# I have run out of SATA ports... What do I do?



## The VCR King (Sep 13, 2014)

I have an over-the-air TV tuner card installed in my gaming PC, and I have it save recordings/DVR to my main hard disk, my 1TB HDD. I record about 5-6 hours of shows every day, and between games, personal files, and my TV tuner my HDD is filling up FAST. I have other HDDs installed but they are all used for backups/can't be used because they are system image partitions.

I want to add another HDD to my system, but all the SATA slots on my motherboard (MSI 890FXA-GD65 gaming series) are used up, and from what I can see, there are no IDE slots on the mobo or power supply.

Is there a way I can install another drive IN the PC or do I need to get a USB drive or use E-SATA, which I have?

(By the way, each of my recordings is about 2-3GB in size because most of my local stations broadcast in HD now.)


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## johnb35 (Sep 13, 2014)

You will need to buy a pci or pci express sata controller card if you have any open slots.


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## The VCR King (Sep 13, 2014)

I have enough PCI-E x1 slots to supply the Army, but my question is, do I need any slots on my power supply to do this?


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## johnb35 (Sep 13, 2014)

You will need an open sata power connector.  If you don't, do you have an open Molex connector?  If so, you can get a molex to sata power adapter. 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812200061


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## beers (Sep 13, 2014)

It depends on the card, most cards should be able to pull power through PCIE so you'd just need a connector on the endpoint instead of the card for power.

But as stated, there are PCIE1x cards that can do what you want.


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## spirit (Sep 13, 2014)

How many SATA devices you have? Most boards have around 6 SATA ports so you must have a lot of hard drives and/or optical drives!

You can get a SATA card and power adapters and they will work, but what I would personally do is start replacing smaller drives with larger ones and then you can move your backups off the smaller drives onto larger ones. You could even think about partitioning some of those larger drives.


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## The VCR King (Sep 13, 2014)

I have two HDDs, 1 SSD, 1 large HDD, an optical drive, and my last SATA port is hooked into the E-SATA on my case.

I do not feel comfortable using a PCI card and Molex adapter, because I have heard nothing good about these adapters, and I am NOT going to catch MY PC on FIRE.

If I get a SATA cable and plug it into the E-SATA port of my case, can I use my USB ports for the 5-volt drive power? My E-SATA port is located near my USBs so if I can do that I will just do that.
If I use a USB extension cable I could use my 3.0 ports on the back of the mobo.


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## beers (Sep 13, 2014)

The Blue Beast said:


> I do not feel comfortable using a PCI card and Molex adapter, because I have heard nothing good about these adapters, and I am NOT going to catch MY PC on FIRE.



As always with your posts, facedesk.

Also, if you don't actually use eSATA I'd just unhook that internally and use the integrated port..


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## Geoff (Sep 13, 2014)

The Blue Beast said:


> I have two HDDs, 1 SSD, 1 large HDD, an optical drive, and my last SATA port is hooked into the E-SATA on my case.
> 
> I do not feel comfortable using a PCI card and Molex adapter, because I have heard nothing good about these adapters, and I am NOT going to catch MY PC on FIRE.
> 
> ...


You don't need a molex adapter, the PCI-E add-on card plugs into your motherboard and that's it, then the hard drives just need power from the power supply.  If you don't have any more SATA power connectors, there's nothing wrong using a molex to SATA adapter...


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## spirit (Sep 13, 2014)

The Blue Beast said:


> I do not feel comfortable using a PCI card and Molex adapter, because I have heard nothing good about these adapters, and I am NOT going to catch MY PC on FIRE.



In that case then it's time to replace your smaller drives with one large drive.

Or if you don't use e-SATA unplug the e-SATA cable from your board.

I have to admit that I've never had much luck with PCI SATA cards but I did only use a few cheap ones.


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## The VCR King (Sep 13, 2014)

spirit said:


> (snip)Or if you don't use e-SATA unplug the e-SATA cable from your board.(snip)


I wish I could, but with how many cables are inside this thing, good luck trying to trace the cable to the proper port!


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## voyagerfan99 (Sep 13, 2014)

The Blue Beast said:


> I wish I could, but with how many cables are inside this thing, good luck trying to trace the cable to the proper port!



Then it's time for you to strip the entire pc down and do some cable management.


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## spirit (Sep 13, 2014)

The Blue Beast said:


> I wish I could, but with how many cables are inside this thing, good luck trying to trace the cable to the proper port!





voyagerfan99 said:


> Then it's time for you to strip the entire pc down and do some cable management.



Exactly. You could save yourself some money! 

