Multiple HDDs in a single motherboard SATA port?

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udprod

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Jun 2, 2009
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Hi.

Recently my younger cousin purchased two 640 GB Western Digital (7200 RPM sata) drives and asked me to install them in his machine. I went there and started fiddling with the drives, but discovered that his motherboard does not have enough slots for the drives.

There is two Sata ports and two USB ports. The USB ports are occupied (not that I was going to use them anyway) and both Sata ports were occupied aswell, and I found out it was his old HDD (which he wants to keep) and a DVD Drive that was taking the spot.

He is unable to the return the HDDs, so I was curious:

Is it possible to add multiple harddrives to one SATA slot at the motherboard, preferably using a cheap solution such as alternate cabling (a cable with two HDD ports or whatever) or something similar? Worst case, does a bit more expensive solution exist?

Thanks in advance.
 
D

Deleted member 217926

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No you can not use multiple SATA drives on 1 port. However you can get PCI cards that add ports for pretty cheap.
I used to use one years ago when the SATA standard first came out but I am not sure an exact one to recommend.
I would choose one with a Silicon Image chipset over the Via ones myself. Also some have RAID options so just find one with good reviews and the features you want.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=40000073&Description=sata%20card&name=Add-On%20Cards
 
U

udprod

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Hi, thanks for your post.

My friend is running a 64 bit version of Win7 Home premium, could that give any compitability issues?


As for installing and such. You basically just plug it into a PCI port (not a PCI-E port) and then how do you link the HDDs to the card?

Thanks.
 
D

Deleted member 217926

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Oops just noticed this was on the UK version of Tom's, Sorry about the newegg links but at least you have a general idea of what to look for.

I believe as long as it supports Vista x64 it should be fine with 7 x64. You may even find ones that say they will work with 7 specifically. Just make sure you read up on the card you decide on.

Yes you just plug it into the PCI port and the card has the SATA headers on it. Just use them like you would if they were on the motherboard.

Glad to help.

 
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HVDynamo

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You just want to make sure that the manufacturer of the add-in SATA card has drivers for 64-bit Windows 7 (64-bit Vista drivers may be ok too), if they don't then its a gamble whether it will work. As far as the Hard Drives themselves, they will work fine regardless. If its PCI then your put it into a PCI port, if its PCI-E you put it in a PCI-E port, they may come in both flavors. The HDD's will connect to the SATA ports on the add-in card in the same manner they would be connected to the Motherboard if there were more ports there.
 
D

Deleted member 217926

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This one looks like exactly what you are looking for. Although I do not read Danish? ( I think ) :kaola:

http://midtdata.dk/hardware_1000140353_Sunix-SATA-controller---PCI---2-x-SATA.html

From what I can tell it will work with or without RAID is SATA 3.0 and has Vista drivers meaning it should work with Windows 7 just fine.

If the first one is a RAID only card then the other one http://getmore.dk/køb-delock-controller-card-2x-sata,-1x-ide-billig/raid-controller/70146_111211_p.html says specifically it will work for JBOD or without RAID. It is the older SATA 150 standard but that reall does not matter and will not slow down your drives. Actually it adds an IDE port as well.

If the first one has non RAID support ( unless you plan to use RAID for sure ) then get it. If not the second one will be fine.
 
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