HDD clone

I've attempted to install this new drive in the 8700 but there appears to be no extra cable available for connecting to the motherboard...bummer.

There is another connection I'm not sure what it is on the drive. There are eight pins at the end of the drive just down from where the cable connection is for the power/motherboard and I'm not sure what that's for. There's no female cable that will accommodate that anyway inside the computer.

This is what the new drive looks like with the eight pins on the end.


There are a couple spare cables with a six connector female plug-no idea what it's for.


The blue cable goes to the OS drive from the motherboard. There are some extra connectors on the MB and it appears I need to get a cable that will work from there to the new HDD.



I'm confused as to the eight pin connection on the HDD and what the six pin female connector is in the computer. WD sent no instructions with this drive.

It's been a long time since I've been inside a computer. Those eight pins are for jumpers so, not needed. I'm stull curious about that six pin cable inside the computer.

Does it make any difference where I connect from the drive to the mother board? There's several choices there.

I'd guess the 6 pin is for a graphics card. It's from the power supply, right?

What's the model number on that hard drive in your most recent pic? My guess is that you'd ignore that 8 pin connector.

Its a WD5003ABYX. That cable is fro the power supply. Looks like they would have provided an extra cable for a new drive to the MB rather than that six pin cable. I'm not sure what sort of data cable I'd need.

That's an RE series enterprise drive that apparently sold without cables. You need 2 ordinary SATA cables to fit onto the other 2 connections shown on the right side of your pic.

What's an "8700"?

I've kind of lost track of your intent. I thought you were going to transfer files onto a hard drive in the dock and then take the dock and drive to the other PC and copy files onto it. But now you are adding a hard drive to one of your PCs?

That connection from the drive to the MB is a 7-pin connector. Will this one work? I've never had to buy a data cable before and am pretty green at which to get.

StarTech SATA18RA1 18" Right Angle SATA Cable - Newegg.com

What's an "8700"?

Dell XPS 8700

My intentions were to copy the digital photos on the Vista computer and have a new drive with those photos on it for the Windows 7 computer. That was what I was attempting to mount tonight. The Windows 7 is a faster computer and I could do post processing on it easier than on the Vista.

Looks OK to me. It's a SATA 3 connector for a SATA 3 drive.

I think I'll be in business when that gets here...along with a new and replaced 8G memory kit from Crucial since one of the two I ordered turned up bent.

ColColt said:

My intentions were to copy the digital photos on the Vista computer and have a new drive with those photos on it for the Windows 7 computer. That was what I was attempting to mount tonight. The Windows 7 is a faster computer and I could do post processing on it easier than on the Vista.

So, you copied the files on the Vista PC to a drive in the dock and now want to install that drive as it is into the Win 7 PC--rather than copy the contents of the docked drive to an existing hard drive in the Win 7 PC?

OK if so; I just thought you were going to do another copy to the Win 7 PC.

I'd continue to use that dock intermittently as part of a backup program.

I didn't what to install 75G's worth of photos on C:drive in W7 and wanted a copy of those photos in the event the one in the Vista machine died. This way I have a fresh copy on a new drive. I didn't have an existing drive before.

I will be using the dock again for imaging purposes.