Laptop has IDE and SATA connectors, but only one HDD slot?!

[Ploper001]

*First of all if there is a laptop forum, I could not find it, so could someone point it out to me if it exists please? Thanks.*

Hello all. I have a Dell Insprion 6400 and I am very happy with it thus far, except for one thing - the HDD is so small (56GB, 6GB used for Dell's Restore Software), so I want to buy a larger one (120-160GB preferably). I have seen that external and 6.35cm/2.5" internal Laptop drives are around the same price, and I'd prefer to have an internal one because it would be faster I assume (although I would lose the original drive's capacity...).

However, according to Device Manager and SiSoft Sandra, the laptop's HDD is connected via IDE (Ultra DMA 5), as is the DVD+RW DL Drive, but there is also an SATA interface! Now I'm pretty darn sure that there's only one HDD slot, so how does this work? Could I buy an SATA drive or not?

(Also, a minor question, can I actually get rid of this Dell Restore thing? The only thing I can think it's useful for is if the DVD+RW drive dies and I can't reinstall Windows from the CD they gave me...plus if I use their restore software, I just know it'll put all of that bloatware back on anyway...)


Thanks for any help!

 

[Freestone]

Well my 100GB drive only says 91.76Gib when my maybe flawed math says it should be 93.13Gib, so maybe you are right about the MediaDirect files hiding on the platters somewhere

Anyway, thanks for providing me with the impetus for finally getting rid of the partitions I never really wanted. I also learned more than I probably wanted about MediaDirect too

Good luck with your fresh install and future replacement drive.

 

[tweekerz]

I have run into a similar problem with my Compaq V3000Z CTO laptop... which uses (after a lot of research) A fujitsu 40 GB 5400 RPM SATA II ATAPI-7 drive interface.

All documentation states SATA interface, but my Hitachi 7K100 7200 SATA drive does not match connectors on one side of the drive.

I need to find a ATAPI-7 SATA II 2.5 Laptop Hard Drive.
Fujitsu makes 2.5 10,000 rpm drives, but they have some type of FAS interface, instead of SATA or SATA II.

 

[Ploper001]

I thought SATA and SATA-II were backwards compatible? Also, the best way to find out the specs of your drive is to remove it and look at the label (when the laptop is off obviously). Only sure fire way of knowing

 

[tweekerz]

I have since learned from posting, that after exhaustive efforts, and reading up on things, is that there was an adaptive connector attached to the specified drive that the Compaq V3000z had. I slid off the inconspicuous adapter, and slapped it on my Hitachi 7200 rpm

Phew....

Case closed