Will an IDE adapter fit on these hds?

Hi Cybertechs,

I have a 44 pin laptop hd. I am going to get a new hd. But before I do, I need to know if my dell adapter -- that is needed to fit OVER the IDE pins, so that I can seat it internally -- will fit on these hds. Otherwise the hd will not run on my computer!

Will an IDE adapter fit on these hds?

Serial ATA
ATA/ATAPI-7
DMA/ATA-100 (ULTRA)
SAS
PATA 100
EIDE
What if it says that its interface is SATA 1/ DMA/ATA-100 (ULTRA)/ ATA/ATAPI-6
interface: DMA/ATA-100 (ULTRA)/ ATA/ATAPI-6
MPN: WD1200VERTL

To simplify...

There are two main types of hard drives...PATA and SATA. And there are SSDs, which are somewhat different and will ultimately (IMO) replace PATA and SATA hard drives. The cables which fit SATA hard drives also fit SSDs.

A graphic illustrating each is at http://www.apricorn.com/what-hard-drive-do-i-need-sata-or-pata/ .

The connectors for each...are very different from the other, with SATA connectors being less wide than PATA connectors.

http://www.directron.com/patasata.html

Louis

Glad to make your aquaintance

Man, that was an AWESOME post. "Visual" verification, simplification, and great links -- WOW!! You are the nicest and smartest person that I have talked to for a while. This other person that I talked to about whether or not a DMA/ ATA-100 (ultra) was compatible with my laptop or not went on an on for 5 replies about the technicalities of jargon in how I was naming certain aspects of the hardware, such as the adapter that fits on the hd [required to run]; and would not give me a straight answer.

That is all I needed, was a SIMPLE "yes" or "no" followed by a possible response. But they didn't do that. It can be so confusing when they don't answer your question. What I wanted to say to them, was, "do you think that I would be asking you if I knew, or was an expert on the subject?"

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Okay, last question:
If you look at the a hd's description, but do not see a picture of it, and it says that its interface is--
Interface: SATA 1/ DMA/ATA-100 (ultra)/ ATA/ATAPI-6
Then how do you know which one it is?

QUESTION
So hd's fall into these two categories. Is the following correct for which group that they belong to?

:::SATA:::
Serial ATA
ATA/ATAPI-7
SAS
MPN: WD1200VERTL

:::PATA:::
DMA/ATA-100 (ULTRA)
PATA 100
EIDE

Captain Kirk

You are making it more complicated than it is.

Serial ATA = SATA

SAS is used in servers not in a laptop. Connector looks like a SATA drive connector

PATA = EIDE = IDE (PATA = Parellel ATA)

For your laptop look for IDE only.

Easy.

Good Luck
Roger

Problem solved.

Guess I'll just have to guess about an hd [whether its IDE or SATA] if I can't see a picture of it when it specifies its interface as--

Interface: SATA 1/ DMA/ATA-100 (ultra)/ ATA/ATAPI-6

Interface: SATA 1/ DMA/ATA-100 (ultra)/ ATA/ATAPI-6

Do you have a link to somewhere this description is used? It doesn't make sense to me.

Perhaps if we can see where it comes from, we could resolve some confusion.

The cables which fit SATA hard drives also fit SSDs.

Sorry, but that is not necessarily so. As seen here there are many PATA/EIDE SSD drives available. Therefore, it is essential you do your homework and choose one your system supports.

It came from ebay. This was the "description" of the item. But I'm not quite sure where it is. I'd have to look for it again, and there are a lot of them to go through [150+]

You cannot see a quick description of the item, you have to click on it, then click on it again to get to the second page; and then once read, you have to click two times back -- all this for 1 item: 150#

But next time I look, I'll see if I see something like this again and let you know. It may be a couple of days. This whole process really takes a long time: there are a lot of them!!

Problem solved.

Guess I'll just have to guess about an hd [whether its IDE or SATA] if I can't see a picture of it when it specifies its interface as--

Interface: SATA 1/ DMA/ATA-100 (ultra)/ ATA/ATAPI-6

If you see a description like that go no further, run away. That seller has no idea what they are selling or they don't care.

That description says that the drive is a SATA but then it says it is a IDE. No way for one drive o be both for a laptop, I'll go further, I've never seen a drive with both interfaces.

