[Denisejm]

Hi,

I have a Biostar TForce 6100-939 motherboard (SATA). It has 2 PCI slots but since I have 12 ext hdds, I need PCI slots for SATA, 2.0 and firewire ext hdds.

Is there something that I can do to create a third PCI slot?

Denise

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Generally, no. You can buy PCI cards with USB and Firewire on the same card though, that would free up the other PCI slot for your SATA adaptor.

[Neil Jones]

Generally, no. You can buy PCI cards with USB and Firewire on the same card though, that would free up the other PCI slot for your SATA adaptor.

[Denisejm]

Hi Neil,

Thanks for responding and letting me know

Denise

[Samm]

Hi,

Is there something that I can do to create a third PCI slot?

In short, no.

If you don't mind me asking Denise, why do you need to have 12 external HDDs connected at once? Also, how many of the 12 are firewire, sata etc?

[Denisejm]

I back up all of my CDs and DVD's onto my computer, burn them and use the one's I've burned instead of the originals. This comes in especially handy when they're children's movies or cartoons. They can use them, get fingerprints and scratches on them, break them by accident, and I can burn them another copy.

It's a little difficult to remember exactly how may 2.0, firewire and SATA compatible drives I have. I've had them for a while. I have 3 that are firewired. I believe that I have 3 that are 2.0, 2 that can be connected using either 2.0 or firewired and since I have no more firewire ports, I connected them with 2.0 cables, and I have 4 that are SATA/2.0. I have then connected as 2.0 because I just finished building the SATA pc and don't have a SATA port in my present pc. On an average, they're about 60% to 80% full. My internal drive has only 40Gb and I use it for programs only. All of my documents, pictures, etc, are on the external hdds.

I bought 2 firewire hubs so that I could piggyback them but neither of them worked. I don't remember the name of them but they were top quality. The 2.0 connections that are on them work fine though. I used the cables that came with them. The upstream cables are 2.0 so I'm not sure if that's the reason why they won't work on firewired hdds.

[Spider-Man]

Hi, have you considered using USB and Firewire header brackets which connect to the USB connectors on your motherboard, and sit in the back ports on your computer case, underneath where the PCI slots are situated? Just a thought.

[Samm]

When you say you have 3 that are 2.0, do you mean USB 2.0?

You said you have copied all your discs to the hard drives so you can make backups of them etc. If you have the original discs & only use the backup CDs, then surely you don't need to keep the contents of the discs on the hard drive as well? Or am I missing something?!

The only other thing I can suggest is that you either install a large internal hard drive & transfer some of the data to that instead of using so many external drives, or you simply hot swap the external drives as you need them.

[Denisejm]

Hi Spiderman,

Hi, have you considered using USB and Firewire header brackets which connect to the USB connectors on your motherboard, and sit in the back ports on your computer case, underneath where the PCI slots are situated? Just a thought.

I've never heard of a header bracket. How is it done?

[Denisejm]

You said you have copied all your discs to the hard drives so you can make backups of them etc. If you have the original discs & only use the backup CDs, then surely you don't need to keep the contents of the discs on the hard drive as well? Or am I missing something?!

Yes, it takes about 12 hrs for my pc to convert the VOB files to .avi format. Also, I don't have a tv downstairs. If I want to watch a movie while the kids are watching cartoons upstairs, I just come down here and pick what I want, and veg for a couple of hours.

2.0 = USB to me and in this context, I thought everybody would know what I'm talking about.

My external hard drives are very large. They don't make 3600G drives yet but I'm looking forward to the day!

Denise

[Samm]

How many USB ports does your computer have? I believe you should have 4 on the rear but have you got any front USB ports as well?

[Denisejm]

The front of the case has 2 USB ports and 1 firewire port but they're not yet connected to anything. I just finished installing all of the parts that I had yesterday and it fired up but I didn't install Windows or anything else yet. I'll be doing that tomorrow. I still have to look around on the net for something that will be compatible (port-wise and shape) so those ports aren't useable yet.

There's a total of 4 available expansion bays in the rear of the tower but only 1 more PCI slot.

I can install an additional internal hard drive in the front of the case in the future.

Denise