DaniB
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2010
- Messages
- 3,479
I couldn't figure out where to put this and decided on this forum. It's budget related as I don't want to pay someone to do something I'm capable. I just need a couple of answers... Hopefully someone more use to dealing with the insides of a computer can confirm. Please!
One car family here. I cannot drive out to a computer store today. And even if I do tomorrow, they will want to keep the computer.
Question 1
I have 8 Serial ATA connectors on the motherboard. 6 of which are currently in use (2 optical drives, 2 hard drives, 2 external connections). 2 other ports which are different colours (orange & white). According to the M/B manual, I can still attach a SATA signal cable & hard drive, it's just that these allow me to use Drive Xpert Technology. I don't care about that technology and the 3rd hard drive will only stay in that slot long enough to install Windows 7 and copy my data over from another hard drive, which is crashing.
I can use this connector port, correct?
Question 2
The current SATA power connector cable is already plugged into 2 hard drives. It looks like there's another bunch of these same cables, held together with a cable tie. Instead of cutting the cable tie off and using one of these, I was hoping to do something different. After all is said and done, I won't need these extra power connectors loose as I will only end up with 2 hard drives afterwards.
I have another SATA power connector cable loose in my M/B box. But it's too short and I cannot figure out where to plug it into the M/B anyways. However, it has a male end to it. The ones in my computer - I see two that have a female end to them. Can I plug them together (like an extension cord) so that it will reach the HD bay and power the HD? Again, it would only be for a day or so. Once I get the data off the original HD, I will reconnect using the original cables off the bad HD to the new HD.
I'm attaching a couple of photos in case I did not describe the second question info correctly...
One car family here. I cannot drive out to a computer store today. And even if I do tomorrow, they will want to keep the computer.
Question 1
I have 8 Serial ATA connectors on the motherboard. 6 of which are currently in use (2 optical drives, 2 hard drives, 2 external connections). 2 other ports which are different colours (orange & white). According to the M/B manual, I can still attach a SATA signal cable & hard drive, it's just that these allow me to use Drive Xpert Technology. I don't care about that technology and the 3rd hard drive will only stay in that slot long enough to install Windows 7 and copy my data over from another hard drive, which is crashing.
I can use this connector port, correct?
Question 2
The current SATA power connector cable is already plugged into 2 hard drives. It looks like there's another bunch of these same cables, held together with a cable tie. Instead of cutting the cable tie off and using one of these, I was hoping to do something different. After all is said and done, I won't need these extra power connectors loose as I will only end up with 2 hard drives afterwards.
I have another SATA power connector cable loose in my M/B box. But it's too short and I cannot figure out where to plug it into the M/B anyways. However, it has a male end to it. The ones in my computer - I see two that have a female end to them. Can I plug them together (like an extension cord) so that it will reach the HD bay and power the HD? Again, it would only be for a day or so. Once I get the data off the original HD, I will reconnect using the original cables off the bad HD to the new HD.
I'm attaching a couple of photos in case I did not describe the second question info correctly...

