I'm trying to add two drives from an old computer to my 2021-built PC: a 480GB SATA SSD and a 500GB SATA SSHD. My current storage is a 4TB hard drive and a 500GB M.2 drive containing Windows. The system has a Ryzen 7 3700X, 32GB of DDR4 memory, an RTX 2060 Super, and a 750W power supply, along with several USB devices and three displays.
When I connect either additional drive, the motherboard LEDs come on but the fans do not spin. The system clicks and immediately shuts down. The SSHD sometimes allows the PC to start, but it does not boot into the operating system. The 480GB SSD appears to prevent the PC from powering on at all when connected by itself.
Could this be a power issue, a bad drive, or a problem caused by an old Windows installation on one of the drives? What should I check before trying to install them again?
1 Answer
An old Windows installation would not cause the computer to click and shut off immediately. That behavior points more toward a short circuit, defective drive, faulty SATA power cable, or a bad connector. The 750W PSU should have plenty of capacity for this setup, and SATA drives use very little power compared with the CPU or graphics card.
Try each drive separately with a different SATA data cable and a different SATA power plug from the PSU, preferably on another cable run rather than using the same modular cable or a questionable splitter. Disconnect the 480GB SSD completely and see whether the system starts normally. If connecting that drive consistently causes an instant shutdown, do not keep retrying it—it may be electrically faulty.
The SSHD failing to boot is probably just a boot-order issue or an incompatible old installation, not proof that the drive is unusable. Boot from your existing M.2 drive, then check whether the SSHD appears in the BIOS and in Windows Disk Management. If you do not need its files, erase or reinitialize it there before using it for storage. Back up anything important first.
That makes sense. I’ll test the drives one at a time with different cables and power connectors, and I’ll avoid reconnecting the SSD if it keeps causing an immediate shutdown. I’ll also check the SSHD from my normal Windows installation instead of trying to boot from it.