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I have confirmed that what I want to do is possible. Thanks for your Expert assistance!
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I have confirmed that what I want to do is possible. Thanks for your Expert assistance!

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One of my computers is a Dell 690 workstation. It has the maximum of 4 hard disk drives, all SATA. It has 2 dvd rw drives that are IDE. I am replacing a defective &nbsp;IDE drive with a new one. There are better choices in drives that are SATA than IDE. Is it OK to leave one of the IDE connectors open and install a SATA replacement? There ARE 2 or 3 open SATA sockets on the motherboard. I am not clear on if they can be used if I am already using 4 for the hard drives. If your answer is YES then can I assume there are adaptor cables that convert from the &quot;normal&quot; 4 pin hard drive plug to the long power plug for a sata drive? I already &nbsp;have spare sata data cables, just not any power cables.
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One of my computers is a Dell 690 workstation. It has the maximum of 4 hard disk drives, all SATA. It has 2 dvd rw drives that are IDE. I am replacing a defective  IDE drive with a new one. There are better choices in drives that are SATA than IDE. Is it OK to leave one of the IDE connectors open and install a SATA replacement? There ARE 2 or 3 open SATA sockets on the motherboard. I am not clear on if they can be used if I am already using 4 for the hard drives. If your answer is YES then can I assume there are adaptor cables that convert from the "normal" 4 pin hard drive plug to the long power plug for a sata drive? I already  have spare sata data cables, just not any power cables.

Buy SATA dvd/rw to replace IDE? Good idea?

Hardware includes cell phones and other digital living devices, tablets, computers, servers, peripherals and components, printers and scanners, gaming consoles, networking hardware such as routers, hubs, switches and modems, storage devices and security equipment such as firewalls and other appliances.

Hardware

Components are those devices that are internal to a computer -- the PC boards, the central processor (CPU), the memory (RAM), disk and video controllers and so on.