Connecting a hard drive

[jerhilton]

i am trying to connect a SATA hard drive to a panasonic cf-48 laptop but there is a ribbon cable and i cant figure out how to connect it. please help

 

[takenra]

While I'm not the most knowledgable, if I've read the specs correctly then unless you're trying to use the SATA drive as an external drive you won't be able to use it. Based on the basic specs I could find, I'm guessing the internal drive is PATA which is why there is the ribbon cable.
Do the connectors on the old drive match the new one? If so then it should just be a straight swap but if not you'll need to swap your SATA for a PATA drive (from what I've seen the PATA drives seem to top out at 160GB)

For those with more knowledge, please feel free to correct me!!!

 

[caniba]

The ribbon is IDE and the new hard drive is SATA. If you are trying to replace the internal HDD, they are incompatible, you can't. You must buy a older IDE 2.5" hdd.

If it is external you will need an adapter.

 

[jerhilton]

thanks!