O/T - SATA Hard Drive - what do I need?

[Sonic]

Technical help required please - I know there's people on here who know what they're talking about.

I've recently upgraded my PC and have been told that I could add another hard drive in the form of a SATA drive. I'm currently looking at a couple on e-bay but don't know if I need anything more than a cable for it. Where does it sit inside the PC? Do I need any other adapter or anything?

Sorry if this question sounds stupid, but I'm clueless about technical gubbins.

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1046951,00.asp
should help ....

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

just read the article myself - 1st step must be to confirm your "PC has the required SATA controller with one or more SATA ports, such as the Promise Technology SATA150 TX2plus"

 

[Sonic]

just read the article myself - 1st step must be to confirm your "PC has the required SATA controller with one or more SATA ports, such as the Promise Technology SATA150 TX2plus"

Thanks. I just read that myself. The guy who upgraded my PC said that a SATA drive could be added, but I presume there's no SATA controller installed already. Better see how much one of those is as well. Hope they're all the same and compatible.

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

Thanks. I just read that myself. The guy who upgraded my PC said that a SATA drive could be added, but I presume there's no SATA controller installed already. Better see how much one of those is as well. Hope they're all the same and compatible.

If you're just after more storage capacity there are several ways to get this. SATA is very new (= expensive) and its advantage is speed (alegedly) - if speed is not so critical to you, I'd go for a secondary IDE drive - assuming there is room inside your box for it. This won't have the advantages of being hot-plugable but is that one of your requirements?

 

[Sonic]

I'm basically looking to add another hard drive for MP3 storage so I can upload my CDs and use it as a jukebox. Was told that the only option for hard drive storage would be SATA. If you different, I'd be grateful for your advice.

I currently have 1 hard drive (partitioned), 2 DVD-RW drives, and a floppy (which I'll probably never use). May also put my CD-RW back in too as it has a faster write speed that my DVD-RW.

 

[Ccider]

Most PCs have two IDE controllers and each can take 2 drives = 4 in total. Your hard drive and 2 DVD drives will allow you to add one more device (another hard drive or CD or DVD). With two DVD drives you must have a fairly large case so there should be room for another hard drive. Best put the 2 hard drives together on one contrtoller (the primary IDE) and the 2 DVD drives on the secondary IDE.

If you want SATA you can check by looking in the BIOS (hit del a few times when booting just after the beep, or sometimes F2) and hunt around the menus - if you can find an enable SATA option then you've got it - if you can't - well you haven't got it.

If you have USB2 you could consider an external drive - damn site easier!

 

[Sonic]

Most PCs have two IDE controllers and each can take 2 drives = 4 in total. Your hard drive and 2 DVD drives will allow you to add one more device (another hard drive or CD or DVD). With two DVD drives you must have a fairly large case so there should be room for another hard drive. Best put the 2 hard drives together on one contrtoller (the primary IDE) and the 2 DVD drives on the secondary IDE.

If you want SATA you can check by looking in the BIOS (hit del a few times when booting just after the beep, or sometimes F2) and hunt around the menus - if you can find an enable SATA option then you've got it - if you can't - well you haven't got it.

If you have USB2 you could consider an external drive - damn site easier!

Thanks for that. The case is certainly big enough to house 2 more CD/DVD drives.
I previously had another CD drive connected but it didn't work, no matter how I tried to set the jumpers. Could this have been because my primary and secondary controller connections were wrong?

Also, if I do go for a SATA (although I'm now considering alternatives), where would it sit in the case? Does it bolt on to the SATA controller or is there some sort of adapter that fits it into a drive bay?

 

[Sonic]

Looking on e-bay, an external 80Gb USB2 Hard Drive will cost me considerably more than the £40 I would pay for an 80Gb SATA drive and controller.

 

[The Great Cornholio]

Sata drives are the same size and have the same fittings as IDE so plonk them in your hard drive bay. The only difference is the cable - make sure the drive you get comes with one because they are not easy to get hold of. As long as you won't be booting from it, it will be fine. If you want to install Windows on it, you'll need a driver and will have to press F6 (I think) during installation to tell it you have a driver. Otherwise, it won't recognise it. Also, install a Windows driver for it once you get it working or else it will run like a dog.