Hard drive question

Shane

Super Moderator
Staff member
Hey all,

I currently have 1 IDE 120Gb Seagate barracuda 7200Rpm Hard drive but im running out of room and need more space.

so im thinking about purchasing another hard drive,Im unsure what size to get yet but it will all depend if i can get a good deal on a hard drive.

I looked at my motherboard and i think it has Sata ports..well i think it said SATA II but the text is that small:D

Heres a pic of my mobo...can i use a Sata drive in this system and install windows on the Sata drive and use my IDE drive i currently as to store backups and stuff like that?


Shot with HP Photosmart E327 at 2007-08-08
 
Yup, those are definitely SATA ports. Post the make/model of your computer, and we can determine if they are 1.5 or 3.0Gb/s SATAs.

Also, have you given thought as to WHERE you will put the new hard drive? It looks like you have only one 3.5" bay, which I would assume is taken up by either a floppy or a card reader. Looks like you have a 5.25" open, and you could rig the harddrive to fit in there, but it would not be very secure, and I would not recommend it without an internal enclosure. Which you could find here:
http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=43&name=HDD-Accessories
 
Those look too small to be SATA ports.. at least when I compare them to the ATA port next to them, and compare them to my board.

(SATA ports on my board, computer to yours and see if they're a match)

sspx0156rj8.jpg

Sorry for the low quality, camera phone in a PC case in a dark room makes for a not-so-great picture ^^
 
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They are SATA ports they just don't have the outside bit (visible in above shot) that newer cables can latch/lock on to. They are probably SATA150 ports, I think most/all SATA300 ports have the locking part. Also, that's an AGP board and I don't know of any that have SATA300.
 
They are SATA ports they just don't have the outside bit (visible in above shot) that newer cables can latch/lock on to. They are probably SATA150 ports, I think most/all SATA300 ports have the locking part. Also, that's an AGP board and I don't know of any that have SATA300.

Newegg turned up a couple of AGP boards with SATAII, but only a couple, so that would actually be a pretty good thing to go by, but as for the locking SATA ports... I think the ONLY boards that I've seen with those were Gigabyte boards. I have several SATAII boards without the locking thing.
 
I have several SATAII boards without the locking thing.
Really? I don't remember seeing any...maybe some of the first ones, but I thought anything moderately new had them.
 
Yup, those are definitely SATA ports. Post the make/model of your computer, and we can determine if they are 1.5 or 3.0Gb/s SATAs.

Also, have you given thought as to WHERE you will put the new hard drive? It looks like you have only one 3.5" bay, which I would assume is taken up by either a floppy or a card reader. Looks like you have a 5.25" open, and you could rig the harddrive to fit in there, but it would not be very secure, and I would not recommend it without an internal enclosure. Which you could find here:
http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=43&name=HDD-Accessories

i thought they were Sata ports..heres the Make/Model of my rig

Hp Pavilion a710.uk :)

yeah i was looking and its seems i dont have much space to put it lol...i dont use my floppy drive so i could remove it and as you said i have a bay underneath the floppy drive free.
 
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