Hi, I have an old Dell T7500 workstation that I have been using since 2012. It has 4 drive bays & I used to run 2 x 500GB SSds and 2 x 3TB totaling 4 drives. But now I can barely run 1 SSD & 1 HDD & that too if I used power from molex connector. Regular SATA port won't handle more than 1 SSD 0r HDD. If I use regular SATA-3 connectors, one of HDDs or SSDs would disconnect any time especially when I am writing data to large 3 TB HDDs. I had replaced replaced the 1100W PSU in 2018 when original failed. I have also replaced SATA cables many times. (1) Is it safe to run SSDs or HDDs using molex power ? (2) Is this a PSU problem ? If so how does 4 or 5 Watt power that SSD or HDD uses would impact an 1100W PSU ? (3) Is there something else that affects this disconnections ? Thanks
It's either you don't have enough power to running to your HD and SDs, your cable connecting to those is faulty, or your HD or SDs are going bad. Start with the cheapest and get new cables
1) Probably OK 3) did you clean the contacts on the drives? Fine grit abrasive, then alcohol clean up? Sometimes the connects will get dirty from a previous bad connection.
1. For a 3TB hard disk, it needs to be format under GPT. MBR only support up to 2.2TB. This may not be the caused of the intermittent issue. 2. Update your SSD firmware. 3. Go to the BIOS and make your SATA is on ACHI mode. I have check the Dell BIOS update for your model. Unlike MSI, Asus or Gigabyte, where each BIOS update is for fixing what issue, Dell has none. So, update the motherboard BIOS is not an option.
Your motherboard, where the integrated disk controller chips are, are out of gas. They have degraded and cannot handle the power thoughput. Remember, the MB has lots of semis on there that have gone through God-knows-how-many power cycles. 12 years out of a MB under heavy usage is impressive, but they are not forever. You need a new motherboard, man.