Whether it’s an SSD or HDD that you have, having more space means more freedom for you and your computer, it might be a newbie question to ask to be honest but don’t feel embarrassed, I myself have known new information when I was doing the research for this post, so you’re not alone, can you have more than one hard drive on the same PC you ask?
Well, you’re going to find out about the answer to this question really soon along with other questions that you might not have in mind before stumbling upon this post.
Without further ado let’s get started.
Can you have more than one hard drive on the same PC?
Absolutely, why not? It’s a sure thing that the designers who created our computers thought of it so they left more space in your case or tower for more hard drives, but what I found is it depends on your motherboard because it has a limited number of SATA ports, so you can have a maximum of 4 hard drives without any DVD drives or if you need a DVD drive so bad then you can have 3 hard drives maximum and as long as the case have free space.
You can also have more hard drives installed if you install an additional PCI card.
Before that make sure that the power supply can handle the number of hard drives you want to install.
One hard drive can approximately consume up to 25 Watts
SSDs use the same SATA ports as HDDs so if you’re thinking of getting a new SSD along with the HDD you already have then make sure your motherboard supports it.
What is the benefit of using 2 hard drives?
As mentioned above, having more than 2 hard drives will set you free, not really sorry 😉
What I meant was, if you’re a gamer you probably need more space, a very important person who stores very sensitive data? Then you need a backup hard drive in case anything goes wrong, but I really like the idea of cloud storage because no matter what happens let it be( power cut, accidentally dropped it on the floor or hit it against the wall), cloud storage is more secure and worth every penny, if you’re new to this try out Google’s free storage which can give you 15 GB of free storage.
Installing another operating system
Have you been using Windows 7 for a very long time and want to switch to Windows 10 but not sure yet? Well, here’s your chance, you can easily install another operating system in order to give it a try or getting to know other operating systems like Linux.
Once you’re sure about your choice of switching to another one you can wipe out the other hard drive and enjoy the free space, make sure to back up your data first before proceeding with the deletion process
Internal vs External Hard Drives
Don’t mix up internal hard drives with external ones, internal ones are more let’s say stable I don’t mean stable by state but what I mean is they stay inside of your computer idle, unlike external hard drives which you can use as backup drives.
- External hard drives use a different method of connection (USB) while internal ones use SATA ports.
- Internal hard drives contain your operating system files which are necessary to start using your computer.
- Internal hard drives are faster than the external ones, that means you can transfer your data faster.
Can you use an external hard drive as an internal hard drive?
In short, yes, external hard drives are actually internal hard drives but with an additional circuit to convert the SATA interface into the USB interface, what you need to do is reverse the process, open it up and get the internal disk out then connect it to your computer using any available SATA cable