hard drive Hard Drive

[FastEddie57]

My grandson's PC needs a new internal hard drive. The PC is a Dell Dimension 8300 and currently has a Seagate Barracuda 7200.7, model #8T3120026A8. Can someone that knows about hard drives please provide a link or two of some compatible hard drives. I am looking for something similar to the original specs at an affordable price. thanks

Eddie

[Eldmannen]

Seems the Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 were available both as old (P)ATA and the newer standard Serial-ATA (SATA).

Old ATA drives are no longer sold today.

Today's standard is Serial ATA (SATA).

All internal consumer hard disk drives today are SATA.

External drives use USB, FireWire (IEEE 1394), Thunderbolt. Enterprise disks use SCSI or SAS.

Just bring the hard disk to the store, and the guy will should immediatly be able to tell what kind of drive it is, either an old (P)ATA or a SATA. If its an old P(ATA) you're not going to find one today, if its SATA, then any SATA disk will work, which is most of the disks on the market.

[FastEddie57]

Seems the Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 were available both as old (P)ATA and the newer standard Serial-ATA (SATA).

Old ATA drives are no longer sold today.

Today's standard is Serial ATA (SATA).

All internal consumer hard disk drives today are SATA.

External drives use USB, FireWire (IEEE 1394), Thunderbolt. Enterprise disks use SCSI or SAS.

Just bring the hard disk to the store, and the guy will should immediatly be able to tell what kind of drive it is, either an old (P)ATA or a SATA. If its an old P(ATA) you're not going to find one today, if its SATA, then any SATA disk will work, which is most of the disks on the market.

I believe it's a SATA. The powersource connector is about 1 inch wide, while the connector from the motherboard is about 1/2" wide. SATA, right? Thanks

[Eldmannen]

This is what SATA looks like.

This is what old (P)ATA looks like.

If your disk is SATA then that's good, just go to the store and ask for a Serial ATA disk. Any SATA disk will work.

[FastEddie57]

This is what SATA looks like.

This is what old (P)ATA looks like.

If your disk is SATA then that's good, just go to the store and ask for a Serial ATA disk. Any SATA disk will work.

Definitely a SATA. THANKS!

[greenknight]

You can still buy PATA (often called IDE) drives, just be glad you don't have to - they cost more, and they're harder to work with (those old ribbon cables are a pain). It's a slower interface than SATA, too - that's why it's been abandoned.

[FastEddie57]

You can still buy PATA (often called IDE) drives, just be glad you don't have to - they cost more, and they're harder to work with (those old ribbon cables are a pain). It's a slower interface than SATA, too - that's why it's been abandoned.

I guess the P in PATA stands for Pain in the arse. :)

[Tarun]

I'd recommend a nice Western Digital from Newegg. Size and speed depend on what you'd like and how much you'd like to pay. Unfortunately the price of hard drives has gone up in the past years.

[Eldmannen]

The original name were ATA, it was retroactively called PATA where P stands for Parallel when SATA (Serial ATA) were introduced.

As mentioned above, you should be glad that it is SATA, and not old (P)ATA.

Prices have raised after the tsunami in Taiwan. I believe any hard disk drive brand should be alright.

Don't waste your money on one that is bigger than 2 terabyte though. Since your old computer use BIOS which use MBR which cant handle volumes that big, which is why newer computers can use something called GPT (GUID Partition Table).