I want to know if i can get 3 hard drives working.?

Question

I have 2 160 gig ide hdds. I dont have any available cables for a third, but i was wondering if i could unplug my floppy disk drive and use those cables to plug in a third drive. I'm not sure if the floppy drive uses some other cables?

Answer 1

HDDs use IDE interface which has 40 pins whilst floppy drives work with 34 pin interface,so they use their own cables and ports.
Normally,you can install up to 4 IDE devices on your Pc,these can be a mixture of Optical drives(e.g.CD/DVD) and Magnetic ones(e.g.HDD).
If you wanna install more IDE devices and your motherboard does not support SATA interface(Refer to it`s manual),then you have 2 more choices:

1-Buy a PCI-IDE controller and install it in one of your PCI slots on your motherboard in order to get additional IDE ports.

2-Buy an External HDD and plug it into one of your USB or Fire wire(IEEE1394)ports on your PC,if available.You should note that all of the external USB hard drives should be plugged into a USB2.0 port and not a normal USB port.Consider this option if your motherboard supports USB2.0,otherwise consider my first soloution.

Answer 2

You sure won't make an IDE hard drive working on a floppy drive's cable. But you could install the third drive on a connector placed in the middle of one of the other hard drive's cables. Now take a look at the jumprer configuration of the other drive on that cable and see if it's "master" or "slave". Configure your drive to be "slave" if the old one is "master" and the other way around.
Now restart your computer and enter the BIOS setup program. On the IDE port you used to install the third hard drive, enable the "Autodetect" option both for the "master" and "slave" devices. Save the settings and restart your computer again. Now you'll only need to format your new drive (if it's not already formatted).

Answer 3

Floppy and Hard drives use different cables. You could use cable of cd/dvd drive is you want to connect the third drive temporarily else you will need a separate IDE cable for connecting the third drive.

Answer 4

Like everyone has already said, no, you aren't going to be able to use your floppy drives power or data cable. But, you can use the data cable that's hooked up to your CD or DVD drive. Just buy this, which will allow you to mount your 3rd hdd underneath your CD/DVD drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817991002 Then, just give it a power wire (molex), and change the hdd's jumper to the slave position, and it will work just fine.

Answer 5

Sir, you may install four IDE devices on a standard mother board.
You only need two IDE cables the have three connectors, two for the devices and one for the mother board.

If you want to install more IDE devices, buy a IDE PCI card and install it in one of your PCI slots.

Computer Help Page

http://www.diskgenius.com/

http://www.pcbeginner.com/tools/pcdoctor.htm

http://www.pcguide.com/byop/index.htm

http://www.ntfs.com/boot-disk.htm

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Boot-Manager-Disk/

http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Best/ntfs-boot-iso.html

http://www.disk-image.net/products.htm

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

http://www.winternals.com/

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,25181-order,1-page,1-c,alldownloads/description.html

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Boot-Manager-Disk/Windows-XP-PowerPacker.shtml

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,674406,00.asp

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/
•http://www.bootdisk.com/utility.htm
•Chapter 1: Purchasing Components
•Chapter 2: Component Overview
•Chapter 3: Installing the CPU, Heatsink, and RAM On The Mainboard
•Chapter 4: Installing The Mainboard In The Case
•Chapter 5: Installing Drives
•Chapter 6: Connecting Components
•Chapter 7: Installing AGP and PCI Cards
•Chapter 8: Testing the System and Completing Assembly
•Chapter 9: Installing Windows XP
•Chapter 10: Configuring Windows XP
•Chapter 11: Installing A Dual Boot Operating System (Linux And Windows XP)
•Chapter 12: Home Video -- “So, You Want to Be the Next Steven Spielberg?”
•Chapter 13: What’s Next?

Answer 6

You will need to add a EIDE controller card. This can run $20+. you will be able to add 2 to 4 drives to your computer.
Before installing it go to your computers BIOS and disable your two serial ports. That is is your are not using them. Most users don't use them anymore. remember the IRQ and port address assigned to them.
Now install your new controller card. You card will require 1 IRQ per EIDE channel (2 drives). Most controllers have two channels supporting 4 drives total.
You may also have to upgrade your power supply depending on your systems hardware.

Answer 7

You can't use your floppy drive cable, it wont fit your HD. You should hook up your other HD to the CD cable and use that instead.

Answer 8

no ,you need your floppy disc controller,or your windows won't boot up ,i suggest a usb external hard drive like i use 3 of them right now ,because its alot easier than installing a pci raid card and setting up a raid array

Answer 9

sorry you cant use the data cable which is use in floppy drive.

Answer 10

you can upgrade your motherboard which has Serial ATA cable. It can handle up to 2 HDD.