Question about installing second hard drive

[Yoda]

Hey technically-inclined MoFos.

I bought a second hard drive so I could clone mine for backup purposes; I have a slot in my case for it, but I don't think I have a second SATA plug to hook it up with. D'oh. Anyone know what I need? I assumed I'd need a splitter or something, but I was told recently I need a PCI card. Any advice to point me in the right direction would be helpful. My hard drive's been acting up a little again lately and while I've made some rough backups of some crucial files, I'd love to get the cloning operation up and running just to be on the safe side.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. :)

[John McClane]

Hey technically-inclined MoFos.

I bought a second hard drive so I could clone mine for backup purposes; I have a slot in my case for it, but I don't think I have a second SATA plug to hook it up with. D'oh. Anyone know what I need? I assumed I'd need a splitter or something, but I was told recently I need a PCI card. Any advice to point me in the right direction would be helpful. My hard drive's been acting up a little again lately and while I've made some rough backups of some crucial files, I'd love to get the cloning operation up and running just to be on the safe side.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. :)Sorry, SATA = one drive per plug. Do you only have one plug on the motherboard for SATA? If so, I'm assuming you have some IDE slots? You could buy an adapter and hook it up to one of those. It will be pretty slow, so this would be best for a full disk copy and replace.

So basically, how exactly do you plan on using this drive: a backup location or replacement of current hard drive?

[Yoda]

Yeah, I think I just have the one on the motherboard. Not sure on the IDE slots, but if it's going to slow things down I'd rather find another way, unless it's way easier that way.

I'll mainly be using this to clone my existing drive. There's a good chance I won't use it for anything else, since I'm still a long ways from hurting for space. If there's a way to have my cake and eat it too, great, because my main hard drive is 1TB and this second one is 2TB, but it wouldn't bother me much if I didn't get to use the extra room.

[John McClane]

Well, since you're having problems with your main drive, you would be best served by replacing it with your new one. At least, that's my opinion on the matter.

[7thson]

Only having one slot would be rare, do you have the model of the motherboard or computer?

Also for data transfer if you do only have one then there are usb to sata adapters.

http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/public/jYnkYHtbCZEf4ArhpHpT8BUK87YjCRxSiEOZZTPmjdoFSlfZAZMQHwIVcNVkVO5dKkNb0AioNJ0TmbpRBet_7JIlYDH9N_9Y6YPB A4wM47paAWSLynXP1_0jGjqxFKnThwC34c4HOMsBjl3wi_RQIF9aknFy1btvG2nMOZCWp3iBnJ2B9qAMk8iShtx8Omo6AH9Q

[Yoda]

Don't have it with me; I'll see if I can get it when I get home. Might go ahead and get a USB to SATA adapter, but wouldn't I need a power source, too? I didn't think a hard drive could run through just USB -- my external drives certainly don't.

Re: replacing it. Way too much work at this point, and I'm not sure my main drive is necessarily dead. Even if I did that I'd probably spring for a new second drive anyway, so I can do the clone backups, so it would just delay me asking this question again when it arrived. :D

[spudracer]

I didn't think a hard drive could run through just USB -- my external drives certainly don't.

I've got a little 125gb external that runs on USB alone.

[7thson]

Might go ahead and get a USB to SATA adapter, but wouldn't I need a power source, too? I didn't think a hard drive could run through just USB -- my external drives certainly don't.




There are two usb cables on this adapter, one is for data the other is for power.

[Yoda]

I wonder if it only goes up to a certain size, then?

Anyway, I realized I actually have a USB to SATA adapter. It'd be awesome if I could actually put the hard drive in the slot, but I guess it does't matter too much if I have to set the thing up on my desk or something for now. That said, does anyone know for a fact what I need here? Some kind of card to create more SATA connections, for example?

Still having the whirring issue, I think; I've turned off my computer's sleep mode for now, as extreme as that may sound, so it doesn't happen again. Until the next time it freezes or the power goes out, I guess. Hope I can get this sorted.

[7thson]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815158092&cm_re=sata_pci-_-15-158-092-_-Product

think this would be what you need Chris or similar item.

[Yoda]

Very cool, thanks Dionne, I'll give it a go. Looks like I can get started with the adapter I have, and move the hard drive into the case proper with this. :) I'll be sure to check back in and let you guys know how it goes.

Meantime, I guess I'm just leaving the computer on. Has anyone else had whirring sounds just when the computer's first starting up? It's been that way for a long time, possibly as long as I've had the computer, which is why I don't think of it as a serious problem.

[Yoda]

Whoops, nevermind, the user reviews there says it doesn't work on any hard drive over 500GB. I'll have to see if I can find something similar. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction, though.

[Yoda]

Sorry for the constant updates, but I just looked closer at my computer, and while I do have an extra SATA plug, I don't think I have any more power plugs. I also think I might have maxed out the number of places I can plug things into the motherboard (two). Do these cards address that, or do they just add new SATA plugs? Am I just bottlenecked by the seemingly two power slots on the motherboard?

[7thson]

Have that modelnumber of motherboard or computer?

Y power adapters are cheap and should work as long as power suplly is strong enough.

http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/12-170-004-TS?$S300W$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812198025&cm_re=y_molex-_-12-198-025-_-Product