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2nd Hard Drive in Laptop

tenpole

tenpole

Senior member
When my hard drive went on my laptop I pulled the 120 gb ssd drive out of the wife's PC and stuck it in. The problem of course with ssd drives is the low capacity but I have been so impressed with the ssd drive I thought I would keep it and get another drive.
At first I thought of using a usb plug in drive to host my documents, pictures and games. I am not an avid game fan but wow is still 25gb and swtor is about the same. However I found out the transfer rates are so much slower but read about people pulling out their optical drive and replacing it with a caddy for a second hard drive. Has anyone done this?
If so are there any procedures I should take like moving the ssd to the caddy and the normal hard drive to the correct bay for heat dispersion.

HP Pavilion G6 1220 sa
 
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Post what make/model of laptop you're referring to so we know what you're working with. As to adding an external drive for storage and your concern about cooling; here's just one example of an external USB enclosure with integral cooling.

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Replacing the optical with a second drive adapter is common with Lenovo Thinkpads via their Ultrabay. I've done it with two of them - not a problem at all (T60 and T510.)

As mentioned above, not all lappies have such adapters, but most can be semi-permanently configured with a 2nd drive adapter replacing the optical. But, specific makes and models are involved.
 
I just did exactly this on my Lenovo G570 laptop, it was as Corkyg said very simple. I picked up the caddy on ebay for under $10. (I have seen them go for as much as 45 to 50 dollars elsewhere.) The hardest part was transferring the bracket that holds the set screw from the optical drive to the caddy, those screws are tiny! The caddys are pretty much generic so matching one to your laptop shouldn't be a problem. Cooling has not been a problem at all as the HDD is just used for storage so it is not contantly working.
 
corkyg said:
Replacing the optical with a second drive adapter is common with Lenovo Thinkpads via their Ultrabay. I've done it with two of them - not a problem at all (T60 and T510.)

As mentioned above, not all lappies have such adapters, but most can be semi-permanently configured with a 2nd drive adapter replacing the optical. But, specific makes and models are involved.
Click to expand...

You can do the same with Dell and others, I just use the cheap adapters from ebay.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2nd-HDD-HAR...3?pt=US_Drive_Bay_Caddies&hash=item43b168e795
 
The laptop model is Hp Pavilion G6 1220 sa. As you have said on ebay the caddys are so cheap so I ordered one and if it doesn't work then I will have to do a re-think.
 
tenpole said:
The laptop model is Hp Pavilion G6 1220 sa. As you have said on ebay the caddys are so cheap so I ordered one and if it doesn't work then I will have to do a re-think.
Click to expand...

I have the cheap ebay one in my and my wife's laptop. They are the same "form factor" as the DVD drive so you just pop the DVD face off, put it on the caddy and it looks "normal".
 
Gillbot said:
I have the cheap ebay one in my and my wife's laptop. They are the same "form factor" as the DVD drive so you just pop the DVD face off, put it on the caddy and it looks "normal".
Click to expand...

Update
Did exactly that. Got a cheap caddy off ebay, quickly slid out my optical drive and stuck the ssd caddy in its place. Now ordered a 1 tb h/d for my drive bay.
I hardly use my optical drive but if needed it can be changed over in 10 minutes so it is not a hardship.
 
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