Do not forget that a laptop drive is a 2.5" (Inch) and desktop drives are 3.5", So you need a 2.5" IDE drive form what you described.

Roger

<<If you look at the a hd's description, but do not see a picture of it, and it says that its interface is--
Interface: SATA 1/ DMA/ATA-100 (ultra)/ ATA/ATAPI-6
Then how do you know which one it is?>>

No picture, no buy ...no specs, no buy, that's my philosophy.

Well...first of all, it depends on who is posting the data. I see now that you are considering hard drives listed on eBay...whereas I believe in not using eBay for hard drive purchazes. Reliable retailers are my source because they tend to know what they are doing when listing materials, whereas...I consider eBay an open market of some sort where the veracity of statements/ads...may be suspect.

I think of it this way...SSDs are not hard drives technically, they are a special category at the moment...but they have SATA connectors.

"Hard drives" are either PATA or SATA, all the other spec data listed is basically unimportant for most users. If it is a SATA drive, I have always seen that noted in the drive specs/description.

To further confuse things...drive manufacturers may produce drives with the same miscellaneous specs...in both PATA and SATA models, so I go by the description. If it doesn't indicate that it's a SATA drive, I look up the model number (using Google) just to confirm that it has PATA interface. The specs for a drive will list the type of connector interface. A picture will also provide the same data if it's the correct pic for the listed drive.

Since the utility of a hard drive is totally dependent on knowing the type of connectors involved...the absence of such information would send me to another vendor.

Louis

By the way, thanks for the clarification. You can see how I was confused by this statement [interface], which is especially more difficult when you barely understand what it all means in the first place.

So model#
MPN: WD1200VERTL

is IDE?

Someone said that there was a way to tell what kind of drive it is by looking at the last two letters [IDE OR SATA].
Is this true, and can you do this will ALL model#'s

So model#
MPN: WD1200VERTL

is IDE?

As seen here, yes.

Someone said that there was a way to tell what kind of drive it is by looking at the last two letters [IDE OR SATA].
Is this true, and can you do this will ALL model#'s

No. That is not true. At least, there is no industry standard for that. So maybe you can tell Western Digital drives apart that way, but that does not mean you can sort Seagate or Fujitsu drives that way. So go by the published specifications.

is especially more difficult when you barely understand what it all means in the first place.

It does not help when the nomenclatures change in the middle of the road. For example, there never used to be "PATA". It started out as simply ATA. Then somehow, UltraATA. Then IDE. Then EIDE.
But for some reason I sure don't understand, when SATA drives started to appear, someone decided to rename all those others to PATA for Parallel ATA, vs SATA for Serial ATA - which makes them seem more alike than different. Just remember, for all practical purposes, ATA = UltraATA = IDE = EIDE = PATA.

Except for the fact SATA and PATA are both drive interfaces, SATA and PATA are quite different. For sure, to ensure any new drives will serve you further into the future, make sure they are SATA. If your motherboard does not support SATA, that's a good sign that board is pretty old - and may not last much longer. Consider using a PCI or PCIe to SATA adapter card.

Bill_Bright, good information except for the last part that only applies to desktop computers, there is no way to use a PCI or PCIe to SATA adapter card in a laptop.
The point to use only SATA drives for future proofing is the same reason I am only buying USB3 external drives from now on.

The drive needed in this case is a 2.5" IDE laptop drive as linked by you.

Best Regards
Roger

there is no way to use a PCI or PCIe to SATA adapter card in a laptop.

Oops! Good point. But I do note there are PC Card to SATA adapters. ;)

Thanx for the link. This gives me a better idea as to HOW you connect a SATA, not that I plan on it, but its nice to know how to do this -- might need this info in the future. I have a laptop.

Why are you only getting USB drives? -- are you trying to outlast the SATA drives when they too become obsolete like the 8-track tapes? What is the difference between USB and USB3?

I just recently heard about USB3, but thought that it was the normal USB, but now I'm starting to wonder. The whole "3" at the end is throwing me on this one...

Just to clarify here, you said all ATA were IDE? Okay, well this situation is a little different. Look at this example:

It says its interface is IDC, as in --
Interface: 1 x ATA-100, 44 Pin IDC
MN: WD1600BEVE

So if it says, IDC, that means that its IDE? I never heard of IDC. I am not familiar with it. In fact, I only heard about just today!