Newbe Dev Stack

Answer : @acejavelin! It really depends on the files you plan to store on that 3 TB HDD. However, it's highly recommended to use the default 4K for any NTFS hard drive that is smaller than 16 TB. Just like @whs mentioned, smaller allocation unit size would make sense only if you're keeping small doc files (for example) This way a very small portion of the HDD space will be wasted. If you plan to back up massive data like HD videos, photos, movies, etc., then even bigger than the 4K default AUS would be better. I'd suggest you to read through this article about the Allocation Unit Size Differences Good luck. Hope this helps. :)

Answer : You can download the free hwinfo32 app and run it. Look under motherboard, and the SATA ports that are live and supported will be listed. If there is a label next to the solder ports (like "SATA 1, SATA 2, etc.), then you can see if that port is active. If it is, you are good to go (as long as you are as good at soldering as you think you are). I disagree with the naysayers above. While SATA connectors themselves are extremely cheap, many laptop manufacturers contract out the assembly of their motherboards, and they are charged by the component or by the solder joint. In those terms the cost of the connector is less trivial, and it makes a bit more sense to not include it. Motherboard layout is expensive enough that computer companies will use the same layout for multiple versions of a board, just without adding all the components to all of them, so those motherboard traces almost certainly lead to the SATA chip. There's no reason in principle this wouldn...

Answer : You are trying to mount whole Hard Disk drive instead of Partition on it. Try mounting /dev/sdc1 instead of /dev/sdc .