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

One seriously frustrated owner here... I'm getting totally desperate after an entire afternoon of fiddling.

I ordered the newmodeus part and an Intel SSD for my Precision M4500. Planned to put the SSD in the HD bay, and move the 500GB original HD to the newmodeus modular bay.

Now I had first used the SSD to test in another laptop. Since I wanted to start totally clean with it, I planned to do a secure erase with Intel SSD Toolbox first. So I actually first installed the SSD into the modular bay to wipe it from within the windows installation on the 500GB disk.

First the good news: this went totally as planned. The bay with SSD did fight me a bit, but it slotted in after just less than a minute of fiddling. Never had to really force anything either. It felt like it would probably never fit in as nicely as the DVDwriter, but it would work for occasional switches.

After the wipe I removed the whole thing and switched the SSD and the 500GB disk.

Guess what: no matter WHAT I try, the modular bay just doesn't want to fit in anymore! It goes smoothly until the last 5mm or so. Which makes it look like it's the SATA connector itself that doesn't quite fit.

I tried with and without screws in the HD, I tried an empty bay, I tried opening up the back cover and push the bay down a little, to the left or to the right a little... Problem is that you can't really view the backside with the connector when you're pushing it in. So it remains invisible WHERE it gets stuck.

It's getting me totally mad, mostly because it DID work the first time! I've litterally been trying for four hours, just because I can't believe that it's not going to work anymore, lol. You would think that at some point you accidentally move it slightly so it happens to fit as the first time, but NO...

I even tried cutting off small pieces from the sides of the SATA connector (not the parts with the pins obviously) to give it more room, but to no avail.

Anyone else initially had trouble to get this in, but found a workaround?

 

I'd contact NewModeUs immediately. They're selling a premium priced product and they should sent you a replacement if the caddy is defective. After all, you've paid about 3 times as much as for comparable caddies without the latch mechanism.

On the other hand, I did have a new Dell Latitude E-series where the DVD drive couldn't be removed. I didn't force it, since I was returning the notebook anyway due to multiple hardware defects.

 

Have you tried to re-insert the optical drive to see if it fits back in properly? If it doesn't, there's obviously something either blocking the connector or the connector itself is damaged. If it does fit, compare the ends of the optical drive and the newmodus adapter to see if there's any noticeable damage or difference in the two....maybe this will help. Good luck!

 

Thanks for the reactions.

The optical drive goes as smooth as you can wish, no resistance or difficulty at all. It fits much less tight than the Newmodeus part.

There is no visible damage on the Newmodeus tray, and if there are differences in dimensions then they are nearly invisible as well. I just can't understand it and kept trying for hours because it DID work that one time!!

But wait for this: I visited the Newmodeus site again, planning to send them a mail.

Now, THIS is the tray I ordered:

http://newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_3&products_id=224

But when I check the site, there is also THIS tray:

http://newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_3&products_id=307

At this point you might think that the source of my troubles is obvious, that I ordered the WRONG model. But I could SWEAR that when I ordered it a couple of weeks ago, this second model did NOT mention the M4500. It only went up to M4400. And the first model, although not explicitly meant for the M4500, was recommended in this same thread as nevertheless fitting the M4500 perfectly.

What's going on here???

 

Correction: it was in the M4500 owner's thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...ision-m4500-owners-lounge-85.html#post6588412

 

Update: I have bad news that is sort of good news in a way; I was able to test the tray (so the one advertized as "2nd Hard Drive Caddy DELL E6400, E6410, E6500, E6510 Modular Bay") in an E6510 instead of in my M4500. The result is exactly the same: sticks out about 5mm and just doesn't plug into the SATA connector.

So this means this is not an incompatibility issue with the M4500, but indeed a problem with the tray itself. I'll contact NewmodeUS for a replacement.

 

Does anyone know if the various 2nd HDD caddies would function in any generic SATA optical drive enclosure? Yes, I know that USB 2.0 is much slower than powered ESATA, but generic enclosures go for less than $10 shipped.

I'm just wondering how the latch mechanism of Dell E-series DVD drive would work with the generic DVD enclosures? Does anyone have any experience in this regard?

 

All OK in the end. Mailed NewmodeUS with my experience and they immediately shipped a replacement caddy, they didn't even ask to send back the faulty unit.

Have just tested the new one and it fits perfectly this time. I have now successfully transplanted the 500GB bootHD to the optical bay. After a little bit of hassle with the OEM partition (you can't remove it via the disk management GUI, need to go via diskpart), I now have the full capacity available for mass storage next to the Intel SSD.

 

Just a follow up to my experience adding a 2nd hdd in my E6400.

My primary hdd was a Seagate ST980313AS 80gb 5400rpm 8mb drive and I put a Samsung HM640JJ 7200rpm 16mb in the optical. The caddy has a blue led to that has two levels of brightness for idle/powered up states it appears. The Samsung was always "on" and battery life decreased as a result. As I planned, I cloned to the Samsung and performed a switch. With the 80gb in the optical bay it almost never turns on except to backup and battery life is back to normal. It seems the smaller/slower hdd doesn't need as much power or has better power settings.

Either way its a great upgrade. The Samsung runs at about 32-40C and the Seagate the same.

 

The Newmodeus try I ordered for my E6410 is perfect. Built very well! Glad to have a bag for the DVDRW as well. Bought the MiniPower/Sata adapter in addition to use either of the modular bay units externally