[JerryHobby]

I have an HP laptop and currently it has a 100G 4800rpm ATA-100 drive installed. I found a Hitachi drive that is a 160G 5400rpm ATA-7 drive, which would be a great upgrade IMO. Before I purchase the drive, I want to know if the newer drive will work in my laptop.

Thanks!

Jerry

 

[hwm54112]

As long as it's a laptop drive (2.5") it will be fine. There's not much difference between ATA-6 (ATA-100) and ATA -7 IDE Interface

 

[TheMatt]

Hi Jerry,

I have never seen a laptop ATA-7 drive, all I have seen are ATA-6. While I'm not suggesting that one doesn't or couldn't exist, I would double check that it is in fact a 2.5" drive as hwm54112 has suggested and not a 3.5" drive. If it is a 3.5", it will be too big.

 

[JerryHobby]

That's what I thought

That's what I thought. But I wanted to double-check, just to avoid any restocking fees. So I wrote to HP support email and they said:

I would like to inform you that your notebook internal hard disk drive bay only supports 9.5mm ATA-100 hard disk drives.

Additionally if you are interested in purchasing the hard drive, the drive specifications are 100.0GB ATA-100 EIDE hard drive - 4,200 RPM, 2.5in form factor, 9.5mm height. The cost is $575.00. ​

I would never even consider buying a drive at DOUBLE RETAIL PRICE under any circumstances. But setting price aside, the answer from HP seems geared towards sales and not about giving accurate information to the customer.

So thanks for your response. I think I'll go grab that drive tomorrow.

Jerry

 

[JerryHobby]

It does exist

Here is the model # HTS541616J9AT00

It comes in ATA-7, SATA, capacities up to 160G, and is a Travelstar drive (notebook).

It is a very nice drive. You can read more about it on Hitachi's site: http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/5k160/5k160_ov.htm

Search for that model number and you'll find it for $150 to $200 or so. It's fast, low power, high capacity, and not a bad price either.


If you know of other high capacity notebook drives, feel free to share.

 

[hwm54112]

I would like to inform you that your notebook internal hard disk drive bay only supports 9.5mm ATA-100 hard disk drives.

This might be a little bit true. Technically the laptop may not support ATA 7 drives (133MBps Transfer speed) but ATA 7 drives will work but only at the speed of an ATA 6 (100MBps Transfer speed) (the ATA spec is backward compatible). That performance difference is negligible and is more than offset by the faster spin. You should notice the performance increase resulting from the spin and be happy with it, especially your boot time.

If you are going to clone your old drive to the new one, most of us on the forum suggest
http://www.xxclone.com/ . It’s faster and more reliable than the manufacturer’s utilities

 

[JerryHobby]

the laptop may not support ATA 7 drives (133MBps Transfer speed) but ATA 7 drives will work but only at the speed of an ATA 6 (100MBps Transfer speed) (the ATA spec is backward compatible).

That's exactly what I expected. HP could have said that too.

Never heard of XXCLONE. Thanks for that tip.

I really appreciate your quick responses.

Jerry