sata to ide hdd laptop adaptor

hi,
i have an internal ide Hard disk drive install in my laptop.it is 60GB capacity and it is not enough for me. i would like to upgrade/change to about 160gb or 250 gb but the problem is, many pc shops now only sell SATA hdd. any adaptor to make it fit into my laptop? or any other solution?

(note: i don't want to use the external hdd)

thanks for any help

 

you're not the first one to ask and probably won't be the last....

No such adapter yet. May not ever be. There are space and power constraints in laptops that may preclude an ide-sata adapter.

 

Not just space and power. SATA->IDE is very complex... it's not just moving the pins around. It would require an onboard processor doing all kinds of command translation and such. Like newsposter said, it's probably not gonna happen. You might want to check online to see if you can get an IDE hard drive of higher capacity, and if that isn't an option, your next option is to start saving your pennies for a new machine that has SATA.

 

Before you go about getting a larger hard drive make sure your bios even has 48bit addressing support required to properly and reliably support a hard drive larger than 137gb's in size. Most laptops with IDE controllers do NOT have such support. Putting a 160gb or larger hard drive in one of these laptops is a sure fire disaster waiting to happen. There are NO reliable work arounds for actual 48bit addressing at the bios level and anyone who tells you different is wrong. There are some kludges that sometimes work, but they will eventually fail with the loss of all of your data.

 

Can't you just buy a 160 or 250GB IDE harddrive by yourself from elsewhere (internet maybe) and take it to your local shop to install it for you?

 

sata<>ide adapters are single chip interfaces. very simple. just not enough room in an old lappie for the things once you account for connectors.

 

Such adapter exist, but only for 12mm hdd bay. It's basically a board slightly longer than the hdd itself. You put standard hdd on top of the circuit board and plug the circuit board directly into the pata interface. It's quick and easy.

 

link please...

 

If you have a little bit of extra space then could use this adapter. If have no space then could make a a variant of the DIY sata-to-zif adapter.

Easiest option would be to just get a 160GB HM160HC or 320GB WD3200BEVE 2.5" IDE HDD OR if you have an optical drive, swap it out and use a sata-to-pata optical bay caddy to house your sata hdd. See sig for more details.

 

I would suggest a larger IDE and/or a Sata external drive.

 

Maybe = http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822707021

 

http://www.cooldrives.com/2sahadrtoide.html

 

"Suitable for POS Systems (will not fit into most laptops)"

 

NO there no such adapter for laptops period. they do sell 320GB IDE 2.5" HDD.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010150380 1035907889&name=ATA-6 , but like I stated previously, make sure your bios has native 48bit support before you go with anything larger than 137gigs in size.

 

Yes , this would be best option.. IMO , not worth the effort to do PATA to SATA... also its complex and most likely not to work.. getting a PATA drive is ur best option...

 

i have contacted my PC shop. they do sell 160GB and 250GB IDE/PATA laptop HDD. my question is, does the HDD will work with my laptop? this is because my installed HDD is only 60GB. it is Acer aspire 3680, intel celeron [email protected].

Thanks for reply

 

what is 48bit addressing support? how to know if i have that support

i check by SIW, (System Information for Windows), and it says,

Transfer Mode : (Current / Max) Ultra DMA-100 / Ultra DMA-100
Features : S.M.A.R.T., APM, 48bit LBA, AAM (Disabled)

 

Then it looks like you're good to go for even the 250GB drive.

 

or a 320GB one.. what are the prices? The shop might rip u off as IDE drives are way more expensive than SATA ones now.

 

so mine support larger than 137gb?

 

Yes. That's what the last couple of people have stated.

--------------------8<------------------- <snip> ------------------

You need to make sure that your XP install disk is at least SP1 level or higher for it to recognize a hard drive larger than 137gb in size. You can integrate SP1, SP2, or SP3 into your XP Install Disk by using nLite as per this guide.

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=117189

------

 

i am using windows 7 32 bit..is it possible?

 

As long as the rest of the hardware is Win 7 compatible then yes. Vista and Win 7 both have 48bit support so that would not be a problem. I'm just not used to people putting Win 7 on older systems like that so I didn't bring that up.

 

Geez man , what do u have against windows 7? It can easily be used on 6 year old machines... notebookcheck.com proved that but OP , ur really better off using XP... windows 7 might be too much for ur old notebook.

 

sean, stop reading things into my posts and trying to start an argument. This is neither the time nor the place for that. I stated no preference or made no recommendation on the OS of any type. I just posted what would need to be done to XP to get it to recognize the larger hard drive since XP is what the system came with originally and the OP hadn't stated a preference in prior posts. I just warned him to be sure that all of the hardware on that system was fully supported under Win 7 PRIOR to installing that which is something any responsible person would recommend the OP do. I don't understand why you decided to make an issue out of it. Acer doesn't support that model under Win 7 with no driver support and you yourself don't think Win 7 is right for that model so what the heck did I do wrong? Most people would either go with XP or Win 7 so under those paramaters I made the logical assumption that he would more than likely be using the fully supported XP rather than the unsupported Win 7 or the performance robbing Vista. Seems like a logical assumption to me.

 

win 7 support most all of my hardware..

 

Just get a WD3200BEVE. 320GB, IDE, problem solved.

$85 at Amazon.com
http://www.google.com/products/cata...PiB4b0iQTYt9SxDw&sa=title&ved=0CAcQ8wIwADgA#p

 

does the 160GB,250GB and 320Gb run at same speed? or, the higher the capacity the slower the system would be?

 

Actually, given similar drives, the higher the capacity the faster the drive. If not faster, they should be equal.

This isn't a hard fact, but a general rule, reason being, the larger drive is usually newer.

 

thanks for your info.... i will upgrade my HDD in June..

 

why wait so long? PATA drives are becomming more expensive as time goes on.. u might want to buy and keep one and then upgrade in june... it might be more expensive in june..

 

i've successfully installed the 160GB HDD today. as u know, it is more pricey than the SATA. it works great!!!