Hard Drive holding problems

[Miles_Banks]

I am trying to build a home server with the HP Compaq 8000 Elite CMT Business PC and stuffing it with as much hard drive space I posibablly can. I think I need hard drive rails or brackets but, as far as I know, it did not came with any. Do I need them? If so where can I buy them?

I am 10 years old and my project is building a linux file server for my house.

[SDH · Accepted solution]

I'm happy to help..... you can ask me questions.

Here are some resources:

HP Compaq 8000 Elite CMT  (your computer... I assume you have that already)

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c01960471  (a good manual to download)

https://support.hp.com/ee-en/product/hp-compaq-8000-elite-ultra-slim-pc/4065899/document/c03604679/  (the result of a google search on spare parts for your computer).

Number of drives you can attach:

3 - 5.25” External access

3 - 3.5” Internal access
1 eSATA

Note that there are HP drive adapters that let you convert a 5.25" optical bay to house 3.5" hard disc drives, and from there you can even get 3.5" to 2.5" adapters to attach SSDs instead of HDDs.  Same if you start with 3.5" bays, and your computer has 3 of those.  The point is that there are cables and SATA data/SATA power attachments built in for at least 6 internal drives.  I'm sure you'll want one optical disc read/writer.  So, 5 left over, and you also can attach an eSATA drive to the backplane's built in eSATA port.  I use those for backing up the computer.... fast connection.

In the picture below, which you can see after a moderator releases it, there are two empty 5.25" bays.  Note the black screws there in storage, lined up.  4 are used for each optical drive.... 2 on each side.  Those ODDs usually slide in from the front as would most 5.25 to 3.5" adapters.  Those black screws are metric fine threaded screws, and fit in the optical drive threaded holes.  We'll come back to that below.  Here is that picture:

OK, on to your specific question....  how to get a hard disc drive slid into the 2 side slots for each 3.5" bay?  It takes a sliding adapter that has 6-32 English threads (not as fine of threads as the metric screws) and those do not have black screws.... they are mostly silver metal and some blue rubber.  Four of those special slider screws are needed for each HDD (2 each side), screwed into the front and rear end threaded holes of the HDD (or a 3.5 to 2.5" adapter if you were to choose to use a SSD or a 2.5" form factor HDD).

Here is what those look like, and you can buy them quite cheaply off eBay.  The pic just below shows them close up, and the image below that shows some of them still in storage where they are kept in your computer, if you are lucky.  Search eBay for "HP drive mounting screws".  If you see a black screw head with blue rubber that is a metric slider, and you don't want that.  If you see silver screw head with blue that is what you want, and I just checked on eBay... about 2.00 for a set of 4.  If you use all 3 3.5" bays you'll need 12 of those total:

Here are four still in place... the blue vibration reduction elastomer is hidden beneath the big silver washer.  The washer has a smaller diameter sliding surface built in:

Your computer can accept multiple different processors.... here is probably the one with the highest computing power, and you can look in eBay for the sSpec code I included.  Probably best to save such an upgrade for later, but it would be worth knowing what processor came with your computer.

Q9650 3.00 GHz, 12MB L2 cache, quad core, sSpec SLB8W about 50.00 on eBay.

Welcome!

[Miles_Banks]

Thank you. That is a great answer. Do I need a certain adapter tray in addition to the screws? I am planning on buying a 1 TB Boot disc and as many large capacity data drives as possible. I do need the optical drive. The pointer about the certain screws is very helpful. I will save me a lot of time of looking on the internet.

[SDH]

Happy to help.  There is no need for an adapter tray if you are using 3.5" form factor hard drives.  Those have three 6-32 threaded holes on each side, and the silver/blue slider screws go into the front and rear threaded holes leaving the offset one in the middle empty.  That is all you need, and those drives can slide right in and they lock in place with a click.  You can slide them back out by lifting up on the outside green plastic tab you'll notice if you look closely, which unlocks them.

 6-32 means a #6 size screw is needed, with 32 threads per inch.  That is "English" type of threading.  Ones that need metric screws are optical drives, and all 2.5" form factor drives.  For your computer the optical drive bays just need the bare black headed metric screws, without any of the blue elastomeric vibration dampening parts.  The metal receiving slots are made so that the shape of those bare screw heads fit perfectly, and you slide the drive in from the front.

I have posted on different types of 3.5" to 2.5" adapters you can use to get a SSD to fit in the 3.5" form factor drive bays in these HP workstations.  My favorite is a simple one made by HP you can buy off eBay.  Take a look there for 654540-001 or -002 and sort for lowest price with shipping.  You would attach the silver/blue 4 slider screws to the sides of that, and then attach a SSD or 2.5" HDD to the adapter with the metric screws that usually come with those.

HP has used several different sizes of these slider screws in different computers, but yours is the most common by far.  There is a link with added information,  HERE.

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-PCs-Workstations-and-Point-of-Sale-Systems/Z240-SFF-caddy-ins...

Also, the search box at the top left area of this page is handy.  By default it searches this forum only.  For example, you could search for "2.5" adapter" in the future.