Different types of laptop hard drives ?

[Parangles]

The HD I removed from a recent model HP laptop has
a pin style and configuration quite different from that
of the old 600X Thinkpad that I am trying to upgrade.

Has the pin style/layout changed recently ? Or is this
just unique to HP ?

What do I need to be looking for while shopping for
an HD on ebay ? I don't want to limit search to :
" IBM thinkpad hard drive " etc.

thanks lots !

[EzyStvy]

Laptop drives come in two flavors like desktops - IDE and SATA....Guessing that you have "flat pins" which is an adaptor that usually slieds off to revel the the typical IDE round pins.

[Panama Red]

The newer model machine was most likely SATA while the old IBM is ATA-6. ATA-6 is commonly referred to as IDE or EIDE. Most of the older hard drives ran at 4200 rpm while the new ones run at 5400 rpm. I'm not sure if that old IBM has any bios limits on the hdd capacity but that would be something to keep in mind. If you want to view the SATA and ATA-6 connectors, look at the product pics on Newegg. Here's the one I keep in stock for quick repalcement for IDE drives.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148128

[not important]

I'm betting EzyStvy has it. He recently solved that dilemma for me.
Does the drive look like the one I posted here: http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=203225

[Parangles]

Thanks - On the HP that I was hoping to use, the pin layout on both
its slide off adapter and underneath, look nothing like the normal
pin layout. Also both are flat pins not round.

The newegg one is not much dearer than used ebay ones.

Thanks for the heads up on the HD capacity limitations- I'll
check the excellent IBM site.

Cheers !