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I'm building a NAS with a Raspberry Pi 4 and a SATA PCIE card with 4 WD red internal HDDs and seem to be having trouble powering them. The power requirements listed on the drive labels are 12V 0.28A and 5V 0.38A, totaling 12V 1.12A and 5V 1.52A for all 4.

I have a 12v 2.1A power supply and a 5v 5A power supply. I am using this and this to connect the power supplies to the hard drives. When I power the drives up, 1 or more of the drives will start to spin and then stop abruptly. If I disconnect the power from one of the drives the rest will startup, after which I can re-connect the 4th drive and it will start up fine as well. I've been afraid to do any kind of electrical testing for fear of bricking the drives. Is there a particular kind of power supply that I need to use with the drives? Or could something else be happening?

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  • .28 amps is the running current of the drive, when they start to spin up that number can double until the drive is at full rpm, you need more 12v amps.
    – Moab
    Commented Feb 6, 2021 at 14:06

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You will either need a more powerful power supply that is able to deliver the required startup currents without the voltage dropping too far or you will have to circumvent the problem by arranging for a delayed startup for your 4th drive.

Unfortunately putting in a switch will increase the likelyhood of a power failure during operation. Extending the switched power lines of 12V to 5V to a double switch will cause a certain loss of voltage on the way depending on the wiring diameter used.

Maybe the manufacturer has some tools ready for download to enable delayed startup.

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