HARD DRIVE CADDY

[MAGOO1965]

Hi, I have today taken the machine appart to try and install a secondary HDD and change the 1Tb HDD to an SSD drive.  After opening the machine I have found that it cannot fit a secondary drive and I haven't bothered fitting the SSD dive yet.  I have heard there is a way of fitting a hard drive caddy by replacing the optical drive.  Can anyone out there recommend a hard drive caddy that is readily available please?  I am in UK.

I have had a look on the Internet, but can't seem to find anything that I think would be compatible.

Many thanks,

Mark.

[Huffer]

Here is the Manual which you may not need as you have already gotten in there to have a look around. 

Your Manual

There is no support in your model for any kind of second hard drive. You can have an M.2 SATA 2280 "gumstick" disk but that requires an adapter board and cable to be used in lieu of and not in addition to the regular 2.5 inch hard drive. 

Yes you can get an optical caddy for a hard drive. Not my favorite type device for a couple reasons: 1. The SATA interface for the optical port is a lower speed SATA connection. Optical drives do not read and process data as fast as a hard drive so the lower speed is fine for ODDs. A hard drive placed in such a device will still read and write fast enough for most things like playing movies or music but would not be good for say video editing that relies on the fastest possible input and output speed. Use the SSD for those kinds of tasks in other words. 2. A disk in such a device is generally not bootable so cannot hold the OS. 

Still it is a viable solution to put the 2.5 inch SATA SSD in the main 2.5 inch hard drive bay and then move the legacy spinner drive to an optical caddy for pure storage duty. 

Your laptop uses 9.5 mm tray load disk drives so you need a 9.5 mm optical caddy like this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/9-5mm-Universal-Drive-DVD-ROM-Optical/dp/B01MA20LMD/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=...

You can swap your old faceplate to this device so the cosmetics of the laptop are not affected. 

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

[MAGOO1965]

Thanks for the information and links. 

I would like to install the SSD drive I have in the machine to the main HDD SATA port, but wanted to use the caddy to install the 1tb drive that now has the operating system on so I can use that as my storage drive.  I had no idea that the drive in the caddy would run so much slower, but as I would be using this as the storage drive would that make any difference?

The SSD drive I have is only 120gig so wanted to have a seperate drive for storing my docs, downloads etc.  I think in the long run it might be worth while waiting until Solid State become more affordable before.  I do have a sata 1Tb drive (7200rpm) but our IT Technicians in work tell me that a 7200 drive would not make the machine run any faster!

Regards,

Mark.

[Huffer]

Price drops on SSDs have pretty much leveled out and I do not see them being any cheaper any time soon. Having a 120 gig SSD in the main bay as the Windows drive and then a 1 TB in the optical bay for storage is a perfectly workable solution as long as you keep an eye on how full the SSD is getting. 

Older 7200 rpm drives are not any faster than some of the newest model 5400 rpm drives but would need to know what you want to install to really know if your IT guys are right or not. 

[MAGOO1965]

Hi, That's what I was hoping you would say.  I have ordered a caddy from ebay the same one as you have recommended, it was a couple £ cheaper on ebay.  I have had a look at some SSD offers and I can see that there are some 500Gig for around £108 and a a 240Gig for £54, which is very reasonable.  I will have to save up and get a larger drive, but for the time being I will use the 120Gig, which will at least speed up this incredbibly slow machine! 

Thanks gain for you advice and support.

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

Those are excellent prices on SSD, even in pounds as opposed to dollars. 

If you have the answer you needed please mark as solution. 

[MAGOO1965]

Hi, just before I conclude the chat, just wanted to say a massive thank you again for your help, it is much appreciated. 

[MAGOO1965]

Hi again, I have received the HHD caddy today as recommended however, the PC is not recognising the caddy or HDD installed, nothing is showing up in My Computer.  Is there anything I need to do with the BIOS setting etc?