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    G73 mods for external drives?

    Discussion in 'ASUS Gaming Notebook Forum' started by JCoyote, Aug 27, 2010.

  1. JCoyote

    JCoyote Newbie

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    OK so I have a new G73 and am doing video work on it, for its price it has been spectacular for video compression and editing. However... bringing in or sending out files has been slower than I'd like over the USB connection. The gigabit ethernet helps on some but not all transfers.

    I would like an esata or expresscard port, and sadly I was originally under the impression it had an expresscard port.

    That said, I'm not particularly interested in having the blu ray drive in it 24/7; on a laptop I'd be just as happy using an external version. SO... what are the possibilities of removing the BD drive and creating an eSata bracket that uses the same sata connector?
     
    JCoyote, Aug 27, 2010
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  2. Chastity

    Chastity Company Representative

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    Can be done, just order the appropriate bracket. They make them.
     
    Chastity, Aug 27, 2010
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  3. JCoyote

    JCoyote Newbie

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    OK I haven't found a pre-fitted bracket for the g73's odd contour. Is there one out there or am I going to have to rig a custom shape?
     
    JCoyote, Sep 2, 2010
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  4. aramis109

    aramis109 Notebook Deity

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    I haven't tried one of these solutions, but couldn't you just swap out the bezel like you would on a normal dvd/bd swap?
     
    aramis109, Sep 2, 2010
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  5. JCoyote

    JCoyote Newbie

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    I have worked with a proper sata-esata bracket, it requires a male end on the internal cable instead of the usual female end on most esata adaptors. However, the sata connector is NOT plug and play apparently; I have to reboot the system to detect and use the new external drive.
     
    JCoyote, Sep 22, 2010
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  6. ViciousXUSMC

    ViciousXUSMC Master Viking NBR Reviewer

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    SATA hotswap is a feature of AHCI if you turn this on in bios it may work. But it would also maybe require a reinstall of your OS if it was not installed in AHCI mode.

    There may be other ways around it other than reboot too like refreshing the hardware via device manager or the drive management settings.
     
    ViciousXUSMC, Sep 22, 2010
    #6
  7. HeavenCry

    HeavenCry Notebook Virtuoso

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    The lack of any high speed ports is a downside to the JH... luckily i dont use external drives so often.

    One solution would be to use one of the two internal SATA connectors in the HD bays (and using the OD bay to put in the second HD, or just have a single HD and BD-ROM drive - as you prefer) and somehow route a sata to esata cable from that internal SATA to the front left USB port (removing the USB chip there to make room for this esata plug), but i havent seen any such sata to esata cable yet (can only find ones for the desktop sata connectors)...
     
    HeavenCry, Sep 22, 2010
    #7