How do I connect an external hard drive to my motherboard?
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Most desktop computers have multiple drive bays, each of which can hold a hard drive. If you have a 3.5-inch hard drive and a 3.5-inch drive bay, it will usually slide right in. However, if your drive is smaller than your bay, you'll need an adapter to make it fit correctly. Making internal connections is usually simple, requiring a single data and a single power cable. Of course, while it's relatively easy to install an internal drive, adding storage to your business's computers with external drives is even easier -- just plug them in and use them. Show External Drives
Internal Drives
How to connect SATA drives to a PC using a USB to SATA/IDE adapterIf you need to connect your SATA hard drive to another computer for data recovery, but don’t want to disassemble the tower because of the warranty, lack available SATA ports or simply prefer using a laptop PC, you can easily convert this SATA drive into an external disk plugged into a USB port of the computer instead of the motherboard. Before starting the procedure, you need to prepare a USB to SATA/IDE adapter, which enables communication between these two most common interfaces. As USB ports are not able to provide sufficient current to spin the drives, you also have to find some external power supply like an AC/DC adapter and a Molex to SATA Power cable for it. However, some models of USB to SATA/IDE adapters pack both an adapter and a power supply together so that you wouldn’t have to look for a way how to power your drive.
The following video-guide will walk you through the whole process: To learn more about interface type identification as well as other possible methods of connection, please, refer to HOW TO: Identify the interface type of a hard drive and connect it to a PC for data recovery. Last update: August 21, 2022 If you liked this article, you can share it on social media: How do I connect an external hard drive to my computer directly?Connect the USB cable to the hard drive if not already connected and the other end to a USB port on the computer. Plug the other end of the USB cable into a USB port on the computer. After connecting the external hard drive to the computer, it should be recognized automatically by your computer's operating system.
What type of connector can be used to connect an external hard drive to the motherboard?Serial ATA (SATA)
One cable connects one hard drive to one port on the motherboard (as opposed to Parallel ATA).
How do I access my external hard drive from BIOS?If you installed a new hard disk, check whether the hard disk was successfully installed. When starting or restarting the computer, press F2 to enter the BIOS Setup screen. All of the installed disks will appear in the Disk Information area.
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