how do I add more sata hard drives?

mitchell2380 · February 5, 2020

So i am making a home server for storage of movies tv est. I am using a old dell desktop from a school I am a teacher, but the motherboard only has 3 SATA ports. Is it possible to plug in one or two more desktops? so they can share hard drives and other resources?

Thanks, Mitchell

PositiveRaisin2 · February 5, 2020

Just now, mitchell2380 said:

So i am making a home server for storage of movies tv est. I am using a old dell desktop from a school I am a teacher, but the motherboard only has 3 SATA ports. Is it possible to plug in one or two more desktops? so they can share hard drives and other resources?

Thanks, Mitchell

You can probably get a pcie SATA expansion card

aisle9 · February 5, 2020

You can get a PCIe to SATA adapter off of Newegg for $15-20, or you can pick up bigger hard drives and swap them out. I'm usually a fan of the latter, as OEM Dells generally didn't include space for more hard drives than they had SATA ports on the mobo for.

Alternatively, you could set up a home server or NAS to share data from the drives on it.

idwt · February 5, 2020

5 minutes ago, mitchell2380 said:

So i am making a home server for storage of movies tv est. I am using a old dell desktop from a school I am a teacher, but the motherboard only has 3 SATA ports. Is it possible to plug in one or two more desktops? so they can share hard drives and other resources?

Thanks, Mitchell

i know its a pointless solution as you can use a SATA expansion card, but they actually make an adapter so you can plug any old 2.5 or 3.5" HDD into a USB, and it supplies the power and the signal, ive supplied a link below so you can get the idea

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/USB-3-0-To-SATA-22-Pin-2-5-Inch-Hard-Disk-Drive-SSD-Adapter-Connector-Cable-UK/202853674681?hash=item2f3b056eb9:g:MocAAOSwIxFd9AP-

homeap5 · February 5, 2020

You can also buy used motherboard with more sata ports. It should cost similar to PCIE expansion card (I assume that your hardware is pretty old since it has only 3 sata ports - some old crap on via chipset maybe?).