Adding second drive to omen-17-an053nr

[peterlobl]

Opened my new Onen 17 (2nd gen) laptop and I see there is plenty of space for a second drive (third if you count M2 boot ssd drive.)
The empty connector port on main board seems larger than current installed drive’s connector.
I think sone Omen 17’s have optical cd/dvd over on my laptop’s empty side - but no cables, rails or brackets are there installed.
Any info on what I would physically need to install another drive, as well as any insight into BIOS / software updates, would be most welcome!

Thanks!

[Huffer]

Here's the Manual:

Manual

Open bay on yours

This is where I assume you mean and you have an open bay on your laptop where the dark DVD drive is shown here. 

As far as I can find neither HP nor 3rd party sellers makes a caddy or adapter to put a hard drive in this slot. You could use a standard optical to DVD drive caddy but you would also have to buy the rails and cable for a standard DVD (optical) drive specified by HP. For example:

Optical drive (cable is spared separately as 931563-001

HP gets $50 for it:

https://parts.hp.com/hpparts/Search_Results.aspx?mscssid=1E2271CCF59A40FF9C38E131BB65869A&SearchIn=P...

You would need to order the optical drive brackets and cable and use a standard optical drive hard drive caddy and then put the hard drive in one of those. It would not be bootable (you would not want that anyway if you have an M.2) and will run at a slower transfer rate. 

Cheaper just to get a 2 TB hard drive and pair it with an M.2 disk and that should be enough storage for anybody I would think. 

Post back with any questions and please accept as solution if this is the answer you needed. 

[peterlobl]

Thank you very much for the quick response!

I have a couple of smaller Samsung SSDs I wanted to add to my new omen.. I’d keep the current M2 for booting, and replace the current mechanical hd with one ssd, the brackets and cable swap out should be easy enough.

I had visions of installing my other ssd in that area where optical connector sits, and where optical drives sometimes go.. 

do you know if that open port used for dvd-cd is a regular sata port?  probably easier to use usb 3 external for extra ssd ... but might be nice to have all drives internal.

tbolt 3 also on my laptop, but i have no interfaces for that at hand, and are expensive i think too.

pete

[Huffer]

No not a standard SATA port it is a cable with a mini-SATA on one end and a zif/ribbon cable connector on the other (see item 1 in my first post above) is why you have to use the HP parts. The only connection on the motherboard is the zif connector not a SATA port. 

cable adapts to bottom connector

[peterlobl]

Thank you very much for such a quick reply, on Sunday no less!  🙂

I also heard back just now ( Sunday! a good for hobbyists to ask questions it seems) from a company, newmodeus.com, which has a kit currently avail for omen 17 w-000 series to utilize the open optical port.

the version to fit my model will be available march 15 they said, so if the cable, brackets, screws etc are all included, and at a decent price, i might give that a shot..

i will keep you posted on how i make out if you like.

[Huffer]

Yes I am helping you on Sunday but I am apparently not making much of an impression. The Omen 17-w is a different laptop inside. I am completely familiar with newmodeus.com and if they had a product for you I would have recommended it. The newmodeus.com device for the 17-w is one of the standard optical drive to hard drive adapters I discussed above. Their price is higher than you need to pay and if you get one of theirs you still need the $50 cable and more parts I discussed above. 

Post back with any more questions but please accept as solution if this is the answer you needed. 

[sherry_aquarius]

Dear All Good Day

I have added the third HDD in the system successfully by using the optical bay DVD/CD to HDD caddy .

The only thing to be kept in mind here is that you need to cut some plastic on the bottom case so that the cover closes properly.

Also do note that cutting of the plastic may damage the bottom case so please use a cutting tool or dremel in order to avoid the damages

The link for the product is as follows

an1XXnr/dp/B07H3F1L53https://www.amazon.com/Caddy-Omen-17-an000nr-Through-17-an1XXnr/dp/B07H3F1L53 

I did it in the beginning of 2019 it is working perfectly fine till date.

Best Regards To All Hope this will help the others.

[ligh7c]

Hey,

I recently bought the caddy from neomodus (https://www.amazon.com/Caddy-Omen-17-an000nr-Through-17-an1XXnr/dp/B07H3F1L53). 

When I opened up my HP Omen 17, I noticed that the ZIF connector already had something plugged into it. Does anyone know what this could be? The cable goes underneath the motherboard. My HP Omen model is 17-an179wm.  

Here are some photos of the inside and the mysterious cable. Any ideas what this could be? I wonder if it is safe to disconnect.