Question on adding hard drive

[Mike7]

Please forgive my admitted ignorance; I realize this is probably a very basic question.

I have a computer with bays for up to 2 external (CD or DVD) drives, and one internal bay (for a hard disk).

I only need one external drive, and would like to make use of the second such bay for an additional hard drive.

Are there any warnings, cautions, or impossibilities involved in this? That is, can I put a 3.5" format hard drive in a CD/DVD bay with relative ease, or is it a bad idea for some reason?

Thanks.

 

[overst33r]

i suggest you get a external HDD case such as this $30 but skips the hassles

 

[Ricemarine]

As long as you don't connect the round cable from the external drive to the hard drive in the 5.25 slot, you should be fine.

 

[Varun]

You can buy a HDD Cooler which should make your install pretty easy. They come in SATA as well as SCSI and PATA versions.

 

[JimPhelpsMI]

Hi, You can mount 3 1/2" drives in a 5 1/4" bay. Get an mounting kit for same. They should be fairly easy to find. They are just simple brackets to screw to the new drive to fill the space to the mounting slots. You can also (usually) sling another several drives under the 3 1/2" bay with simple sheet metal straps with a hole for the existing drive screws and another for the new drive/s. Hope this helps, Jim