Foo - Three hard drives?

Can you put three hard drives in a PC? I currently have 2 SATA drives and want to add another IDE type drive to retrieve some data from. Anyone know if you can do this? I've never had more than 2 drives in a machine at the same time. :eek:

sure, shouldn't be a problem as long as you have the connectors.

A typical PC motherboard with an IDE controller has 4 availible connections (primary controller: master and slave, secondary controller: master and slave, two drives per cable). A SATA motherboard can only support one drive per cable, so count the number of unused SATA connectors on you motherboard.

If you want to add more drives beyond the motherboard, there are PCI and PCI-express controller boards you can buy that will let you add more drives.

I believe my Mobo has both IDE & SATA connectors...

Thanks guys, I'm gonna give it a shot.

I have 2 SATA connections and have both of them used. I have a DVD burner(set to master) on one IDE port, and a CD burner(set to master) on the other IDE port. I am going to set the IDE HD to slave and try hooking it up on one of the cables that the CD/DVD drives are on. My computer may never work again. :lol:

You should be good to go. Good luck!

I believe my Mobo has both IDE & SATA connectors...

Some do, some don't. Most aftermarket mobos have both. Most OEM mobos have one or the other.

Additionally, a lot of MBs have RAID support with their on-board controllers. I've got 2 IDE drives set up on a RAID-0 for data and a 3rd for the OS-booting and swap-space. A 4th drive is the DVD-writer. The increased throughput from the RAID-0 for video editing & graphics is simply incredible. Still have the SATA controllers free, so those will have the next drives. But a lot of MBs can't boot from SATA drives.

KRIKEY! It Worked! :)

I'm gonna pitch the remains of my external USB drive in the trash....worthless POS.

<clap, clap, clap> :beer:

I knew you could do it! :)

KRIKEY! It Worked! :)

I'm gonna pitch the remains of my external USB drive in the trash....worthless POS.

Wait whats wrong with the external USB drive? I was thinking of getting one of those.

I'm thinking putting another 60GB in my work rig.

Plus another GB of DDR2 RAM. :D

Do you have your drives set up in RAID formation?

Wait whats wrong with the external USB drive? I was thinking of getting one of those.They're just dog slow. Make sure you get one with both USB-2 and Firewire. The Firewire works a lot faster and has lower CPU overhead.

<clap, clap, clap> :beer:

I knew you could do it! :)

ThankYa.....ThankYaVeryMuch. :lol:



That stupid IOMEGA external drive has been nothing but a headache ever since I've had it. It would work one time, next boot it would not be there. Had to reinstall(Repair) my OS last week and ever since then the drive would not show up no matter what I did. I hooked this drive to my home computer a year or so ago and I could not get it to work at all. I had previously used it on my home PC and it worked just fine. I D/L'd a driver for it I found somewhere on the net and after that my home PC would not even boot. I never did figure out what happened on that deal. Ended up formatting my drive and reloading everything. If you are gonna get an external USB drive I would not reccommend an IOMEGA.

I'm thinking putting another 60GB in my work rig.

Plus another GB of DDR2 RAM. :D

Do you have your drives set up in RAID formation?

Nope, just have my drive setup individually. I'm not even sure my MB/bios supports raid.

I second the USB drive being butt slow. I hated the damn thing and hardly ever used it. Will probably use it more now that I have it installed directly in my tower. Won't be very easy to take in and out, but I never really used it for that anyhow.




Anyone know what "Simple"... "Dynamic" means?(see attachment above) I somehow got my new SATA drive setup that way. Should I reformat it as a Basic partition, or do you think it makes any difference?

Nope, just have my drive setup individually. I'm not even sure my MB/bios supports raid.

I second the USB drive being butt slow. I hated the damn thing and hardly ever used it. Will probably use it more now that I have it installed directly in my tower. Won't be very easy to take in and out, but I never really used it for that anyhow.




Anyone know what "Simple"... "Dynamic" means?(see attachment above) I somehow got my new SATA drive setup that way. Should I reformat it as a Basic partition, or do you think it makes any difference?

Simple = writes to one drive until it fills up, then switches to another.

Dynamic = writes to all of your drives until they fill up.

???

Nope, just have my drive setup individually. I'm not even sure my MB/bios supports raid.

I second the USB drive being butt slow. I hated the damn thing and hardly ever used it. Will probably use it more now that I have it installed directly in my tower. Won't be very easy to take in and out, but I never really used it for that anyhow.




Anyone know what "Simple"... "Dynamic" means?(see attachment above) I somehow got my new SATA drive setup that way. Should I reformat it as a Basic partition, or do you think it makes any difference?

If you have the room you can add a removeable bay. I have this setup so I can boot from different OSs.

This is not the one I have, but the link gives you the idea of a removeable bay:

http://www.makeitsimple.com/reviews/drive_bay/

If you have the room you can add a removeable bay. I have this setup so I can boot from different OSs.

This is not the one I have, but the link gives you the idea of a removeable bay:

http://www.makeitsimple.com/reviews/drive_bay/
I have something similar... it's the schnizt!