Replacing hard drive: ATA-6 to ATA-7

[macrogeo]

Hi,

My Compaq Presario 2568CL laptop's hard drive is having "SMART Failure Predicted" message and Windows cannot boot up any more.  Can I replace the hard drive, which is of ATA-6 Interface, with a new hard drive with an ATA-7 Interface (it is on sale!)?  I think it is OK but would appreciate your expert opinion.

Thanks in advance!

[contrex]

Does your laptop have a SATA interface? If so, you can use an ATA-7 drive with it, if not, you will have to use an ATA-6 drive.

ATA-1 to ATA-6 .... IDE interface
ATA-7 .... SATA interface
ATA-8 .... designated for use with hybrid drives that feature internal flash memory cache.