New/Replacement Hard Drive

[spinaltap775]

So I have a Dell Inspiron 8100 laptop, that has ONLY a 10GB hard drive. So I've been looking around the web and saw a few that interest me, the only problem are will they fit and work in the laptop and will they meet the laptops specifications or on the contrary will the laptop meet the hard drives specifications.

PS. I found a hard drive I think will fit but please, correct me if I am wrong. If anyone else has a better hard drive than the one below please give links.

http/www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3331696&CatId=1277

 

[skornel]

Are you sure that the system can handle a SATA drive? 10GB is pretty old technology and I don't remember anything that small when SATA was available but I could be wrong.

 

[spinaltap775]

I don't know if it can handle a SATA drive, i think it can, but I know for sure it can handle a 120GB IDE drive.

 

[pitstop87]

Find out your motherboard model and make and check up on the net to see if it has SATA support. Otherwise buying the drive you mentioned would be a waste. Of course you could still use it as an external hard disk, but that would be a waste of SATA's superior speed.

 

[spinaltap775]

Okay then can someone tell me the model make, or can someone just give me a yes or no answer to the question, can a Dell Inspiron 8100 suport a SATA hard drive.

 

[spinaltap775]

No that laptop won't support sata hard drives. But could someone please give me a few links to some good CHEAP IDE hard drives, that are bigger than 40GB.

 

[frozenlead]

"Cheap" is a relative term. You need a budget posted.

Anyway, here are all 2.5" 5400RPM ATA hard disks on newegg.

http/www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010150380+1035907889+1035507777&QksAutoSuggestion=&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&Configurator=&Subcategory=380&description=&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=

 

[spinaltap775]

My laptop will not support a SATA hard drive and if your really stupid and don't know by now, ATA is SATA because before the letters ATA is the word Serial, Serial ATA=SATA. So I need a cheap PATA or EIDE if you want to call it that hard drive. Thanks.

 

[frozenlead]

Thanks for calling me stupid, but you're incorrect. If ATA is SATA, then why is there a SATA category and an ATA category in newegg, and why did my link show disks with 80 pins on them?

ATA is the shortened term for ATAPI, which is also known as PATA.
http/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Technology_Attachment

Edit: after reading a bit of the article, which is pretty cool, I found that PATA is actually a term only created after SATA was - so ATAPI is really the correct term. Not like it matters any, but whatever.

 

[spinaltap775]

Well, I'm mistaken then, and sorry for calling you stupid, I've had a long few nights and getting stressed. So yeah I'll look into it and thank you.