can second hard drive be added to hp envy 750-514

[ztz]

Hello my HP Envy 700-216 died and I bought an HP Envy 750-514 to replace it. I would like to add the hard drive from the 700-216 to the 750-514. I'm hoping the hard drive was not damaged I've had luck so far with other computers that died and salvaged the information on the hard drives. In the 750-514 there is a place for a third hard drive but I don't see any spare SATA connectors on the motherboard or extra power cable coming from the box as was convenient in the 700-216. The first two hard drive spots are taken up by the 1TB hard drive and the 128GB solid state drive (SSD).   A possible complication is that the hard drive from the 216 is 2 TB. I was surprised to see the 514 main hard drive is only 1 TB capacity. Any help would be appreciated, including even just telling me it's possible although it looks like I will have to take to a professional since all the SATA ports seem to be already taken up. Thanks!

[Grzwacz]

Hi ztz

You have three SATA3 ports on the motherboard.

So you are maxed out having a a HDD, an SSD, and an optical drive connected to the three ports on the motherboard.

A 2TB HHD is not a problem using Windows 10.

What do you want to do with the 2TB HHD?  Do you want to store data? Do you need data that is on the 2TB HDD?

You could buy a HDD/ USB 3.0 caddy. You could remove the optical drive and use the resulting open SATA port on the motherboard for the 2TB HDD. 

Grzy

[ztz]

thanks for your answer! It occurred to me after posting that I could simply take  the leads off the 1 TB hard drive in the Envy and attach them to the 2TB hard drive from the old computer. I've already done that and now I have the  access to the data in the 2TB hard drive that I need to restore.  I'll check into what you mention about the caddy and optical drive if I decide I want access to both hard drives. Though I gotta say I don't even know what an optical drive is. Thanks again

[Grzwacz]

Hi ztz

You are welcome.

The optical drive is the CD/DVD ROM drive.

Many users don't use optical drives as much anymore. 

Grzy

[ztz]

woo-hoo! I can lose the optical drive then cuz I have an external bluray player that also plays dvds/cds. Now I just gotta figure out which SATA plugs hook up the optical drive and hook it up to one of the hard drives  instead (?). thanks again!

[wb2001]

@Grzwacz,

The HP 750 series use a laptop DVD drive.

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c04717139       pg11

[Grzwacz]

Hi wb2001

So does that mean there is a proprietary SATA or power connection on the optical drive? Is there a proprietary connection for SATA and/or power on the MB that is only reserved for the optical drive? 

The site link on the PC's specs in your reply is not working.

Can't one swap in a standard SATA and power connection from the MB to the second HDD? OR is that not possible on this PC?

You may not get optimal drive performance on that SATA port. I have no idea how HP designed SATA on this PC. It may only be SATA 1 or SATA 2.  I retract this last statement. All Sata ports are SATA 3 standard connectors. So there should be no reason to not connect the second HDD to the MB SATA port now used for the CD/DVD drive.

Grzy

[ztz]

Hello again after switching the leads from the 1 TB drive inside the Envy to the 2 TB drive from the old computer, I was a little worried I had messed something up because it was calling the SSD drive windows (C). Which it may have done from day one, I don't remember. So I switched them back and took out the old drive. It's still calling the SSD drive windows (C). . . when the old drive was in there it was calling the old drive windows (D). However when I switch the leads back to the 1 TB drive it's calling that drive Data (D) instead of windows (D). I don't remember if it was Data (D) before I made any changes. The specs on the computer at Best Buy site say:

128GB Solid State Drive + 1TB Hard Drive

I'm curious about the SSD drive being windows (C) because it has so little memory. Currently 72 GB free out of 118 (not 128). Anyway when I turned it back on the computer still works.  I guess I will have to be sure to put only apps in windows (C) and everything else that takes up GBs in Data (D). In wondering if I did anything wrong, it's should the 1TB drive be reading windows (D) not Data (D). Although before I attempted anything, in an online chat with HP support they did confirm it was all right to switch the leads from 1 TB drive to the old 2 TB drive. 

Additionally I went on to try switching the leads from the optical drive to the old 2 TB drive. However the power cable that was going into the optical drive didn't fit any of the slots on the 2 TB drive so I had to give that up. Maybe that has something to do with what the other guy was saying about Envy containing a laptop optical drive now. I will probably next look into USB caddy for the old 2 TB drive but at least I know if nothing else  I can put the old drive back in briefly to get out the data I need. Thanks again for the help

[Akhama]

Вы можете установить PCI Express контроллер SATA 3. Блок питания взять из 

HP ENVY 700-216. Sad, but 750-514 doesn't love an upgrade

[Akhama]

There are no additional sata power. One goes on the HDD, the second on SSD.