How to recognize which hard drives are being used?

  • Thread starter Thread starter adham
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A

adham

I was inspecting my compter trying to figure something out when i
realised that i have three 120 Gb hard drives. I had to maually remove
the hard drives to identify the capacity. I also realised that they
all have the same red connection made on the back. This connection
cable is pretty flat, with about 7 pins. However my computer is only
registering one of them, ie i only have a total of 111 Gb. Now my
question as you might have already guessed is how do i identify which
one of the hard drives is connected, or an even better question would
be, how do i connect them all so that i can use them.

This computer is used when i bought it, and i remember the seller
mentioning something about a raid configuration (2 hard drives in use,
and one for backup or something like that). The mother board had to be
replaced, and i also recal the person who fixed it mentioning that the
configuration isnt valid anymore. So taking all those factors into
configuration, would anyone know what to do? How to tell what
configuration there in? which ones are used, and which ones arent? and
how to connect them all?

I have another question as well though not as important. The case has
four fans, and when i changed my mother board one of the fans cannot
be connected, because all the fans are in use. My question is that is
there any way i could connect the fan to provide added circulation,
even if the temperature pin isnt being used?

thanks
adham
 
adham said:
I was inspecting my compter trying to figure something out when i
realised that i have three 120 Gb hard drives. I had to maually
remove
the hard drives to identify the capacity. I also realised that they
all have the same red connection made on the back. This connection
cable is pretty flat, with about 7 pins. However my computer is only
registering one of them, ie i only have a total of 111 Gb. Now my
question as you might have already guessed is how do i identify
which
one of the hard drives is connected, or an even better question
would
be, how do i connect them all so that i can use them.

This computer is used when i bought it, and i remember the seller
mentioning something about a raid configuration (2 hard drives in
use,
and one for backup or something like that). The mother board had to
be
replaced, and i also recal the person who fixed it mentioning that
the
configuration isnt valid anymore. So taking all those factors into
configuration, would anyone know what to do? How to tell what
configuration there in? which ones are used, and which ones arent?
and
how to connect them all?

I have another question as well though not as important. The case
has
four fans, and when i changed my mother board one of the fans cannot
be connected, because all the fans are in use. My question is that
is
there any way i could connect the fan to provide added circulation,
even if the temperature pin isnt being used?

thanks
adham
Click to expand...

Post the make/model of your motherboard and someone may be able to
help you.
 
adham said:
I was inspecting my compter trying to figure something out when i
realised that i have three 120 Gb hard drives. I had to maually remove
the hard drives to identify the capacity. I also realised that they
all have the same red connection made on the back. This connection
cable is pretty flat, with about 7 pins. However my computer is only
registering one of them, ie i only have a total of 111 Gb. Now my
question as you might have already guessed is how do i identify which
one of the hard drives is connected, or an even better question would
be, how do i connect them all so that i can use them.

This computer is used when i bought it, and i remember the seller
mentioning something about a raid configuration (2 hard drives in use,
and one for backup or something like that). The mother board had to be
replaced, and i also recal the person who fixed it mentioning that the
configuration isnt valid anymore. So taking all those factors into
configuration, would anyone know what to do? How to tell what
configuration there in? which ones are used, and which ones arent? and
how to connect them all?

I have another question as well though not as important. The case has
four fans, and when i changed my mother board one of the fans cannot
be connected, because all the fans are in use. My question is that is
there any way i could connect the fan to provide added circulation,
even if the temperature pin isnt being used?

thanks
adham
Click to expand...
Start with a free (for personal use) download of Belarc Adviser at;
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html
It will audit your system and provide quite a bit of information about the
system presently installed.

It will show you the make/model of your motherboard, and any hard drives it
detects.

Pass that info along to the group and people here should be able to give you
a hand.
 
adham said:
I was inspecting my compter trying to figure something out when i
realised that i have three 120 Gb hard drives. I had to maually remove
the hard drives to identify the capacity. I also realised that they
all have the same red connection made on the back. This connection
cable is pretty flat, with about 7 pins. However my computer is only
registering one of them, ie i only have a total of 111 Gb. Now my
question as you might have already guessed is how do i identify which
one of the hard drives is connected, or an even better question would
be, how do i connect them all so that i can use them.

This computer is used when i bought it, and i remember the seller
mentioning something about a raid configuration (2 hard drives in use,
and one for backup or something like that). The mother board had to be
replaced, and i also recal the person who fixed it mentioning that the
configuration isnt valid anymore. So taking all those factors into
configuration, would anyone know what to do? How to tell what
configuration there in? which ones are used, and which ones arent? and
how to connect them all?

