Re: Gateway FX4710-UB003A and installing a SATA drive

"rayj00" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> I have the Gateway FX4710-UB003A.
>
> I had an external USB drive go out on me (the motherboard fried), so I
> want to
> eventually install the HD I took out of it into the PC.
>
> Any tips on doing this? Like do I need the cables or are they inside
> the
> PC (plug and play)?
>
> Thanks for your tips in advance.
>
> Ray
>
>

Is it the board in the external drive that fried, or the PC motherboard?
If it's the drive controller that fried, and the drive is a SATA, then you
can mount it inside the PC case if there is a SATA port open and you have a
cable. They generally are not inside the PC already, and you may or may not
have gotten any spares with the system (assuming you bought it new), but
they can be had fairly cheaply at almost any computer store or Best Buy,
Radio Shack, etc. If the controller fried, it may have taken the drive out
with it, so don't be surprised if you hook it up and it doesn't work.
If the PC motherboard fried, you've got bigger problems than this ;-)

SC Tom

"rayj00" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> SC Tom;1058664 Wrote:
>> "rayj00" <> wrote in message
>> news:...
>> >
>> > I have the Gateway FX4710-UB003A.
>> >
>> > I had an external USB drive go out on me (the motherboard fried), so
>> I
>> > want to
>> > eventually install the HD I took out of it into the PC.
>> >
>> > Any tips on doing this? Like do I need the cables or are they
>> inside
>> > the
>> > PC (plug and play)?
>> >
>> > Thanks for your tips in advance.
>> >
>> > Ray
>> >
>> >
>>
>> Is it the board in the external drive that fried, or the PC
>> motherboard?
>> If it's the drive controller that fried, and the drive is a SATA, then
>> you
>> can mount it inside the PC case if there is a SATA port open and you
>> have a
>> cable. They generally are not inside the PC already, and you may or may
>> not
>> have gotten any spares with the system (assuming you bought it new),
>> but
>> they can be had fairly cheaply at almost any computer store or Best
>> Buy,
>> Radio Shack, etc. If the controller fried, it may have taken the drive
>> out
>> with it, so don't be surprised if you hook it up and it doesn't work.
>> If the PC motherboard fried, you've got bigger problems than this ;-)
>>
>> SC Tom
>
> The motherboard on the USB drive fried. The HD is fine as I had it
> dumped into a new USB drive.
>
> So I guess I need cables (power and SATA)?
>
> Do the cables plug into each other (in serial or parallel) when
> there''s more than one drive or do I need to verify that the PC
> motherboard has an unused SATA slot? I believe my original HD is SATA.
> Not sure if the CD/DVD drive is SATA or not?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ray
>
>

There should already be an open power connector unless there are a lot of
added-in drives already, which, from your description, there are just the
two, HDD and CD.
Here's a data cable :
http://www.budgetcables.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=54
Here's a combined data & power cable:
http://www.cwol.com/serial-ata/sata-...er-adapter.htm
As you can see from the combo one, the power connection part of it is quite
a bit wider than the data connector. If you already have a connector like
that coming off your power supply, you only need a data cable.

SATA drives are not hooked one into the other like IDE drives. There's only
one drive per cable.

SC Tom