Compatiable SATA connections

A

arkamw

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jan 5, 2004
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OK, so I realized that I'm way behind the times here. After 3 long years of faithful service, my laptop HDD is dying. It's an old SATA drive and I'm looking for a replacement. Where I'm having questions, though, is in compatible SATA connections for the drive. Note: please forgive the following terminologies as they may be incorrect - feel free to correct me!

It's a SATA-150 (? / SATA1) drive. As I understand, after SATA-150 there was SATA2 which just added extra "extensions" to the drive but didn't really change the speed or the physical connections. After that, there was SATA-300 (which could have had the SATA2 extensions, but didn't have to) - but here's where I don't know if the physical connection changed. Then there's the latest SATA (SATA600??) and I've no idea about that either.

Basically, can I go to a laptop SATA-300 drive or do I need to look around for a SATA-150? If I CAN go to a SATA-300, does that necessitate a BIOS upgrade? I know the controller is only for SATA-150 and I've heard tell about jumpers that limit the drive. Are those present on laptop drives?

Same question applies to desktop systems. Do the physical connection stay the same throughout?
 
Simple answer: If it is a 2.5" drive you are fine with a SATA II 3.0gbps drive, they are backwards compatible. SSD wise SATA I would be a severe limitation at this point. For a rotating disk it is not a big deal.
 
the physical connector is the same, and they are all backwards compatable, so you can get whatever you want.

most laptops limit speed to SATA1 (aka SATA-150) to save power.
 
One more thing in case you weren't aware...

Most laptop 2.5" drives have a proprietary adaptor that must be removed for a HD swap.

If you haven't done it before it could get confusing. :)
 
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