HP 15-ba520ng : Can't find working HDD/SSD Caddy for DVD-Slot / 2nd HDD

[DaBo2017]

Hello,

i tried 3 different 9,5mm HDD/SSD Caddys now, but no one is working. I am trying to add a Sandisk SSD Plus 250 GB this way. The lights on the Caddy are shining, so it gets power. But the HDD is not recognized by Bios, and of course then not by Windows 10. The Sandisk SSD is running well on other Computers and i also tried to connect a HDD (Hitachi Z5K320-250) via the caddy - effect is the same. HDD gets power (i hear it starting and running) but the Bios dont accept.

So please help me. Did anyone got a Caddy running for 15-ba520ng and can give me a link to the product? Or does Bios of 15-ba520ng prevent adding second HDD via caddy?

regards,

dabo

[Huffer]

There is no reason in principle it would not work. That is a very new model and I doubt anyone else had had specific experience with an optical bay caddy for it. I would point out that the optical drive slot is not a full speed SATA-III port so best case a storage drive connected to it will be slower than it should be. Kind of wastes the price of the SSD, but it is not working even with a hard drive. You tried 3 different caddies? 3 different makers or 3 copies of the same device? A lot of these devices are made in secondary production facilities i.e somebody's back alley and are not known to be reliable. 

HP has not even published a manual for it yet. Is there any kind of adapter or connector on the DVD drive caddy for the original optical drive? Or can you see inside the bay a normal mini-SATA port you are trying to connect to? 

[DaBo2017]

Thanks for your fast answer. It was 3 different makers. Neuftech, CSL an Zheino. I ordered Salcar today, tomorrow this will arrive and i will try again.

It seems to be normal mini-SATA. Here is a Photo of the original DVD-Rom:

All Caddys that i tried had the same mini-SATA port. And Power worked. Just not recognizable in BIOS or Windows. And yes: I upgraded BIOS to latest version 🙂

But if it is not a full speed SATA-III, then BIOS would recognize it i guess.

[Huffer]

In addititon to being slow it is also not going to be bootable. 

[DaBo2017]

ok. i got it working with the salcar hdd caddy. If anyone else is interested:

https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00G4UZEKG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Because of not knowing if the SATA port where the original optical drive was mounted is full speed,  i moved SSD to inside and original HDD to Caddy. But performance of the HDD with the Salcar Caddy seems to be good.

Further both Drives (SSD and HDD) are recognized by BIOS now and both can be chosen as boot device.

Here the results with Crystal Disk Mark:

The prodcut "Salcar - 2nd HDD/SSD SATA 3.0/2.HDD ODD SATA III" works very well with HP 15-ba520ng.

Thanks everyone for reading and/or answering.

[Huffer]

Yes those scores are consistent with a SATA-II type transfer speed. To be clear, you can boot the system from the drive in the optical bay? 

[DaBo2017]

Is it proof enough if i have boot option in Bios and boot manager or do i have to install operationg system and really try it?

[Huffer]

BIOS and boot manager will show it but generally it wil not boot from it as the BIOS is set to see a DVD drive there which boots a different way than a hard drive. But who cares if you are not trying for it to be the bootable drive, anyways? You now have it set up optimally and I would not try to fix something that is not broken. 

[DaBo2017]

i will install ubuntu now on second drive and take a try. maybe anyone else wants to know it 🙂

[Huffer]

Sure if you are willing to give it a try, but Ubuntu will want to put GRUB at the root of the existing boot drive. Make sure it is all on the hard drive in the optical bay.