1 Serial ATA power connector per hard drive or 1 power connector for 2?

[Glitched]

extra info: Motherboard - Asus P4C800-E Deluxe
2 Serial ATA 74gb WD raptor hard drives trying to put in a raid 0 array.
Windows XP Professional
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So I connect a serial ata connector (just in case thats not their name, its the red strips with black ends on both sides) to each hard drive and then connected the connectors to the SATA_RAID1 and SATA_RAID2 slots on my motherboard. Then I connected 1 Serial ATA power connectors (if thats not what they are called, its the wire with one black end that connects to the hard drives and the other end that connects to the power supply) per hard drive, so each hard drive had its own power connector. Then right when I started up the computer, an "electric burning" smell came out of the hard drives... after that almost no heat came out of them and I couldn't hear ANY sounds coming from the hard drives. I thought the hard drives might have been defective because even with all your help my computer just wouldn't knowtice the hard drives. So now I have 2 replacements (same hard drives, just replaced) and am reluctant to put them into my case afraid that I'll fry them too.

So now I'm trying to figure out how I burnt out my old new hard drives (the ones I replaced because I thought they were defective). Could I have fried them by having 1 Serial ATA Power connector connected to each hard drive? Should I use only one Serial ATA power connector for both hard drives?

fyi: in between the two ends of the Serial ATA power connector there's another black piece that can connect to another hard drive, on top of the black piece thats on one end of the power connector. That would allow me connect two hard drives to one Serial ATA power connector.

[FatalException]

Got a digital camera? Take a pic of the setup and post it on here so I can see what you're talking about. I have Raptor's too and never found them all that tough to setup. If you're worried, just use the standard 4-pin molex power connector on the drive and plug in the old-fashioned CD-ROM / Hard drive power connector to it (one with the yellow, two black, and one red wire going to it). You should only have that power connector and the data cable connected to each drive. Connecting both the SATA-designed power cord AND the old fashioned molex power cord to a drive at the same time will kill the drive.

[Glitched]

I don't have a digital camera but I'll give you some links to pictures to what I'm talking about.

I connected this Serial ata power connector: http://www.cablesdirect.com/sata/images/sata-power.JPG (on my power connector, it has a second black piece in the middle of the wire)
-The black end into the hard drive and the other to a power supply wire connected directly to the power supply (4-pin molex power connector?).

Then I connected this Serial ata connector:
http://www.pcdirectsource.com/ProdIm...lATA_large.jpg
-One went into the hard drive and the other connected to a SATA_RAID1 and SATA_RAID2 slot in my motherboard. (motherboard pic- http://www.pcrapids.com/assets/image...sus-p4c800.jpg )

So they were connected to my hard drive just like the way this picture shows it:
http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/...connector2.jpg

Also, I'm not quite sure what you mean when you say, "Connecting both the SATA-designed power cord AND the old fashioned molex power cord to a drive at the same time will kill the drive." So does that mean that connecting the SATA-designed power cord TO a molex power cord (-bunch of wires that came attached to the power supply?) will kill the drive?

[FatalException]

Sorry about the delayed reply. In answer to your last question about the converter, no that is not what I mean. If I remember correctly, my own hard drive (a 74GB SATA Raptor) has 3 connectors on the back. One for SATA data (goes to the motherboard), one for SATA power (just like in the first picture in your post, it would connect to the black end of that connector), and one old-fashioned molex power connector (like the white end in the first picture listed in your post). If you connect power to the drive using both the black SATA connector and the white molex connector (both connected to the same drive), it will kill the drive. You can only connect one or ther other (you should never have all 3 connectors on the back of the drive hooked to something at the same time!)

[amaru k]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FatalException

Sorry about the delayed reply. In answer to your last question about the converter, no that is not what I mean. If I remember correctly, my own hard drive (a 74GB SATA Raptor) has 3 connectors on the back. One for SATA data (goes to the motherboard), one for SATA power (just like in the first picture in your post, it would connect to the black end of that connector), and one old-fashioned molex power connector (like the white end in the first picture listed in your post). If you connect power to the drive using both the black SATA connector and the white molex connector (both connected to the same drive), it will kill the drive. You can only connect one or ther other (you should never have all 3 connectors on the back of the drive hooked to something at the same time!)

i was having a similar problem and found this and other info doing a search
The above is not totally true. I HAD to connect BOTH power connectors for my WD 250 to work. Here is the info that i found that lead me to it.

Quote:

Well, after poking around, I discovered that Western Digital makes life very confusing for novice SATA users. Their "Secure Connect" cable, which makes contact with BOTH the SATA data and SATA power connectors, does not actually provide any power to the drive!! You STILL then, have to connect a "legacy" ATA old-style power connector! They NEVER explain this is their installation "quick start" guide...in fact, on the contrary, they have a bold-faced warning about not applying a connector to both SATA power and legacy power. Apparently their "Secure Connect" occupies the SATA power port just make a better grip on the drive...you still need to provide power!! I discovered this by simply using the plain-old SATA data cable ASUS provides, and connecting one of my power supply "ATA-style" connector. Voila. Everything's detected, and CMOS Setup reports the SATA drive under "Third IDE Channel." Now to figure out if Windows XP SP1 correctly sizes up the drive, or if I need to activate some obscure large drive support thingee I've seen mentioned here.