Upgrading older Toshiba notebook hard drive

PatJ

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Feb 14, 2009
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I use my older notebook with the larger screen to read the newspaper, etc. in the kitchen. It is making noises every now and then so probably needs a new hard drive. Can I upgrade from a 40 GB, 5400rpm, ATA-5 to a 80GB, 5400rpm, ATA-6? What is the difference between ATA-5 and ATA-6? e-mail to patjessie@msn.com thanks
 

PatJ

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Feb 14, 2009
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Thanks for answering. I did go ahead and buy The 80GB. Another question, when I was looking up about cables for my PC's, saw that the ata cables come round now rather then like a strap. I am replacing an eide harddrive so would it be wise to replace the cable, too? Read that these cables help the air circulation.
 

PatJ

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Thanks for answering. I did go ahead and buy The 80GB. Another question, when I was looking up about cables for my PC's, saw that the ata cables come round now rather then like a strap. I am replacing an eide harddrive so would it be wise to replace the cable, too? Read that these cables help the air circulation.
 

cheaptofix

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if you're removing the current hard drive and replacing it with a bigger one there's no need to change the cable "ide cable" which is like this wide cable with around 20 little holes inside. air ?? never heard of that before but cables and air have nothing to do with each other.

if you're not removing the old hard drive "which is a little more complicated" and adding this 80gb for extra space then you need to buy an IDE cable which has one end from a side, and two ends from another.,,so you connect two hard drives with just one cable.

but recommend the first step.
 

PatJ

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I think my wording of the question wasn't good. When I was looking up ide cables noticed the cable part between the hookups was round now. It was quoted that this was done for better air circulation inside the PC tower. I hadn't seen them before so was just looking for added information and whether it would be benefical to change the cable when I put a new 160 GB harddrive in that PC. Has nothing to do with the laptop hardrive I am changing to 80GB. I use external harddrives to move information etc between computers so don't need more than one harddrive in each of my computers. Thanks for your assistance.