Can I have 2 HardDisks at once?

L

Lordjj

New Member
Hello everyone. I have a 20GB harddisk on my computer, it is attached by one of those big white bands of wiring, and the wire by which it is connected to the power source continues to the floppy drive. Now I have another 20GB Harddisk in my drawer, is it possible to add it to my PC? The big band attached to the harddisk in my PC has a free plug at its middle, would that work? What about power, could I unplug the CD-drives power plug and use it for the harddisk?

Your help would be much appreciated, Thank You.
 
those are ide cables (the big white bands) and they support 2 ide hard drives. just make sure to look at the hard drives for jumpers (should look like little white or black blocks that slide over two pins at the back where the cable and power plugs in). make sure that they are either set to cable select (for either plug), master if the hard drive is at the end plug (with both drives connected) , or slave if the drive is at the middle plug (with both drives connected).
 
The white cable your are talking about is called an IDE cable. If it has a free opening then yes you should be able to install it. As for the power plug yes you could use the one from your CD/DVD drive but you might not one to do that then you will not be able to use the CD drive. Look for another power plug there might be another.

It will looks something like this
perif_Molex%20style%20power%20connector.jpg




Now if you don't have another one and you don't won't to unplug you CD/DVD drive then you can get something like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812198025.

Now the hard drive might be a SATA but I doubt it but if it is then the plug you need look like this.

This to hook it up to the motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812123107
and probably one of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812123137 to convert the 4pin power to a Sata if your power supply doesn't have one now some older Sata drives have both a Sata power connector and a 4pin power connector so you can choose which one you won't to plug in.

This is what the back of a Sata hard drive should look like
Hitachi_SATA_Hard_Drive.jpg


This is what an IDE drive should look like
adding-a-hard-drive-7.jpg



Hope I helped
 
most old mobos dont support sata anyways... OP, i would look around your case for a spare molex (the ones that power the ide drives) power cable that you may have missed before, or buy a splitter off newegg.
 
Thanks for all the help guys, I really appreciate it. I wanted to be sure I wouldn't frie anything, and if it was safe to attach the 2nd harddisk using the CD-rom's power cable.
 
dubesinhower said:
most old mobos dont support sata anyways... OP, i would look around your case for a spare molex (the ones that power the ide drives) power cable that you may have missed before, or buy a splitter off newegg.
Click to expand...

I know that I just wanted to make sure I said every thing that way there wouldn't be any more questions.
 
Hey guys, I tried to install the two Harddisks at once, so that the new disk would be a "slave", but when I do that, the PC always wants to boot of the new harddisk or something. Either that or it just doesn't boot -it stops halfway. It always seems to treat the new harddisk as the Master, and then stops halfway in the boot at a command prompt -that black screen. If I try using one HDD at once, it works fine. But two at once don't. I tried switching the IDE plugs between them but it was the same thing. And by the way I can't find anything that looks like the "Jumpers" thats "dubes" mentioned.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top