually about 150GB.

John

 

thanks john...
anyone knows why is an ata 100 drives interface is described as ata-5.

 

I suspect because it came after ata-4.

More here.

John