Tech Corner

[GreatEmerald]

That and internal drives are cheaper.

[Kalah]

That's pretty much what I thought ...

I guess I will have an internal look at my cabinet to see how easy/hard it will be to install an extra HD.

[ThunderTitan]

What, screwing a few screws and plugging in some wires is hard now?!

External HDD's are for carrying data around (and back-u)...

[Kalah]

Installing the new drive can be "hard" in my book if it's far from p&p: needing to download utilities or special programs to get it to work: needing extra wires/cables/adapters if the cabinet isn't set up for two drives ...

Experience tells me that all sorts of crazy things can happen - just look at the "simple" reformatting I did.

[ThunderTitan]

Last time i checked you just put it on "slave"and it works... i even know a guy who was using an internal HDD to take data from one PC to another.

Unless you have more then 1 CD/DVD-Drive you should have enough cables too.

[Kalah]

I'll check properly this weekend; right now I'm busy finishing off my exam ...

But rest assured, the internal drive is what I want the most. I just don't want it to be a lot of work.

[GreatEmerald]

Last time i checked you just put it on "slave"and it works...

Or use AHCI and a new OS in the first place, then you just connect it and it works.

[Pol]

Last time i checked you just put it on "slave"and it works... i even know a guy who was using an internal HDD to take data from one PC to another.

Tsk, tsk, you know at least two guys.

There's no slave for SATA. So Kalah you will just plug it and go, with installing that wise thingy on the end. Sounds easy, huh?

[Kalah]

It sounds ... almost too easy. Like there just has to be a catch somewhere ...

[GreatEmerald]

Actually, SATA is the connection. At least my BIOS uses either IDE or AHCI/RAID. IDE uses Slave/Master tables while AHCI uses a unified table where every drive is equal to others. Either way it's not hard.

[Pol]

@GreatEmerald
Actually SATA is SATA and IDE is IDE, don't mix. On what you're looking is BIOS pretended compatibility setting. For SATA is no slave in any case.

Brief note about SATA emulation modes.

@Kalah
Just try it. If it's any catch especially hidden for you, you will not avoid it whatever the cost. But perhaps the bigger catch is, that there is none.

[ThunderTitan]

There's no slave for SATA. So Kalah you will just plug it and go, with installing that wise thingy on the end. Sounds easy, huh?

Well i haven't tried any of that stuff with my latest SATA using PC... and the HDD from work that got fried was really old...

But that's nice to know...

[Kalah]

For those of you who hasn't caught on yet: I like planning things like this. It's good fun.

From all I can gather, I should be able to install an internal drive. In this picture (click to enlarge), you can see the complete inside of my cabinet:


There is a vacant slot (yellow circle) for an extra HD at the bottom, right next to the current drive (left). Hardware-wise it should be a simple insert-and-connect procedure. The current drive has a power supply (green circle) and motherboard cable (red circle) connected, and there is a vacant power cable (blue circle) hanging there as well. It does not seem long enough to reach a new HD, though, so I might need an extension to reach it.


The motherboard has vacant slots (yellow square) for cables coming from the HD; the current HD cable (red circle) is connected to one of four slots.


At the top of the cabinet, there are two vacant slots for other drives, like a new DVD drive and floppy drive; there are also some cables hanging between the power supply and DVD drive; I'm not sure what they do, but I suppose they could supply more drives if I put them up there.

[GreatEmerald]

You've got that right. From the looks of it, I'd say you should be able to remove the power cable for your old HDD, use the one that is not in use now, then when you get the new drive, it will be able to connect using the cable that your old HDD is using right now.

As for the cables up there - the lower one is a fan cable, you can install additional fans there. I don't exactly recognise the one at the top, but it's probably a power cable for something.

By the way, if you built the PC on your own, you would have a lot better understanding of how everything works I don't regret building mine. Especially for the chassis. Pre-built PCs never, ever have a decent computer case, or a power supply for that matter. (Note that if the PC doesn't start after you insert the new HDD, that might be why...) I'm very happy to have my CoolerMaster CM-690, installing anything there doesn't even require a screwdriver for the most part, and cooling is superb (although quite noisy if your MB doesn't support side fan control...)

[Kalah]

You've got that right. From the looks of it, I'd say you should be able to remove the power cable for your old HDD, use the one that is not in use now, then when you get the new drive, it will be able to connect using the cable that your old HDD is using right now.

That's a good idea. I'll try that. And if that doesn't work, at least I know that there are two cables - so that I can put an extension on or something if I need to. I'm sure I can get hold of a cable from some sort of vendor.

By the way, if you built the PC on your own, you would have a lot better understanding of how everything works I don't regret building mine.

Yes, that's probably something I'll try in the future. I sure know that the power supply in my dell is poorly made; every time I plug it in, it sucks so much power the first few seconds that I usually blow a fuse.

But I'll stick to upgrading my old rig for now. I guess that when that gets "old" even after the upgrade, time has come for me to build a proper powerhouse from scratch.

[ThunderTitan]

I sure know that the power supply in my dell is poorly made; every time I plug it in, it sucks so much power the first few seconds that I usually blow a fuse.

Dude, don't play around with power supplies... a bad one can burn your whole rig. Get it replaced.

And when you build a new rig always make sure it and the motherboard are the best you can buy for your price range...

[Kalah]

Dude, don't play around with power supplies... a bad one can burn your whole rig. Get it replaced.

Nah, it's the original that came with the Dell machine. And my dad (who's an electronics wiz) says it's no problem - it's just that the power supply has been quickly made, and that if they had put some more resources into it, it really isn't very hard to make it less power hungry on connection to the grid.

But yes, when I graduate to make my own rig piece by piece, I will of course get hold of top-quality parts.

[Pol]

I have this one. And it's quite a protector for my htpc. As this is originally a server class psu, it will hold for five years and more, no fear. Quality counts.

And I'm planning to get my hands on this "Obluda Computerowa". Which is just powerful enough for some Atom 330+ION. Translated 90W peak, 60W max permanent. Quality unassured but cheap modecom. Noticeably, this is a notebook adapter and dcdc convertor.

[Kalah]

Right. It's this, then. Should fit in the cabinet and everything. I assume that standard equipment like cables will come with the HD when it arrives.Or should I get hold of this cable as well?

Then it should be a simple matter of following some Internet guides to set it up, and I have another 1TB of disk space in my PC. Price: $80. Plus p&p, I guess.

Good decision?

[Pol]

Yes.

Get the cable as well, as it's supposed to come with motherboard and not the harddrive. The hdd is sometimes shipped with mounting screws and more often is not. This one will be entirely more of the second scenario. :p

You're also supposed to have one sata power cable for it on your psu, if not get this one as well. << If it's what it seems to be.