Of if you can't be arsed to do that, just keep unplugging the SATA cables from the board until you find the one that is the e-SATA cable. 

But for what it's worth you might as well just do some cable management to make your life easier in the future.


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## Geoff (Sep 13, 2014)

The Blue Beast said:


> I wish I could, but with how many cables are inside this thing, good luck trying to trace the cable to the proper port!


Post a picture of the inside of your computer.


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## The VCR King (Sep 14, 2014)

I am NOT AT ALL comfortable with tinkering with the inside of a PC like mine, because one
time when I did it I got a BootMGR Missing error next boot and I had to reimage the 
whole thing and lose my data. Honestly, I am PARANOID out of my mind when it comes
to doing things like this. I can work with PCI cards and PSUs, but unplugging SATA 
cables or removing my MOBO altogether? I am not saying that I do not want your advice, it is just that I am really scared of removing components from a PC. Heck, I
tried overclocking the beast and I bricked the stupid thing and has to reinstall the bios.

And now that my rant is over, here's the pic:





There is what I believe to be cable management behind the mobo but I am not sure. There is a little compartment with tons of cables and crap running in 50 different directions.


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## Agent Smith (Sep 14, 2014)

Since you record TV shows all the time I would invest in a HTPC. Get a 2 TB or larger HDD. Or if you don't want to go that route, do as what was mentioned and get a bigger hard drive. You won't, I repeat WON'T cause a bootmgr error or any of that crap just buy replacing a HDD. You do know to shut down the PC before you add or replace a HDD, right?


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## spirit (Sep 14, 2014)

Yeah just a big external hard drive. A USB 3.0 one would be fine.

But the only reason you're going to get a 'bootmgr is missing' message in this case is if you unplug the boot hard drive. So what you do then is simply plug it back in. I still think that the only reason you got that error before was because you might have left a USB drive or something plugged into your PC and Windows was trying to boot off that rather than your boot HDD. I don't think you needed the reimage the whole thing - rather just unplug any USB drives and reboot the computer, but there you go.

But again, you complained that you're out of SATA ports and asked us what to do. We said that you need to get a PCI SATA card or unplug some existing devices and then you pretty much reject what we say again - so why ask? You knew that it might involve going inside the case, didn't you?

But I do think just getting something external like a USB external HDD is the most ideal option for you if you're scared about installing internal hard drives.


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## The VCR King (Sep 14, 2014)

Would a USB 2.0 drive record the HD shows fine or do I need USB 3.0 for higher res. shows?


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## johnb35 (Sep 14, 2014)

Usb 3 drive would be faster only if you have a usb 3 port on your computer.  Hi res just means the file size will be bigger and take longer to transfer on usb 2.


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## Geoff (Sep 14, 2014)

The Blue Beast said:


> Would a USB 2.0 drive record the HD shows fine or do I need USB 3.0 for higher res. shows?


USB 3.0 is better, but 2.0 will work fine.


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## spirit (Sep 14, 2014)

Get a USB 3.0 drive. At least 1TB.


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## The VCR King (Sep 14, 2014)

johnb35 said:


> Usb 3 drive would be faster only if you have a usb 3 port on your computer.  Hi res just means the file size will be bigger and take longer to transfer on usb 2.



It doesn't record a temporary file then put it on my HDD. It records the show directly off the air and onto the HDD as it happens, and it closes the file after the show ends/when I program it to stop.

I have USB 3.0 ports, I just need the drive to do it.


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## Geoff (Sep 14, 2014)

The Blue Beast said:


> It doesn't record a temporary file then put it on my HDD. It records the show directly off the air and onto the HDD as it happens, and it closes the file after the show ends/when I program it to stop.
> 
> I have USB 3.0 ports, I just need the drive to do it.



Most high capacity drives are all USB 3.0 these days anyways.


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## MisterEd (Sep 20, 2014)

If you have a eSATA port why not use it? You can buy a external eSATA enclosure and put any SATA drive in it. Remember you have to use a eSATA cable with this since it is not the same as a regular SATA one.

Of course most people now days are opting for drives that use USB 3.0 since it is pretty fast. I only mention eSATA because you have it and are not using it.


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## The VCR King (Sep 20, 2014)

Will the eSata port also power the drive or do I need a USB/Molex adapter?


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## Geoff (Sep 20, 2014)

The Blue Beast said:


> Will the eSata port also power the drive or do I need a USB/Molex adapter?


I believe it's data only.


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## voyagerfan99 (Sep 20, 2014)

eSata is data only. External drives that support it have power supplies.


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