My computer hard drive is an ATA-133. Can I use an ATA-100 drive in my computer?

Question

I want to replace my hard drive with a bigger and faster one. I cannot find an ATA-133's with a 16mb.cache with 7200RPM's and 250 gb. or larger. Please help. The one I have now has only 2mb. cache.Spec's are ATA-133/40Pin IDC/133mbps

Answer 1

you can use an ata-100. it's backwards compatible. i go through www.pricewatch.com alot. they usually have good deals on the drives you're looking for. they run about $75 for a ata133/8 or 16mb/7200rpm/250gb. 500gb drives are going for around $150

Answer 2

Yes, you can use a lower or higher spec ATA rated hard drive in your computer. If you use a lower ATA rated hard drive, such as an ATA-100 hard drive, it will just run at a lower speed. If you use a higher rated ATA hard drive interface such as a ATA-150, the speed will top out at the highest ATA rating that your computer supports, such as ATA-133. So yes, you can use it. Just watch out for hard drive size limitations that your motherboard cannot handle.

Answer 3

This is about the best ATA-133 drive I can find:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822145136

However, you can use ATA-100 in your computer. But if you are concerned about speed and cache, I would recommend upgrading to SATA if your motherboard supports it.