HowTo: Latitude E-/Precision M-Series Second 2,5" HDD

Thanks for this info. Does it include a latching mechanism that works with the E6400?

Normally the designs would be different, but both Dell and Lenovo evidently aimed for minimum size and cost by leaving out any adaptors between the standard optical drive unit and the bay.

I don't think many users want the limited capacity and performance that come free with the 1.8" HDD in the Dell unit.

John

 

No there is no latching mechanism on the bay. But I'm able to exchange the bay with the nail of a finger.

Perhaps you can use the latching mechanism on the dell DVD-Drive and attach it to the hdd bay?

Just to clear things up: Of course the bay will fit in the laptop with a standard 2,5" size hdd connected to the bay.

Best Regards

ulub81

 

You're kidding. Is that the case with both the Latitude and Precision? That's ridiculous for a workstation class machine.

 

Yes it's a shame. But the modular bay is all the same in Latitude E6400/E6500 and Precision M2400/M4400 and Dell is only offering a 1,8" HDD bay (with 4200RPM HDD ) but no 2,5" bay.

The other big thing is that there obviously is no possibility to have any Raid0 Volume in these laptops, because there is no Option for it in BIOS.

SHAME ON YOU DELL

 

Thanks! I bought one. I'll see how it works.

 

It makes no sense to try to have RAID 0, with data split across two HDDs, when one HDD is removable.

John

 

Except for the case I would not remove the second hdd from the bay and would use an USB DVD drive for the rare times I need it.

For my applications I would personally prefer speed, that is a Raid0 of two fast SSDs.

 

But what would happen to the data if you accidentally remove the removable drive when the computer is running?

I'm personally looking forward to the time when I can afford one fast SSD.

John

 

I think the data written in that moment to the disk would be corrupted. If you have luck you even won't recognize when you reboot. Worst case is your system would not boot any more.

But I must admit I never accidentally removed my dvd drive from the bay until now and so I think this wouldn't happen to me with the hdd bay.

 

Technically, both drives are removable. When running RAID, the reasonable intention would have to be never to remove either one.