Are there extra 4-pin Power Connectors in a Mac Pro?

[wheezy]

I bought a PCIe eSATA card for my Mac Pro and have installed it, and the system sees it and I'm able to install drivers, but disks aren't showing up when i plug them in.

There is a 4pin power connector on the board as well, but I think that's just so it can power external devices via the 2 power plugs it has on the back.

Are there extra 4pin power cables inside the tower, or a place for me to plug some more in?

 

[philipma1957]

what location are your hdds? did you use all 4 trays? what pci e card did you buy?

 

[Transporteur]

You can use a Molex splitter and an extension cable that you route from the ODD bay to the PCIe bay and power the card. That way you won't lose any drive bays.

But do you really need the external power for your hard drives?

 

[wheezy]

All 4 of my internal bays are taken, this is for an external 1TB that's currently plugged in via FW400, but I'd love to go via eSATA.

I'm not sure if I need the power or not for it honestly; the manual says nothing. It's just there, and my drive isn't showing up when I plug it in so I'm just guessing it must need it.

 

[nanofrog]

All 4 of my internal bays are taken, this is for an external 1TB that's currently plugged in via FW400, but I'd love to go via eSATA.

I'm not sure if I need the power or not for it honestly; the manual says nothing. It's just there, and my drive isn't showing up when I plug it in so I'm just guessing it must need it.

How is the disk getting power when attached as eSATA (should be from the enclosure it's in, usually via a brick/wall wort)?

Assuming the disk has, you may also want to verify if the card supports Hot-Swapping (where you can plug the disk into the eSATA port and it be seen without having to shut down, plug the disk in, then restart the system).

 

[wheezy]

It's a 1TB WD MyBook and has its' own power supply plugged in; so the eSATA power ports aren't being used.

It's hot swappable via FW400, but maybe not via eSATA. I'll try the reboot route. THANKS!