How to connect the second hard drive to the computer?

We all live in an interesting time, when technology in the field of computer technology is changing one another literally in a few years. For example, even yesterday the specialized AGP bus seemed to be the limit of dreams, and its updated revisions appeared like mushrooms after the rain. Now they remember it either to satisfy their own curiosity, or by assembling a computer from old components for a highly specialized range of tasks.

A similar situation has developed with CDs: first CD, then DVD and DL-DVD, and more recently Blu-Ray were seen at an affordable price. No doubt, many during this time managed to form an impressive home collection of selected video films, and maybe even an audio library. But at present CDs have a competitor - hard disks. Their value is constantly reduced, already dropping below 5 cents for 1 MB. Not surprisingly, the network now often you can meet the question "how to connect the second hard drive." We will try to answer it.

Connecting a hard drive is quite a simple task, but only if you understand what is being done and why. After reading the answers and at least once checking everything in practice, everyone can connect the disks to the computer.

Before you start to understand how to connect the second hard drive, you need to determine what, in general, there are hard drives and how they differ. The main difference is in the type of hard disk interface. To date, there are three: discontinued, but still occurring, IDE; Then SATA, which became the standard; And USB. To understand how to connect the second hard disk, you should also know three things: the interface of the hard drive, the standards supported by the motherboard and the amount of hard disk in gigabytes.

The interface is simple: if the motherboard supports only SATA, then it can connect only SATA and USB, and the IDE - only through an expansion board or converter. Suppose that the hard drive and the board are SATA. Then the installation of the second hard disk is performed as follows (the computer must be disconnected from the socket):

• We check the jumpers of the hard drive so that the SATA limit of 1.5 Gb / s is not set. In this mode, work is possible, but the speed will be limited;
• Remove the side cover of the case of the system unit and connect the SATA interface cable to the corresponding free connector. Note that the connector has a lock that does not allow the connector to be inserted incorrectly;
• Place the hard drive in a free compartment of the case and fix it with a screw (if a stationary installation is required);
• We connect the power wire and the second end of the SATA-loop to the hard drive. It is impossible to make a mistake - everywhere the blocking is from an erroneous inclusion. If there are two different power connectors - MOLEX and SATA, then we use ONE of them;
• We collect the case and turn on the computer.

If the disk capacity is more than 2 TB, then for its operation the motherboard should be equipped with a new UEFI rather than the classic BIOS. In addition, you will need to format this hard drive in the GPT format, not MBR.

You often have to figure out how to connect the second hard drive so that it can be used as a portable one. Of course, the best solution is to purchase a factory external USB hard drive. If there is already an "extra" second SATA or IDE disk, then the cost of a relatively expensive purchase is not needed. It is necessary for 10-20 $ to purchase an adapter-converter USB-to-SATA (IDE) with an external power supply. The disk is connected to this adapter and is powered from the external unit, and the other end of the converter cord is plugged into the USB port of the computer. As an option - to buy a ready USB "pocket" for the hard drive. It is the same power supply and converter, but hidden in a neat fan-blown case, which houses a hard drive. The disadvantage of this solution lies in its high cost, the lower limit of which starts at $ 45.