A final alternative is the e-SATA cable, which is best suited to outwardly connecting computers or laptops to external peripheral SATA devices such as hard drives. Note: The absence of SATA ports on the motherboard means that it does not support the SATA interface. The safest way to work inside of a computer is to wear an antistatic wrist strap while working on the computer. In a standard assembly, one end of the cable will be connected to the hard drive, while the other will be connected to the motherboard.

This SATA cable, also known as Serial ATA cable, consists of a straight SATA socket to a angled SATA socket type L, female / female. To check whether the drives are attached correctly, you can run the Disk Management utility and look for them in the list of devices. In the first place, look for them at the lower front, but it will be better to refer to the manual for the exact location. I’ve built a multitude of Computers, Workstations and Renderfarms and love to optimize them as much as possible. If you simply need to replace an HDD, it’s worth noting that it is possible to avoid the need to disconnect the SATA cable from the motherboard.Instead, find things to do with your old disk and get a great chunk of good use out of it, even if it's dead. If you don’t have any SATA ports on your motherboard, your motherboard does not support the SATA interface. It is also worth noting that SATA cables can be used to connect external hard drives to a PC via the e-SATA input. Your new HDD or SSD probably arrived with at least its interface cable (the red cable in our example images above and below). Connect one end of the SATA cable to the hard drive, then connect the other end of the cable to one of the free SATA connectors on your motherboard.

If the connector does not have a metal clip on it, then you just need to pull it straight out of the board or hard drive. Big brand OEMs will often use power supplies with exactly the right selection of cable lengths and connectors to match the drive bays in their machines. That power usually comes in the form of a 4-pin Molex power connector with a SATA drive specific connector. Feel free to comment and ask for suggestions on your PC-Build or 3D-related Problem, I’ll do my best to help out! Your primary (boot) drive should be connected to the lowest SATA port on your motherboard, unless otherwise specified in your motherboard documentation.These data connectors also include differential signalling to reduce the risk of data loss during transfer. Such cables can be used to streamline the data transfer process or extend the storage space of your laptop.

wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors.To learn more about other possible installation methods, please, refer to the article devoted to choosing a method for connecting SATA drives to a computer. If a PC doesn’t have an external SATA connection port, you can use a SATA to eSATA adapter cable to make the connection work. Like I said, the clip is attached to the connector on the cable itself, so that comes with the connector when you pull it. SATA cables are able to connect to a variety of devices and can utilise hot plugging technology only when decides and operating systems are compatible. In this case, you may use an expansion card or attach an IDE to SATA adapter to the connector of the older IDE standard.

Moreover, other data cables might feature an angled connector, making it easier for you to connect them to your storage devices in tight situations. Credit subject to status, UK residents only, British Telecommunications Public Limited Company acts as a broker and offers finance from PayPal Credit.

If your hard drive does not have any SATA ports, your motherboard does not support the SATA connection. It is used to improve performance by concurrently reading or writing to multiple disks or to provide data redundancy by writing data to two or more drives.