Many users require a lot of space inside their system, so they attempt to install multiple drives on their PC.
When attempting to install multiple drives on their system, they find out that their motherboard lacks an adequate number of SATA ports.
SATA ports are designed to support only one storage drive at a time, so you can not connect multiple drives on one SATA port.
Multiple Drives and Limited SATA Ports
The modern motherboards come with 4 to 6 SATA ports, so you can easily connect 4 to 6 SATA drives.
But, if you have an old motherboard that has a limited number of SATA ports, then you can increase the number of SATA ports on your motherboard.
You can increase the number of SATA ports on motherboards in various ways, and all these ways are explained below.
Adding More SATA Ports Can Help You
Adding more SATA ports on the motherboard is not difficult; you can do it yourself in a couple of ways.
SATA PCIe Cards
SATA PCIe is a kind of extension card that we can install on the motherboard’s PCIe slots to install multiple SATA drives (Hard Drive, SSD, Optical drives, and other SATA devices).
These extension cards are really helpful for those who require higher storage, like (Video editors and gamers, etc.).
These extension cards are available in various sizes and with a variable number of SATA ports.
Before purchasing these extension cards, a couple of factors you need to check-
- Whether the card allows you to install SATA 3.0 (6GBPs) devices on your computer or not, read this article to know the compatibility issues between SATA ports, cables, and SATA drives.
- Whether the card is compatible with which PCIe slots or not (Majority of the time, the Cards are compatible with all PCIe slots like PCIe x1, X4, X8, and X16)
- Check whether the card is compatible with the PCIe 4.0 motherboard or not (At present, a few extension cards have poor compatibility issues with those motherboards that have the PCIe 4.0 revisions)
SATA Hub Port Multiplier
SATA hub port multiplier is another way through which we can expand the SATA slots on our motherboard.
These SATA hub port multipliers are cheaper in price compared to SATA to PCIe extension cards.
But many experts do not recommend using these SATA hub ports because of the bottlenecking issues.
SAS SATA Expansion Card
This is another method of increasing the SATA port on our motherboard, and these cards offer excellent upstream & downstream bandwidth.
Many professional users use this kind of extension card to increase SATA ports on motherboards.
Using External Drives Can Help You
If you are absolutely new to PC build and no nothing about PCs, then there is a way through which you can add more drives externally without opening the PC cabinet.
External Hard Drive
Many users use external hard drives, which is really helpful in increasing storage space.
You can use an external hard drive with your PC or laptop by buying an external hard drive.
If you doesnt want to buy an external drive, then you can convert your internal drive into an external drive by using an external hard drive enclosure or a SATA to USB adapter cable.
The SATA to USB adapter cable will help you to connect the external hard drive to your PC. If you are looking for this type of adapter cable, then go for the SABRENT USB to SATA adapter cable.
Just plug the SATA side of the cable into the hard drive’s SATA port and plug another end into the PC’s USB port.
When using an adapter or enclosure, please make sure it is compatible with the hard drive size.
External SATA 2.5″ SSDs
If you want to expand your system’s storage space with improved performance, then SATA 2.5″ SSDs offer more convenient solution than external hard drives.
To use the SATA 2.5″ SSDs externally, you can use the SATA to USB adapter cable.
2 HDD & 1 SATA Port: What To Do?
As mentioned in this article, connecting multiple drives on one SATA port is impossible because these ports only support one drive at a time.
So if you want to install 2 or multiple HDDs and your motherboard doesnt have a sufficient number of SATA ports, then you can increase the number of SATA ports on your motherboard.
You can buy SATA to PCIe extension cards, SATA hub port multipliers, or SAS SATA expansion cards to increase the number of SATA ports on your motherboard.
However, if you doesnt want to open your PC, then you can use external drives by using SATA to USB adapter cables.
Wrapping Up
This entire article explains that connecting multiple drives on one SATA port is impossible.
But, if you want to install multiple drives on limited SATA ports, then you can increase the number of SATA ports by using some extension cards.
Otherwise, you can use these drives externally without opening the PC cabinet.
I hope this article is helpful for you, and if you want to know more about these different PC parts & PC building facts, then keep following this blog regularly.
