Serial ATA hard drive - HELP!!

[bagpuss78]

I'm looking to buy an internal hard drive to put in an external case to connect to my laptop. Does anyone know how I find out if my laptop has a serial ATA controller? Is it possible to check without actually being near my laptop - like do most laptops made after a certain date have them?

any help appreciated!

Kirsty

 

[bagpuss78]

ps I have a dell latitude - can't remember what number just now, I'm at work and it's at home

 

[powerMarkymark]

All you need is to buy a USB external enclosure for that HDD.

I have 5 of them all connected to my Latitude.

Marc

 

[bagpuss78]

I'm fine with buying a case, but on the dell website is says you also need a serial ATA controller on your laptop for the type of hard drive I'm looking at. I don't know what that is or how to check!

 

[powerMarkymark]

Can you post links to both your laptop and the hard drive you are refering us to?

Would make helping easier.

 

[bagpuss78]

Unfortunately I can't find a link to my laptop - it's just over a year old and dell dont' sell that model anymoe. Think it was a latitude c610?
http://talent.ed.uiuc.edu/tuto...indows/WindowsText.pdf
don't quote me on that though!

The hard drive is this one. or one similar.
http://tech-report.com/reviews/2004q1/seagate-7200.7/index.x?pg=1

not chosen one yet but I was looking at these as an option.

 

[Zucarita9000]

Most USB external enclosures use an IDE-to-USB adapter, usually from VIA Tech. Make sure the hard drive you buy is IDE (or P-ATA) and you should be fine. Also, double check that the usb enclosure is USB 2.0 (High Speed) certified.

As for Serial ATA enclosures, I know there are some out there. But I don't think laptop computers come with SATA hard drives just yet... and if they do, I doubt they'll have external SATA ports.

 

[powerMarkymark]

That Baracuda drive is a Sata drive.

Unless you absolutely want this Sata drive for some future comp I would advise you to get a P-ata drive for what you want to do.

 

[stevty2889]

Yeah, you want a PATA drive for an external enclousure, don't think they make any for SATA drives yet.

 

[Harvey]

The actual SATA controller would be in your external enclosure. It has to convert the format of your drive to USB. In this case, you want an SATA to USB 2.0 enclosure.

I'm not sure whether you'd gain anything over using a regular ATA drive. It would depend on whether the transfer rate over USB is fast enough to make use of the extra speed advantage of SATA over ATA 133. Sorry, but I don't have those numbers handy.

These results of searching Google for "SATA to USB 2.0" should give you some ideas.