Hard Drives
Having a basic knowledge of laptop hard drive connectors can be of great use when considering an upgrade. Though there are only two mainstream consumer level drive connectors for laptops they are very different from each other in both form and function.
SATA or PATA Hardrive?
If the body of the hard drive has no label indicating the type of drive, take a look at its connector, a series of metal pins located on the end of the hard drive drive. A PATA connector has 40 pins. A SATA connector varies in its number of pins, and can have anywhere from 11 to 22 pins.
History
The EIDE hard drive connectors was the first widely available drive connection method for early laptops. This EIDE connections specification was superseded by the SATA drive connection specification due to SATA's higher bandwidth and smaller connector size.
Function
Both hard drive connectors, EIDE and SATA, acted as a data bus to the laptop's motherboard. This data bus was used to transfer data to and from the system and hard drives.
Benefits
The original EIDE specification was widely available and cheaply manufactured leading to more cost effective laptop design. EIDE's successor, SATA, was smaller in design and offers over twice as much bandwidth today as the last version of EIDE.
Features
EIDE provided a technological standard during a time when the word "proprietary" was nearly synonymous with computer technology. SATA provided an answer to the aging EIDE transfer speeds and allowed for "hot swapping" (disconnecting and connecting drives without the need to shut down the computer or laptop), which consumers found to be as functional as it was convenient.
Warning
Unlike a lot of other computer technology, EIDE and SATA are not interchangeable or backwards compatible in any way. Always check the specifications of your computer before acquiring any hardware to avoid unneeded devices