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HP Recommended
Z440
Microsoft Windows 7 (64-bit)

Can anyone give me any pointers on how to get my 5.25 hard drives into the two top 5.2 bays of the HP 440 Chassis? I can't a seem to fit them around the CPU fan from the inside and the front plates don't seems to pop out easily.

 

Is there a trick i am missing?

 

Thanks for any help.

 

mosea

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions
HP Recommended

Hi SDH,

 

Wow! Thank you very much for this extensive and detailed explanation! This clearly shows me the way and i understand now. I really appreciate the time and effort you took to lay it all out for me, with labelled photo as well. Amazing.  There is a street full of computer stores by my house that i will try for the trays, but if not i will use your ebay referrences, and so many thanks also  for those .This is perfect.

 

   

Thanks again for your superb help!!

 

 

 

View solution in original post

6 REPLIES 6
HP Recommended

You really have 5.25" "hard drives"?

 

If you meant replacing a 5.25" optical drive you usually can unplug them and lift the locking lever and push them forward out the front of the case, and slip a new one in from the front.  The fit can be a bit tight.  You can find instructions on how to remove that front case part, but the design is intended to not require that.  I have removed the front face, very rarely, if a 5.25" optical drive was just too tight.

 

Sometimes the optical drive will have a single locking screw on the one easy access side (from inside the case) that you need to remove before you can slide it forward.  Most cases don't have room for you to mess with the OD from the rear (inside of the case) unless you remove the power supply first.

HP Recommended

 

Hi SDH,

 

Thank you for your reply. 

 

Yes, i think these are 5.25" drive - they are not the newer solid state drives. All of my lower bays use sliding trays that my SSDs snap into. It looks like this chassis has two more bays above, but unlike my old towers it seems to be a challenge to access them. Need to go through the front, but removing the front plates, both plastic and metal layers, doesn't seem to be evident. can't find manuals that address this either.  And i don't really want to damage the chassis.

 

Nonethless, this may push me to set up a separate NAS storage system, probably what i should be doing anyway. 

 

Thanks again. Cheers,

 

 

HP Recommended

Here is a picture of the inside of the Z440, and I have added some arrows and numbers.  You will be able to see the picture shortly when a moderator releases it:


Z440.jpg

First:  those white numbers 1,2,3 I put over the far right black edge of the front case cover correspond to the 3 green accented black plastic tabs there that you need to gently lift and thus release them from their metal edge.  Then you can gently rotate that whole front face rightwards on 3 corresponding black plastic hooks built into the other far right edge of the case (when looking at the face from its front).  Then you have access to those upper two 5.25" bays above.

 

Second:  Often the more recent HP workstations have a "blank" plastic insert that you can slide forwards and out by lifting on the corresponding larger red arrow.  You then can replace that with a HP insert that is made to accept the hard drive.

 

Third:  Let me be dogmatic... there are no 5.25" hard drives now.  You are talking about 3.5" form factor hard drives or 2.5" form factor hard drives.  There are 5.25" optical drives, however.  If this is not making sense then you probably should get a computer savvy friend involved or take it to a computer shop, but this is pretty easy stuff to learn too.

 

You can buy adapters that let one or even two 2.5" form factor SSD or HDD fit in a 3.5" form factor bay.  The Z440 can accept HP 5.25" to 3.5" trays and they even make 5.25" to 2.5" trays.  You need to choose what you really want and need, and buy the right parts.  Take a look on eBay for 488505-002 and NQ099AA (same part) and sort by cheapest.... that is what I believe you want.  Those are standard form factor and thus will slide right in.

 

Finally:  The little red arrow points to your thin optical drive.  It has its own latch that you can see there.  For these optical drives and 5.25" trays when you slide them in the latch will finally snap into a small hole on the side of the device to lock it in place.  A machine screw in the little hole you can barely see allows you to lock the 5.25" form factor device into the case..... that is not necessary to hold the device securely.

 

 

HP Recommended

Hi SDH,

 

Wow! Thank you very much for this extensive and detailed explanation! This clearly shows me the way and i understand now. I really appreciate the time and effort you took to lay it all out for me, with labelled photo as well. Amazing.  There is a street full of computer stores by my house that i will try for the trays, but if not i will use your ebay referrences, and so many thanks also  for those .This is perfect.

 

   

Thanks again for your superb help!!

 

 

 

HP Recommended

Happy to help.... and here's a bit more.  I needed to organize my 5.25" tray mishmash info anyway, so here is the summary:

 

The more recent HP 5.25" form factor adapters are pretty much universal, and they fit easily into pretty much any computer with a spare 5.25" bay available, HP or non-HP, because they match that standard.

 

And, you can have a HP 5.25" insert that is meant for mounting an internal-only device in it, or external-only device.  

 

For examples of external access devices:  3.5" form factor floppy, media card readers, or even the Akasa 3.5" form factor USB3 front interface I hook to the HP TI based USB3 PCIe card I use in my Z400 Z600 workstations.

 

For examples of internal access devices:  HP 5.25" insert for having one 3.5" internal HDD, or for mounting 2 internal 2.5" drives (SSDs or HDDs).  You can take one of those 5.25" inserts for a 3.5" form factor drive and mount generic 3.5-to-2.5 adapters in that too.

 

HP even has one that works as an upper front handle with mount at its rear for two internal 2.5" form factor drives.

 

I got you the numbers for the one I think you want but there are other ones.  Finding these is not easy at all from a local shop, but they can mount things once you buy the part(s).  Google and eBay are the best sources for these parts unless you can find them directly from HP.

 

 

HP Recommended

Hi SDH,

 

Again, thank you very much. I find it amazing how much there is to know. I'm glad there are people like yourself around.

 

This helps a lot.

 

Cheers!

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