Hard Drive difference

[Valv]

Calling all the super geeks here....

I need to upgrade my HDD, I have a Sata, but I see now there's Sata 1.5gb and Sata 3.0gb.

What's the difference ?

[Matt C]

Transfer speed.

Here is a link with all the geeky stuff.

[Valv]

Thank you Sir !! If I have a system with a 1.5gb I assume it won't be a problem a 3.0gb right ?

[Dale Rueber]

They are supposed to be backward compatible so it should not be a problem. Lots of information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA

[lotsofish]

Depending on which one you get, some will automatically recognize the 1.5 and downgrade themselves, but many will have a jumper setting on them that you have to change to tell it to work at the 1.5 speed.

[Whoaru99]

It should work as has been said, but if your board is only SATA 1.5 capable you will get only SATA 1.5 speed from the SATA 3.0 drive.

[Valv]

Thanks guys, I am still trying to find out which board I have, but ordered the drive anyway....

[lotsofish]

I just found this program that can help you out.

Go to the Goog and enter "system information for windows". Go to the first link and download the program. There's no install, it's just a download and run.

After you start the program, under Hardware on the left side pick "Motherboard". This will tell you the motherboard make and model number which you can use to search for the specifications on what it supports.

Another option, I don't see any options to tell you what kinds of hard drive interfaces you support, but it will tell you what you already have installed. Under Hardware again, pick "Storage Devices". Click on the one called "Fixed Hard Disk Media" and look at the interface column. If it says IDE SATA then you have SATA 1.5Gbps, it if says IDE SATA-II then you have SATA 3.0Gbps.

[Valv]

That's a neat software, thanks. I found out my HDD is Sata II, great.