“How many hard drives can a pc have?” Before answering the question; we would like to inform, you also felt at some point in your life that your newly purchased computer has enough space to store all the files in the world. But the reality is very different when you notice that the storage bar of file explorer turns from blue to red after storing some files. In such a situation most people decide which files to keep and which files are not important enough to stay in the system.
Again, if you are tech-savvy, you can come up with a different idea to buy an external hard drive to get some extra storage space. Or you can replace your existing hard drive with a new one with a much larger storage capacity. However, in that case, you need to think about getting rid of the old hard drive.
When this becomes a completely new proposition for you, you may wonder how many hard drives can a PC have? Or if I can add one more hard drive to my PC? How do I check for my PC’s storage limit? We will answer all these questions in today’s article. So stay tuned.
Honestly, how many hard drives can a pc have?
It is obvious that your computer or laptop will not have only one slot for a hard drive. Actually, the number of SATA (aka Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) ports determines how many hard drives a pc can have. It refers to the port that connects a hard drive to the motherboard. Most of the time, a regular motherboard contains 4 SATA ports. So, you can either connect 2 hard drives and 2 DVD drives or 3 hard drives and 1 DVD drive. Modern motherboards, especially the gaming ones contain up to 6 SATA ports allowing more hard drives to be installed.
That being said, some latest components aside from DVD drives can also occupy these SATA ports. This will reduce the chances of including more hard drives on your computer. That’s not all, your PC case should have adequate options to hold or keep multiple hard drives. Otherwise, they will not fit inside the PC even if you have a decent number of SATA ports.
How can I check how many hard drives can a pc have?
“How many hard drives can my PC have?” You should be curious about the maximum number of hard drives your PC can obtain before investing in an external or additional hard drive. The simple solution would be to open your PC case and look at the motherboard to find the number of SATA ports. However, not everyone may like this idea because they are afraid of inadvertently damaging any part of their computer.
This brings us to the second idea, which is from the BIOS setup. Before going through the process, you should know, the Basic Input/Output System (in short BIOS) is the most essential start-up program of your computer. The program is so important that it is embedded into the system as a chip on the motherboard and it is required to reboot your computer’s system.
You can find out the number of available SATA ports on the motherboard without opening the PC case. You need to find the pre-set BIOS key to access your PC’s BIOS. This key can be F1, F2, F10, F12, DEL, or other keys depending on the variant of your motherboard’s manufacturer and model number. Remember to press the pre-set BIOS key while your computer is booting.
If you are using Windows 10, there is an easy way to open the BIOS program. Just follow the steps below –
1. Holding down the Shift key, press the restart button from the start menu.
2. After that, click on the Troubleshoot option
3. Inside Troubleshoot, hit the Advanced Options
4. Following that, click on the UEFI Firmware Settings
5. Then, hit the restart button to open the BIOS program.
Once you have opened the BIOS program, you can find the number of available SATA ports on your motherboard. If you are not satisfied seeing the results, you can always increase the hard drive expansion slots (your system should be compatible), buy external hard drives or do whatever you are pleased to increase your computer storage.
How to install a second hard drive?
Installing a second hard drive for a desktop computer is not a big deal. It becomes complicated to install an extra storage drive if you are using a laptop as you may have to sacrifice your DVD slot if there is no additional slot.
To install a second hard drive, all you need to do is –
- Shut down your computer and turn off the power source. If necessary, you have to unplug the power cable.
- Unscrew the back case of your PC, then check if there is any SATA port available on the motherboard.
- If there is, then connect the second hard drive to that SATA port and mount the drive on a hard drive bracket.
- If that is not the case, you may need to remove less important drives such as the DVD drive. This will secure a SATA port on the motherboard so that you can connect the additional hard drive.
- Once the second hard drive is connected and secured on a bracket, screw the back cover of the PC and turn the power supply on. Also, reconnect the power cable if you have unplugged it earlier.
- Normally, your PC will find a new hard drive or storage space.
- If that is not the case, then go to the BIOS settings and format the new hard drive. You should be good to go.
To Conclude
There! We have shown the most convenient method to know how many hard drives can a pc have. Those who are asking themselves – “how many hard drives can a PC have?”, it is probably due to the reason they need more storage space on their computers. And if you have read this article, you just have found the best answer to this question. There are plenty of ways you can increase the storage space of your computer. Adding an external or additional hard drive might be the common solution. However, you should let an expert do the job if you are not technically sound.
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I would suggest going for AMD ryzen.