Should you discover your PC working out of cupboard space sooner or later and also you don’t wish to delete your private information and put in video games, it’s most likely a good suggestion to spend money on a brand new exhausting disk drive. However what occurs when that second disk drive runs out of house too? Do you have to purchase a 3rd one? What number of exhausting drives can a PC have? We’ll reply all these questions and extra on this article.
Additionally learn: How Lengthy Does It Take To Construct a PC?
How To Test How Many Laborious Drives Can A PC Have?
There are a selection of the way to test what number of exhausting drives your laptop can help. All of them revolve round checking the variety of SATA ports obtainable on the motherboard as a result of that’s what number of exhausting drives you’ll be able to have in your PC.
Checking The Mannequin
The simplest method to test what number of exhausting drives can a PC have is to test the mannequin of your motherboard. That is additionally a extra environment friendly technique as you don’t must shut down and open the casing. Most producers have a listing of specs on their web site for all their merchandise together with motherboards.
To test which motherboard mannequin you have got, press Home windows + R, kind in msinfo32, and press the Enter key. This may open up the System Data menu the place you’ll be able to test your motherboard’s mannequin subsequent to Baseboard Manufacture, Product, and Model.
Now that you recognize the motherboard mannequin, use your browser to seek for its specs. After you have the specs, you must search for the variety of SATA ports obtainable in your motherboard. You may also examine the picture of the motherboard on-line to see what number of SATA ports there are.
Opening The Case
In case you have a prebuilt PC otherwise you’re unable to test the specs of your motherboard for some purpose, you may must open up your PC case. You possibly can test the variety of slots you have got in your motherboard by opening the case and on the lookout for the SATA ports bodily. SATA ports are L-shaped slots in your motherboard positioned subsequent to one another.
Checking BIOS
Shifting on, should you don’t wish to open the PC case, you’ll be able to test the BIOS for the variety of exhausting drives that your PC can help. BIOS is an inside program that enables your CPU as well the working system and get your laptop working after it’s powered on. It additionally has all the data concerning the {hardware} which is connected to your PC together with exhausting disk drives.
To test the variety of exhausting drives in your PC utilizing BIOS, restart the pc. Earlier than the pc begins booting, you will note the hotkey that’s required to entry the BIOS in your laptop. This hotkey is completely different in numerous PCs in accordance with the producer. When you press it, you’ll enter the BIOS setup in your laptop.
Now this interface will differ from PC to PC however they are going to all let you test the variety of SATA ports obtainable in your PC. It is usually necessary to notice that tinkering with BIOS settings can result in unexpected issues so when exiting from BIOS, make sure that there aren’t any adjustments made within the settings.
Elements That Have an effect on How Many HDDs You Can Have
So, you know the way to test the variety of exhausting drives your laptop can help, however Some components have to be checked earlier than putting in a brand new exhausting drive on a pc.
Motherboard
As talked about earlier than, the variety of slots obtainable in your motherboard performs the largest function in putting in new HDDs in your PC. Most motherboards include 4 to 6 SATA slots which suggests you’ll be able to set up as much as 4 to 6 exhausting disk drives in your PC, excluding exterior HDDs.
Most fashionable motherboards provide the SATA port for the exhausting disk to motherboard connection. Nonetheless, there are upcoming NVMe-based HDDs being launched by Seagate that may be put in on the motherboard with out the necessity for SATA ports however they aren’t popping out anytime quickly. You may additionally discover PATA ports on very outdated motherboards however this know-how has grow to be out of date and it’s uncommon to search out these ports in your motherboard.
Relying on what kind of ports and what variety of them can be found in your motherboard, you’ll solely have the ability to set up that kind and people variety of exhausting drives. So, it’s necessary to test your motherboard earlier than including any additional exhausting drives to your PC.
If all of the ports in your motherboard are already stuffed, then you’ll be able to’t set up one other exhausting disk on it. On this case, you’ll be able to both again up your information and improve the exhausting disks you have got put in in your PC, or get a brand new motherboard that has additional slots obtainable so as to add a brand new exhausting drive. There’s additionally the third choice of putting in an exterior exhausting drive which we’ll discover additional down. However these eventualities are impossible to really occur as a result of more often than not customers don’t have a tough disk on each slot.
PSU
Shifting on, it’s necessary to fill the facility necessities of any extra exhausting drive that you just wish to add to your PC. You must know that fashionable exhausting drives don’t require loads of energy and also you’ll discover most of them consuming lower than 10 W of energy out of your PSU. Normally, your PSU will have the ability to help an extra exhausting drive due to their typically low energy necessities.
Nonetheless, in case your whole PC’s energy necessities are already close to the facility which your PSU can deal with, it’s higher to not burden it with extra upgrades. Additionally, if there aren’t any energy connectors to attach the PSU to the exhausting drive, you’ll want to purchase them individually which might make cable administration a bit tough.
Case
The bodily house obtainable inside your case can be an necessary issue with regards to including extra exhausting disks to your construct. Clearly, you’ll be able to set up one other exhausting disk in your PC if there’s no house inside your PC casing. Most ATX instances let you maintain not less than 4 exhausting drives, with compartments obtainable for each. Primarily the problems surrounding inadequate house contained in the case come from smaller mini ITX builds.
Some customers stack exhausting drives on prime of one another with none clearance in between which might truly harm the {hardware}. If there’s no house between the exhausting drives, they will hinder one another’s performance due to vibration. If there isn’t sufficient house inside your PC case, and also you don’t need one other exhausting drive
Various Storage Strategies
Listed here are some various storage strategies – these might enable you getting round most capability of your PC’s storage.
Exterior HDD/SSD
In case your PC case doesn’t have house for extra exhausting drives, or your motherboard doesn’t have any additional slots obtainable, you’ll be able to nonetheless get an exterior exhausting drive or solid-state drive on your PC. Exterior exhausting drives are an excellent various since they’re simply as quick as regular exhausting drives and may simply be connected to a USB 3.0 port.
Since exterior exhausting drives use USB ports, they’re fairly moveable so it’s good to have one In case you have a number of computer systems. They’re additionally quicker than simply USB flash drives.
Cloud Storage
Cloud storage is an effective various should you’re working out of cupboard space in your exhausting drive. For instance, should you want some house to put in a brand new sport, you’ll be able to switch work information and private information on cloud storage similar to Google Cloud or Microsoft OneDrive. Cloud storage affords a good quantity of house the place you’ll be able to backup information and avoid wasting information you don’t entry recurrently.
USB Flash Drive
USB flash drives are one other various for storing information and liberating up house in your exhausting drive. Normally, flash drives have quicker learn/write speeds than exhausting disk drives. They’re additionally moveable and are simply as dependable as exhausting disk drives making them a wonderful alternative for saving information and transferring it into completely different computer systems.
Conclusion
On this article, we coated the query of what number of exhausting drives can a PC have. The principle takeaway is you could solely set up exhausting drives in your PC because the variety of SATA ports obtainable in your motherboard. There’re a number of methods of checking what number of SATA ports can be found in your PC which we explored on this article.
We additionally talked about components affecting the variety of exhausting drives your PC can maintain. After all, there are alternate options obtainable so that you can retailer your information similar to exterior exhausting drives, USB flash drives, and cloud storage areas.