What kind of hard drive can I put in my laptop?

[Klato]

Hi guys,

I'm looking upgrade my 40gb stock hard drive that came with my Dell Inspiron 4150. Only problem is that I have no idea what kind of drive this laptop takes (ATA100 or whatnot). I looked on the newsgroups, google, and I can't find this info anywhere. Even the official Inspiron 4150 manual at Dell's site doesn't contain the info. Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[LouPoir]

Im sure it takes a standard ATA100/133 hard drive - notebook type.

Lou

 

[Klato]

Thanks for the reply lou. Should I lean towards an ATA100 or ATA133? What about ATA6? I've been out of the hardware world for quite a long time now, so I've no idea what's the most decent thing I can get.

 

[fbrdphreak]

2.5" Parallel ATA.

I don't think there are ATA-133 2.5" drives, doesn't matter for performance anyway. ATA-6 is the same thing.

 

[corkyg]

The Inspiron 4150 series uses ATA-6 HDDs.

 

[Klato]

Hi guys,

Just reporting back here. I received my new HD today in the mail, which was a "Seagate Momentus 5400.2 ST9120821A 120GB 5400 RPM ATA-6 Notebook Hard Drive - OEM" Unfortunately, the damn thing doesn't have the same connection as my current hard drive. It has pins whereas my current drive has some sort of solid flat connection. Weird though, because my Device Manager says Ultra ATA IDE and the new drive says Ultra ATA on it...so I don't know how this couldn't happened!

So there it is...still no idea what kind of HD my lappy takes, and now I'm out $20 because I'm returning it for a refund. ******.

Edit: Ok just looked at the disk in device manager, looked it up in google, and apparently it's an ATA-5 device...not ATA-6. Damnit!! I guess the connection just isn't compatible eh?

 

[corkyg]

No - you are looking at a removable adapter. Most laptop HDDs use them - they tend to be proprietary to the OEM. Also, some use caddies. You have to change them over before installing. In my HP it is a 90 degree change of pin direction that slips off of the normnal HDD pins. The ATA6 will work perfectly. All 2.5 drive connectors are the same.

 

[Klato]

Woah crap ok I'm going to try this out tonight when I get home...fingers crossed...

 

[Klato]

corkyg: you were right! damn man, thanks a lot! i was *this* close to returning this thing! i'm rockin n rollin now!

Cheers!

 

[corkyg]

Glad you found it. I was looking for this picture yesterday - but here it is illustrated in case anyone else wants to know:

HP 90

 

[cheesehead]

Originally posted by: Klato
corkyg: you were right! damn man, thanks a lot! i was *this* close to returning this thing! i'm rockin n rollin now!

Cheers!

This upgrade, and some more RAM, should vastly improve the performance of your laptop, especially with Linux.

 

[pkme2]

7K100
would be nice.

 

[Jojo1971]

Originally posted by: Klato
Hi guys,

I'm looking upgrade my 40gb stock hard drive that came with my Dell Inspiron 4150. Only problem is that I have no idea what kind of drive this laptop takes (ATA100 or whatnot). I looked on the newsgroups, google, and I can't find this info anywhere. Even the official Inspiron 4150 manual at Dell's site doesn't contain the info. Any ideas?

Thanks!

7200rpm harddrive ATA-6 ....