Adding a hard drive..

[apprentice87]

Hi All,

Ok, so i have got an ASUS desktop computer, It is about 4 years old i suppose?? Anyway, i want to add a second internal hard disc so that i can do backups without messing around with bits of wire and external drives..

I went out and bought a nice new Toshiba HD, but when i go to fit it, there are plenty of power connectors, but no data ones...

On my mother board there are two SATA ports, but these are already used for the hard disc and the cd drive thingy. There are only two expansion slots on my mother board. One is a long one, about 4 or 5 inches long, but that already has some sort of large gizmo plugged into it [as it was when the thing came from the factory, i think it is something to do with graphics] and a short little port about an inch and a quarter long, labelled something like "PCI EX1"

What do i need to do?? Am i up the creek??

john..

 

[ProDave]

Buy a USB 3 caddy and pop it in there.  There is a lot of logic that says the very last place your backup disk wants to be, is inside the same computer permanently connected.

Plug it into a USB3 port and use it to take your backups, then put it in a safe place.

Or set it up as a network drive?  that's what I have just done so any computer in the house can access it.

 

[Murdoch]

You could add a Wi-fi backup device like the WD my cloud and connect it to your router. Job done

 

[apprentice87]

You could add a Wi-fi backup device like the WD my cloud and connect it to your router. Job done

Hi there, I do not understand all this "cloud" business.. I do know that when i bought the thing the shop people were on about something like that, but it turned out that i had to pay to store my data whereever.

I do not trust stuff like that anyway, how do i know that they will not lose it all?? I work for the NHS, you would think that would be world champions on data protection [literally, not the silly law] but take it from me, they are useless..

Would it not be terribly slow as well??

john..

 

[Murdoch]

Hi there, I do not understand all this "cloud" business.. I do know that when i bought the thing the shop people were on about something like that, but it turned out that i had to pay to store my data whereever.

The "my cloud" is a hard drive in your own home ......... mine is set to check my laptop all the time for new / changed files and backs them up....... never noticed how long it takes. The biggest files are my .pst's and then my Quickbooks data file

 

[ProDave]

Here is a tip that may help some.

If you have a BT router / hub.  If you have a look at the back, it has a USB socket.  Plug a HDD into that and it becomes a network drive available to anyone in the house either wired or by wifi.

This is not officially documented by BT, but it works.

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

Hi All,

Ok, so i have got an ASUS desktop computer, It is about 4 years old i suppose?? Anyway, i want to add a second internal hard disc so that i can do backups without messing around with bits of wire and external drives..

I went out and bought a nice new Toshiba HD, but when i go to fit it, there are plenty of power connectors, but no data ones...

On my mother board there are two SATA ports, but these are already used for the hard disc and the cd drive thingy. There are only two expansion slots on my mother board. One is a long one, about 4 or 5 inches long, but that already has some sort of large gizmo plugged into it [as it was when the thing came from the factory, i think it is something to do with graphics] and a short little port about an inch and a quarter long, labelled something like "PCI EX1"

What do i need to do?? Am i up the creek??

john..

I'm in a mix of both ProDave And Murdochs Caddy & Cloud permutations...

I use a Laptop (nearly 5yr old March 2015) & Desktop for all my work stuff...

Desktop used to be an old item the children used for homework etc..

But when they went off to university they obviously needed laptops, so I adopted the Desktop for my work,

(it has been updated with bigger & second hard-drives for backing up important files etc. & faster processor)..

But when it started showing signs of dying, the boot drive was going up the creek..

I purchased an external Caddy so I could just plug the old desktop second drive in and read it via USB onto my laptop...

The Caddy was less then £30 from Maplin, when they still existed.. 

And is really useful to use any old hard-drives as back-up devices onto any PC with USB port.

In the Jan sales 2018 I purchased a suitable HP desktop for my requirements...  excluding monitor (which I didn't need)...

so I retired the old desktop thinking I could stick one of my old hard-drives into the new beast as a second disc...

But when I opened up the new "Desktop" it is in actual fact a laptop motherboard in a desktop case..

i.e.  missing all the expansion ports that a real desktop has!!!

[ I get the gut feeling that for average users, 'Not Those Gaming Geeks', True Desktops are a dying breed, as everyone is either Laptop or Ipad or iPhone for their Interweb Smurffing!! ]

So....

I started using combinations of Caddy with old hard drives OR some external USB drives, but wanted storage that both Laptop & Desktop could access without needing to un-plug and re-plug!

So looked at the Western Digital "My Cloud" drives..

Ended up with a WD 4terraByte drive which just plugs directly into the router..

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessories/data-storage/external-hard-drives/wd-my-cloud-home-nas-drive-4-tb-white-10168822-pdt.html

You load the WD Utility software onto your PC/Desktop/Phone, set your username & password then you can save/edit/view files from any device either at home or anywhere providing you have internet access..

Once the drive utility is loaded on the computer, it automatically logs into the "My-Cloud" drive and all of its files appear as the "Z:" drive in file explorer..

I run and keep all my current active customer & work related files on the WD cloud-drive,

So either Laptop or Desktop can view, edit, save all word processor files and Spreadsheets etc..

I just save duplicate back-ups onto the Laptop and/or Desktop hard drive, but always do direct active  work onto the Z: MyCloud Drive..

My Laptop & Desktop both have a hard-wired CAT5 data connection...

and I don't really noticed any delays opening & saving files direct to external cloud drive.

Also I have a whole hoard of personal family Photos / Videos / Go-Pro footage stored on there as well!

The WD My-Cloud Home is easy to set up, and does what I need storing stuff external to my computers..

Had my WD Cloud drive since Sept 2018.

+ If the Caddy is plugged into either PC I can copy stuff in any combination between, Caddy-Drive/PC-Drive/My-Cloud.

:Salute    Guinness

 

[apprentice87]

Hi All,

I got it sorted!! Managed to find some more SATA ports!! They were underneath the two i could see!! I just plugged it all in and the thing was working, well, device manager could see it, took a while to work out how to tell the rest of windows that the thing existed, but all working now!!

I do not know much about computers or that kind of lettuced. i have not even got a mobile telephone, do not want one. Just use my computer for looking on the internet and storing my photos, but i have loads of them!! Oh, and my cad program and my online banking, but that is about all..

Fixed it fixed it!!

john..