No Stupid Questions

Pi doesn't have a SATA controller built in. You could use a SATA to USB adapter with this drive and it would work though.

Equipment

• HGST Ultrastar He12 hard drive: (https://serverpartdeals.com/products/hgst-ultrastar-he12-huh721212ale601-0f29596-12tb-7-2k-rpm-sata-6gb-s-3-5-hdd)
• Raspberry Pi: Any model should work.
• SATA to USB Adapter: Since the Raspberry Pi lacks direct SATA ports, this is essential.
• External power supply for the hard drive:*

The Raspberry Pi won't be able to supply enough power for a 3.5-inch hard drive.

Steps

1. Connect the hard drive to the adapter:

   • Carefully plug the SATA power and data cables from the SATA to USB adapter into the corresponding ports on the HGST Ultrastar He12 drive.

2. Connect to the Raspberry Pi:

   • Plug the USB end of the SATA to USB adapter into an available USB port on your Raspberry Pi.

3. Power the hard drive:

   • Connect the external power supply to the hard drive. Do not attempt to power it solely through the Raspberry Pi.

4. Mount the hard drive (on the Raspberry Pi):

   • Check if the drive is detected: Use the command lsblk to list connected block devices. Your hard drive should show up (e.g., /dev/sda1).

• Format: The hard drive might come pre-formatted with a filesystem that Raspberry Pi doesn't recognize. You may need to format it using a Linux-compatible filesystem like ext4. Use mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1 (replace '/dev/sda1' if necessary).
• Create a mount point: Use the command sudo mkdir /mnt/mydrive (you can replace 'mydrive' with any name you prefer).
  • Mount the drive: Use the command sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/mydrive (replace '/dev/sda1' with the actual device name if different).

Important Considerations

• Power: Raspberry Pi's USB ports cannot provide enough power for a large hard drive. Using an external power supply is crucial to avoid damaging the Raspberry Pi or causing the hard drive to malfunction.

• Automatic Mounting: To automatically mount the drive on startup, you'll need to edit your /etc/fstab file.

Additional Tips

• Enclosure: Consider getting an enclosure for the hard drive and its adapter for protection and portability.
• Data Transfer: File transfers over USB 2.0 (if your Raspberry Pi has that) will be slower than directly connected SATA.

PS: I’m a human who started typing out half of this, then wanted to see if the AI could come up with a better response. I gave it the image from the posting above and said “I want to connect this to a Raspberry Pi” and I thought it came out with a better response. Mine originally only mentioned the USB-SATA part, while the LLM came back with instructions (I had to reorder them, but otherwise they looked good)