Will the new HDD be compatible?

[fasihxkhatib]

The more I read about SATA the more confused I become. Anyways, can you please gimme a one-word answer on
WILL WESTERN DIGITAL WD5000BPKT BE COMPATIBLE IN PLACE OF SEAGATE ST9320423AS?

 

[ss202sl]

yes.

 

[fasihxkhatib]

What is SATA I and SATA II and SATA III? Do these revisions have to do anything with compatibility?

 

[Hawkeye22]

All sata is backward compatible. The major difference is the interface speed.

SataI = 150Mb/s (1.5gb/s), Sata2 = 300Mb/s (3Gb/s), sata3 = 600Mb/s (6Gb/s)

 

[fasihxkhatib]

All sata is backward compatible. The major difference is the interface speed.

SataI = 150Mb/s (1.5gb/s), Sata2 = 300Mb/s (3Gb/s), sata3 = 600Mb/s (6Gb/s)

So what is the SATA version of my current SEAGATE ST9320423AS and what is the SATA version of WESTERN DIGITAL WD5000BPKT?

I guess both are SATA 2 as they are both 3Gb/s

 

[Hawkeye22]

Yes, they are both Sata2 drives.

 

[fasihxkhatib]

WOOHOO! IMMA BUY WD NOW!! THANKS ALL!

 

[fasihxkhatib]

Best answer selected by fasihxkhatib.

 

[jitpublisher]

What is SATA I and SATA II and SATA III? Do these revisions have to do anything with compatibility?

SATA I (150gbps), SATA II (300gbps), and SATA III (600gbps) have to do with the theoretical speed of the drive, or more precisely, the speed of the controller that that drive will work with. They are all backward compatible. In other words you can plug an SATA III drive into a controller on a motherboard that is SATA I, and it will work just fine, but only at the SATA I speed. This is the really the only major difference of these drives, the controller speed. I mentioned that it is "theoretical" because mechanical drives cannot come close to saturating, or using all the bandwidth of SATA II or SATA III interfaces. Some of the newest, fastest mechanical drives can though just about use all the bandwidth of SATA I.
SSD's, or solid state drives make the best use of SATA II and SATA III interfaces as they are easily 5 times faster transfer rates than the fastest mechanical drives.
Some drives, if not automatically capable of matching slower controller speeds, will have a jumper you must set to adjust them to the speed of the controller they are plugged into, but this was more common a fews years ago when the SATA interface was relatively new on the scene. Most modern SATA drives are simply plug and play and work just fine on older boards with SATA controllers, but read the fine print and ask, just as you have done here, to be certain.

For more info on the SATA interface and drives, here is a quick link for you to follow:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA

 

[fasihxkhatib]

Thanks, all! Actually I was told not to use WD drive in place of Seagate (which came by default with my laptop) as 'it may lead to compatibility issues'
I knew from the start that it was not true but I decided to confirm.