I have another question as well though not as important. The case has
four fans, and when i changed my mother board one of the fans cannot
be connected, because all the fans are in use. My question is that is
there any way i could connect the fan to provide added circulation,
even if the temperature pin isnt being used?

thanks
adham
Click to expand...

It *sounds* to me like you have 3 SATA drives and 2 of them are in a RAID
setup which would make them show up in Windows as a single drive of roughly
240gb and the backup drive of 120gb - Im guessing the RAID setup is stuffed
(because at least one of the drives is faulty) and all you can see is the
backup drive. If it was a RAID 0 array (for speed) and not a RAID 1 array
(which mirrors the data on each drive) then you may well have lost the data
those drives. You dont specify but Im guessing you cant even boot into
Windows.
 
I was inspecting my compter trying to figure something out when i
realised that i have three 120 Gb hard drives. I had to maually remove
the hard drives to identify the capacity. I also realised that they
all have the same red connection made on the back. This connection
cable is pretty flat, with about 7 pins.
Click to expand...

I guess a SATA data connector (my term)

SATA power connector
http://www.acscontrol.com/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/311_SataPowerCable.jpg

SATA data connector / SATA cable
http://www.satacable.com/images/SATAI-connector-lg.jpg


However my computer is only
registering one of them, ie i only have a total of 111 Gb. Now my
question as you might have already guessed is how do i identify which
one of the hard drives is connected, or an even better question would
be, how do i connect them all so that i can use them.
Click to expand...

!!!
put a file on the one that you can see.
Then plug in one at a time and see which has the file!!

With RAID I think you get one drive letter per "RAID array".
it's possible that you have a RAID configuration and one RAID array as
is typical. The file is spread over a few and so one hard drive won't
see it. Or it's possible that you have a RAID configuration where the
file is mirrored. And so you'll find the file on a few.
But if that is the case, then maybe hard drives won't work
individually. because I think a RAID configuration might demand 2 or 4
hard drives.

That's mirroring and striping.

Other RAID options that may not be real RAID.. can be to stick all the
HDD quantity together so it appears as one letter. And another is I
think to have each drive as a separate letter(like having many more
IDE or I guess SATA - connectors). That may be a RAID Array per hard
drive. You aren't using either of those. I never used RAID much, I
could be wrong.
This computer is used when i bought it, and i remember the seller
mentioning something about a raid configuration (2 hard drives in use,
and one for backup or something like that). The mother board had to be
replaced, and i also recal the person who fixed it mentioning that the
configuration isnt valid anymore. So taking all those factors into
configuration, would anyone know what to do? How to tell what
configuration there in? which ones are used, and which ones arent? and
how to connect them all?
Click to expand...

Dude. Just set the BIOS to whatever RAID configuration you have. Or
disable RAID.. or something.

If you had to have somebody replace a motherboard and you just rely on
a sentence he said to an "end user", then it's not much use unless
elaborated on. You have to give it a fresh analysis.
I have another question as well though not as important. The case has
four fans, and when i changed my mother board one of the fans cannot
be connected, because all the fans are in use. My question is that is
there any way i could connect the fan to provide added circulation,
even if the temperature pin isnt being used?
Click to expand...

you got it! Fans have 3 wire socket connectors (not molex) that go to
the MBRD. One is temperature. But you can get a 3 pin/wire to 4 pin/
wire adaptor. . I'll change gender too. The PSU has 4 pin molex
socket connectors . The fan has its 3 pin socket connector .

To put it more simply. The adaptor lets you plug the fan into a PSU
power connector.

Maybe newer PSUs have only SATA style power connectors - I don't know.
But in which case, you could get a 3 pin to whatever pin SATA power
connector adaptor.

Go to google images for 3 pin 4 pin molex adaptor

http://www.pcalchemy.com/images/mitron/pm35sp-20.jpg

the adaptor has
a)female molex,
b)a male molex,
c)3 pin male fan connector.

The fan's female 3 pin socket connector goes into c. Then b(funny
looking thing) plugs into the PSUs female molex

the adaptor leaves 'a' whch you may use for whatever device, so that
you don't really lose a female molex from the power supply.

Though using it would use more current from the PSU and more current
down those wires in the PSU's molex connector that you plugged 'a'
into.

I seem to recall paul saying there was a limit - maybe 6 amp.
 
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