Sata ports take sata cables. USB comes in 3.0 and 2.0, and 3.1. Sata cables carry at 3 gb's and 6gb's depending on your particular motherboard. I can't seem to punch up a picture of your Motherboard. Is this a desktop or laptop?

 

You are not going to plug a ssd into a usb port. While there are adapters that would allow you to do so, it would not be what you want to do. Since you reference a data/pw cable, I assume you are asking about a standard ssd and not a M.2 type of drive. Use the same data/pw cables you used for your old drive. That makes it very easy.

 

The computer is a desktop. I realize I can't plug an SSD into a usb port - I'm talking about the data cable - one end goes into the SSD data port and it's the other end that attaches to the MB data cable header. There are usually 2 - 4 of these headers on a MB. Does it make any difference with of these headers I plug the data cable into - I mean are any of these 2 - 4 headers faster than the others? If so, how can I tell which one is the fastest?

 

Yes. Some of the headers are faster than others on most motherboards. You will want to plug it in on the 6 gb's per second headers, if possible. (consult your motherboard manual) You will also want to enable AHCI in the bios to take advantage of this.

 

Thanks Paul23,

This is the exact model of this PC: HP Pavilion HPE h8-1360t CTO Desktop PC

I did a terrible job explaining what I was getting at I have no idea why I brought USB into my question at all - I know you can buy SATA 2.0 and SATA 3.0 data cables and therefore I thought it was possible that one or more of the SATA data headers on the MB might be faster than some of the others - and your answer of finding the 6 gigabits per second header is what I need to find and use.

Thanks first of all for your patience and 2nd thanks for providing the answer I was looking for. I do have the manual for this computer and it shows plainly the SATA headers on the MB but it doesn't get specific as to which one or one's are the 6 gbs headers. I'll still have to figure out which one is the 6 gbs header because I'll be buying a 3.0 SATA data cable so I can only assume that the faster 6 gbs SATA header will require a 3.0 SATA cable and not a 2.0 SATA data cable.

 

I don't believe they make a 2.0 sata cable. Nowadays, they are all the same. Could be wrong, but I don't think so.https://www.cablewholesale.com/spec...RCFARIsAIufy1Y_ZXklPYpSfq0DTGt1kjxECkm0YW1rogngU1E4RL9sAK6LPT-o73oaAjzOEALw_wcB

 

If you hard drive was originally formatted with IDE (not AHCI) ((if you have already formatted and installed an operating system)). You will have to do a total re-install of Windows unless you know how to do the registry tweaks to make the switch. i, personally, have never attempted that route.

 

Use Sata0 or Sata1

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03132942
https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03425388#AbT0

Mobo specs internal connectors ...
6x SATA 2.0 connectors (SATA 0 - 1 @ 6 Gb/s, SATA 2 -5 @ 3 Gb/s)

 

Don't know how you got those great links but it spells out specifically the Internal connectors . So I have 6 SATA 2.0 connectors - the 0 and 1 connector are 6gbs and connectors 2-5 are 3gbs. I want to select either the 0 or 1 for my SSD. Those headers are usually marked pretty plainly I think.

Don't know how the hard drive was originally formatted (IDE or AHCI) but I guess I can go into the BIOS and see how it set now couldn't I? Wouldn't the BIOS show me that now?

 

I want to select either the 0 or 1 for my SSD. Those headers are usually marked pretty plainly I think.

In Very Small Print
Best to see my attachment .. bottom 2

 

Yes, the attachment motherboard diagram clip shows them perfectly as you have arrows to the 0 and 1 headers which I will use.

 

Yes, Paul - I went into the Device Manager under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers and it states this: Intel (R) 7 series/C216 Chipset Family SATA AHCI Contoller. So it is already set to AHCI so it looks like I'm good-to-go there.

Also discovered that SATA data header O is the header to use for the boot drive and is 6mbs, so I will be connecting one end of the SATA data cable to the SSD and the other end to the SATA O header on the MB.

 

you need to check in the BIOS to set it to AHCI.

 

https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19127-01/ultra27.ws/820-6773/giakd/index.html

 

Thanks to all who helped out. You were a big help and answered all my questions.