ATA-6 work with ATA-5?

[Project86]

I'm upgrading a laptop for a friend. It is old. The current drive is a 20GB ATA-5 Hitachi. I want to put in an 80GB ATA-6 from Seagate. Should it work? I read that ATA-6 was intended to enhance rather than drastically change, and so in theory it should work... but I want to make sure I've got the right thing before I crack the laptop open.

 

[Airbornederekc]

It should work fine. the drive will run at the fastest speed the controller will allow.

 

[Trap05]

Assuming the bios supports drive sizes of 40GB+ Check to see if there is a bios update for the laptop.

 

[Project86]

There is no newer BIOS than the one that is already loaded.

 

[tuskenraider]

An ATA-6 drive will not surpass ATA-5 speeds but in theory.