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    Dell XPS 15 (9550) recommendations for adding 2.5" secondary HDD

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by markd89, May 30, 2020.

  1. markd89

    markd89 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hi,

    I have the small battery and have already upgraded the NVME SSD and already added a 2.5" 2TB HDD, mostly as backup.

    I have been trying to figure out why writes to the HDD are so slow and figured out it is because the drive is a Seagate Barracuda which uses SMR technology.

    Without taking apart the XPS to measure, google-fu says that a 9.5mm drive won't fit in the secondary spot. Does anyone have recommendations on a non-SMR drive that will physically fit?

    Thanks!
    Mark
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 30, 2020
    markd89, May 30, 2020
    #1
  2. pressing

    pressing Notebook Deity

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    Stock HDD from Dell was a WE10SPCX 1.0TB dated jan2016 on my 9550.

    Search the forums here as the height question has been asked several times.

    Also, some thought that bay was not running at full sata3 speeds but I never saw any confirmation. Plenty of laptop makers have crippled SATA ports so anything is possible.
     
    pressing, May 30, 2020
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  3. markd89

    markd89 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thanks, yes, it looks it has to be 7mm.

    From my searches, it looks like a non-SMR 2 TB HDD 7mm high does not exist. The closest is Samsung's 2TB Spinpoint but it's 9mm tall so it won't fit.

    I guess I will stick with my SMR drive for now. Maybe there'll be a new HDD released I can use at some point, otherwise maybe I'll go with a second SSD.

    Thanks
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 31, 2020
    markd89, May 30, 2020
    #3