Pavilion dv7 4053cl Adding Second Hard Drive

[GrubenM]

I've successfully replaced the stock HDD in my laptop with a SSD.

I'd like to keep using the old HDD in the laptop though, and it appears that I have a second HDD bay into which the HDD can fit. I don't, however, see a SATA connector on the motherboard for a second HDD connection.

There is a SATA connector for the primary HDD (disc symbols 1, marked on the plastic), and there are two connectors close to the RAM, which do not appear to be SATA, and to one of which my optical disc drive is connected.

Am I missing something, or is there no place on the motherboard for me to connect a second HDD (well, or SSD) via SATA?

[Kalt · Accepted solution]

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@GrubenM wrote:
I've successfully replaced the stock HDD in my laptop with a SSD.

I'd like to keep using the old HDD in the laptop though, and it appears that I have a second HDD bay into which the HDD can fit. I don't, however, see a SATA connector on the motherboard for a second HDD connection.

There is a SATA connector for the primary HDD (disc symbols 1, marked on the plastic), and there are two connectors close to the RAM, which do not appear to be SATA, and to one of which my optical disc drive is connected.

Am I missing something, or is there no place on the motherboard for me to connect a second HDD (well, or SSD) via SATA?

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Here is your Maintenance & Service Guide.  

This is the kit you would need to order to add a 2nd hard drive:  http://www.newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=345 

[SamHP2012]

Looks like you already got a response 🙂 

[GrubenM]

Sure, the motherboard's SATA connector I'm describing looks like a bracket (" [ "), while the connector to which the optical disk drive is connected is slightly longer, asymmetrical, and has three parallel grooves for the connector to fit into.

Like this:

|____|__|

Contrasted to the "bracket-type" hard drive connector:

|_____|

[GrubenM]

I have stumbled across this page before, my remaining question is whether the motherboard-end of the cable included in the kit will fit into the same type of connector the optical disk drive is plugged into (since that's the only open connector left), or if it needs to fit into something the same shape as the original hard drive.

Or, to paraphrase my above comparison:

Does the motherboard-end of the connector in the kit look like this:

|____|__|

Or more like this:

|_____|

[Huffer]

Your laptop has a place to install a second hard drive. You need that newmodeus kit @Kalt linked above. There is a little port that the adapter cable connects to on the motherboard and then it connects to the standard SATA ports on the drive:

Thanks to newmodeus.com for their installation Guide:

http://www.newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=page&id=32&chapter=0

The port for the optical drive is mini-SATA and a hard drive SATA will not fit into it. You can get optical drive to hard drive adapters but no need to use such a thing in the dv7 series since it can take 2 hard drives installed as hard drives without giving up the optical drive. 

If this is "the Answer" please click "Accept as Solution" to help others find it. 

[GrubenM]

That is not what my laptop looks like; the connector featured in the picture is not present at that location in my laptop.  However, this is probably a distinction without a difference, since it looks like the cable of the kit linked would reach to my connector as well.

I had previously made the mistake of purchasing a second "hard drive caddy", but not a "second hard drive caddy."

Basically, because the second hard drive needs to fit into a different connector than the one which the first one fits into, a different cable is needed.  That cable looks like the one in this picture (note the orthogonal piece of plastic near the middle of the motherboard-end of the cable)

Marking response as solution, assuming that the connector end of the cable in the linked kit will fit my open motherboard-connector.