# Solved: Looking for the largest possible PATA hard disk for my laptop.



## Alex Ethridge (Apr 10, 2000)

I have a Compaq laptop that I'm about to replace the hard disk in and I'm not up much on what the largest available disk is. NewEgg had a 320-Gig a few days ago; but, I went to order it just now and the largest I see there is a 250G. Seems the 320's are all gone.

What I need is the largest possible PATA disk in a name brand and at a reasonable price.

For those not familiar with PATA, it is the old, forty-pin data cable type.


----------



## lawson_jl (Aug 3, 2008)

Why don't you try searching a few other websites. It will get faster results then expecting everyone else to do your searching for you.


----------



## Alex Ethridge (Apr 10, 2000)

I've been searching; but, I don't find any information on what the largest PATA drive is/was in a 2.5" form factor.

As for your comment on having 'someone else do my searching', this is a forum where we all help each other. If you don't want to help, just ignore the thread and keep your comments to yourself.

And, by the way, the correct English in your usage is "than", not "then".


----------



## Masta Squidge (Jul 29, 2007)

I didnt know you could get a 2.5 inch hard drive in a PATA interface...

Every single laptop drive I have ever seen uses a different interface than a desktop HDD.


----------



## Alex Ethridge (Apr 10, 2000)

Thanks for your interest. The PATA stands for Parallel ATA and the SATA stands for Serial ATA. The Parallel ATA has forty pins and is Parallel whether pins are spaced for desktop or laptop use. So, the older laptops use the old Parallel and the newer, Serial.


----------



## lifeessence (Jul 4, 2007)

It shouldn't be different, I've got a 320GB 2.5" SATA drive hooked up to my desktop...it works fine. but to answer your question..320GB is the biggest you can get for 2.5", but just doing a little search, 250GB seems to be the biggest for PATA 2.5".


----------



## Alex Ethridge (Apr 10, 2000)

> It shouldn't be different,


In SATA, the connectors are identical and interchangable for laptops and desktops. In laptops, the PATA is still forty pins, same pin quantity; but, the spacing of the pins is different.

It seems I'm finding 2.5" 250's in PATA and no 320's; but, I thought I saw a 320 on NewEgg's site a couple of days ago and it is not there now. I believe I'm right when I say I've seen a 320. But, now not finding anything larger than 250- I'm beginning to think I may be confused about what I saw.

I think I might have to contact Seagate and Western Digital and just get it from the horse's mouth.

I'm absolutely positive I think I saw what I am confused about.


----------



## Alex Ethridge (Apr 10, 2000)

By the way, here are three 500-Gig, 2.5" SATA drives:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N=2010150380 1035915133 1309740009&name=500GB


----------



## lifeessence (Jul 4, 2007)

oh lol, so there is, my post was going from outdated knowledge (as is the way of computers)


----------



## Masta Squidge (Jul 29, 2007)

Alex Ethridge said:


> Thanks for your interest. The PATA stands for Parallel ATA and the SATA stands for Serial ATA. The Parallel ATA has forty pins and is Parallel whether pins are spaced for desktop or laptop use. So, the older laptops use the old Parallel and the newer, Serial.


Newegg lists this older interface as ATA - 6, and while i dont claim to be a expert on laptops I dont think they made it up  It isnt PATA however, since it obviously is a different connection.

At any rate, here is their ATA - 6 drives. They list these, two types of SATA drives and a third type which is a very high performance 15k rpm laptop drives.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...escription=&Ntk=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=


----------



## Alex Ethridge (Apr 10, 2000)

Thanks.

Some trivia:
 SATA is an IDE device
 PATA is an IDE device
 ATA-6 is a Parallel device
 SATA and PATA are a set of electronic specifications, not a physical size and shape specification.
 For a few minutes on January 20, Joe Biden was George Bush's Vice President.


----------



## Masta Squidge (Jul 29, 2007)

Fair enough. But newegg does not list ANY pata drives as 2.5 inch. Pata is ide... but it is also a parallel device. Hence the parallel ata that you yourself posted above. SATA is a serial device, but also ide as well.
Ill give it to you that it could be called a pata drive (ata - 6 is parallel ata, hence pata) but its a generalization that could lead to having the wrong interface.

Technically ata - 6 is an ide device as well. As is your CD drive. And other things.


----------



## Alex Ethridge (Apr 10, 2000)

A square is always a rectangle; but, a rectangle, although it can be a square, isn't always a square. Hence the two terms, square and rectangle.

Since its inception, advances in ATA technology have brought faster transfer rates. Each advancement was given a number to differentiate between it and the previous improvement. I think there are eight varieties of standards and ATA-6 is only one of them, also known as Ultra ATA.

So, the digit 6 after the ATA simply denotes a different speed, not a different interface and ATA refers to both Serial and Parallel devices and the use of the terms Serial and Parallel differentiates the type of electronic communication with the device as ATA alone, without the "P" or "S", doesn't.

*Wikipedia:* With the market introduction of Serial ATA in 2003, the original ATA was retroactively renamed Parallel ATA (PATA or Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment).

To satisfy the largest-hard-disk part of my question, I called Seagate, Western Digital and Toshiba today and and after going through about an hour and twenty minutes of key presses, failed voice recognitions, disconnects and being referred to wrong numbers/departments, asked them what the largest parallel ATA drive was in 2.5" form factor that they ever made and they all said 250 Gigs. So I guess I was wrong about seeing a 320 at NewEgg.

The Toshiba rep said he _thought_ Fujitsu may have made a 320-; but, he wasn't sure about that. So if anyone knows where I might find a Fujitsu 320-, I sure would like to know about it. If I don't find a Fujitsu 320- tonight, I'll try to call Fujitsu tomorrow.

And by the way, they all responded to the *parallel ATA* terminology without incident.


----------



## Alex Ethridge (Apr 10, 2000)

I'm tired of searching. I think I found the largest PATA (ATA-8) hard disk, a Fujitsu 320GB at this site. I placed an order just now. I'm not crazy about the brand; but, I need as much space as I can get.

Specs:
 Capacity: 320 GB
 Rotational Speed: 5400 rpm
 Cache: 8 MB
 Interface: ATA-8
 Max. External Transfer Rate: 300 MB/s
 Seek Time: Track to Track: 2 ms; Average: 12 ms; Full Stroke: 22 ms


----------



## Triple6 (Dec 26, 2002)

Alex Ethridge said:


> [*] Max. External Transfer Rate: 300 MB/s


That suggests it has a SATA 3GBs interface. And I believe the Fujitsu Esprimo U9200 laptop mentioned on that site takes only SATA drives.


----------



## Alex Ethridge (Apr 10, 2000)

Thanks for the input. I'm checking into that now and will post back my result.


----------



## Alex Ethridge (Apr 10, 2000)

You're right. I guess I'm now going to have to figure out how to cancel that order.

I'm tired of this. I'm going to order the 250 at newegg.


----------

