ATA 6 harddrive can replace an ATA 5?

[honduh]

laptop is a Toshiba s5200-801 and the oem harddrive is a mk6021gas (2.5" ATA 5). While browsing for new harddrives, all i'm finding are ATA 6's and I do not know anything about laptops. Please help!

 

[thehstrybean]

I don't think so. I was going to do the same thing in my Inspirion 8100, but it held ATA-5...Couldn't find a good HDD, so I sold the sucker...

 

[CrispyFried]

yes it will work, ata6 is backward compatible with ata5.

 

[rocadelpunk]

I have the same question, are there any more confirmations on this?

Would there be a noticable enough performance increase going from 4200rpm and 2MB cache to 5400rpm and 16MBcache

or would it just be better to get a bigger hardrive?

 

[ftaian]

ATA is the pinout standard for the drive, and ATA6 is backwards-compatible with ATA5, ATA4 and ATA3.

Now then, if you have an ATA5 controller on your laptop, you will not be able to exceed the ATA5 standard (100Mb/sec), regardless of whether you have an ATA5 or ATA6 drive installed.

I don't know why hard drive makers give two names for the same standard. ATA3 is just another name for ATA33, ATA4 = ATA66, ATA5 = ATA100, ATA6 = ATA133.

For some harddrives you may have to remove the old black adaptor from the back of old harddrive and put it on the new one.

Want some advice? I don't recommend a 7200 RPM drive in a laptop, but rather a drive with a large cache (8MB is nice) and a low seek time.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: ftaian
ATA is the pinout standard for the drive, and ATA6 is backwards-compatible with ATA5, ATA4 and ATA3.

Now then, if you have an ATA5 controller on your laptop, you will not be able to exceed the ATA5 standard (100Mb/sec), regardless of whether you have an ATA5 or ATA6 drive installed.

I don't know why hard drive makers give two names for the same standard. ATA3 is just another name for ATA33, ATA4 = ATA66, ATA5 = ATA100, ATA6 = ATA133.

For some harddrives you may have to remove the old black adaptor from the back of old harddrive and put it on the new one.

Want some advice? I don't recommend a 7200 RPM drive in a laptop, but rather a drive with a large cache (8MB is nice) and a low seek time.

Why? if you want awesome boot times, faster loading, and u play games, 7200RPM is better then even a 16mb low seek 5400 drive. Forgot to add, my 7200 rpm drive only eats at 4min of battery power. 4 min out of 8-9 hours is definitely a worthwhile replacement.

 

[1kayaker]

aigomorla,

You get 8-9 hrs on battery?!? I'd love to get 5 on my dell d600. Pass on your hints and knowledge. Please.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: 1kayaker
aigomorla,

You get 8-9 hrs on battery?!? I'd love to get 5 on my dell d600. Pass on your hints and knowledge. Please.

IBM thinkpad T41P with 9 cell, display set at lowest, RMclocked undervolted when on battery :]