Heres how to add a 2nd HDD in XPS 1647 - Pics Inside!!

I own a 1645 and have done this. Same as 1647. @ wlfng2005 probably best to put thee ssd in the normal hdd bay to boot from and move the old hdd to the optical drive caddie, as the bios can sometimes have issues booting from the optical drive bay

 

i will be replacing it with a 1tb wd. already ordered the caddy and hdd! hopefully this guide will help.

 

Thank you for the suggestion as I was about to put the ssd in the dvd bay and then change the boot sequence setting to boot from dvdbay first. Anyways, I did not buy the caddy yet because I am planning on buying it from ebay. I found the 12.7mm size caddies at very reasonable prices, but do not know if they are compatible with slot loading bays or not. This is one of the caddies I am looking at:
New 12.7mm SATA 2nd HDD Caddy For HP DELL ASUS DV12 - eBay (item 250696687557 end time Nov-12-10 19:28:30 PST)

If you or anyone bought it from ebay and it works, please let me know the link of the caddy you bought from. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

Yep that looks like it should work fine, it doesnt need a faceplate as the xps16 is a slot load so you will just have a slot that goes to a wall on the side of your system.

I live in NZ so had to get my caddie sent from here,

OBHHD Caddy to replace Slot-Loading Optical,12.7,SATA-SATA [OBHD-SATA12-SATA-NF] - $44.75 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks
as that model wasnt available on ebay at the time
a hell of alot more expensive

 

Would these work? Serial ATA Optical Bay Hard Drive caddy items - Get great deals on Computers Networking items on eBay.com!

 

Another option? External USB SATA DVD drive -9.5mm items - Get great deals on Computers Networking items on eBay.com!

 

Please keep us updated, I'm planning to get a 1tb too from Newegg.

 

I believe they would probably fit and work, but they are only 9.5mm caddies, the xps16 fits 12.7mm caddies so take full advantage by using 12.7mm

 

That's a good point! Also, some people posted that they have 130W power adapters. Is that really necessary to run 2 hard drives?

I have the i5-540M + 5730.

 

IMO putting in a 2nd hdd will not bring any big difference comparing to hdd+dvd. If you put in an ssd, that actually lowers the power consumption a little bit since ssd is every energy efficient and sucks in very low power...

 

I bought this model from Ebay and it was the wrong caddy

New 12.7mm SATA 2nd HDD Caddy For HP DELL ASUS DV12 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

The description is so poorly written, it is an IDE caddy not SATA!

I just ordered this as a replacement: 12.7mm SATA 2nd HDD caddy for ACER BENQ HP DELL ASUS - eBay, External Hard Drives, Computers. (end time 24-Oct-10 20:56:50 AEDST)

Someone asked the seller if it is SATA to SATA and seller says that it is. I hope so!

 

Thank you for listing that, saved me some turmoil and return shipping charges! +rep

 

Hi guys, can I use any of these caddies ?
NEW SATA 2nd HDD caddy for 12.7mm Universal CD/DVD-ROM - eBay (item 300449917017 end time Nov-23-10 01:56:45 PST)

http://cgi.ebay.com/Laptop-12-7mm-S...C_Drives_Storage_Internal&hash=item3a60345a06

Thanks

 

stupid question: does this void the warranty?

 

It shouldn't. They provide manuals on how to replace most parts yourself.
And only say it's not covered by warranty if you break something (even then it's hard for them to prove it was you), also they wont provide tech support for non-dell replacement parts.

I'm not quite sure how replacing a odd with a hdd factors into this, but you should be ok. Just put the odd back in if you need repairs etc done

 

I bought the same HDD Caddy and it does NOT fit in the XPS1645. I had to do some modification in order to get it to fit. So unless you want to do some cutting and dremel, it may be better idea to buy the one from the OP's link.

http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/2786134/2/Dell%20XPS/HDD%20Caddy%20Mod?h=3a1fcc

Basically you need to cut off the excess part so the caddy can fit in.

 

Did it fit? I´m about to order one!

 

And btw did anyone find a external USB case with slot-loading for the dvd on ebay? I can only find for tray mounted dvds..

 

see here for the enclosure

 

Thanks! However it doesnt seem they deliver to Europe, I live in Sweden. The same with newmodeus..

I must really suck at searching e-bay, cant find a caddy that fits with the slot on the xps 16, nor a housing for the dvd thats not tray mounted..

Plz help me, my 160gb x-25 is getting full soon

 

not sure if this will work for you

If you want you can paypal me the money for both items and i will buy them and when they are delivered i will ship them to you.
I have excellent references. My HEAT is locutus. you can see here
Locutus | HeatWare.com.

Its all up to you.
Scott

 

Thanks alot but just seems easier to order it directly...there has to be a e-bay seller with the correct stuff that can deliver to europe!

 

no worries. i figured i would offer the easy way and save you the hassle.
i know how hard it is to get PC parts when out of the USA

 

Awesome tutorial. Planning on buying all the necessary stuff to get this project going.

Just to be 100%, this SSD will work correct? Its pretty cheap right now due to the rebate and got good reviews.

Newegg.com - OCZ Agility 2 OCZSSD2-2AGTE120G 2.5" 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

 

I'd think it should beable to work. I just bought an OCZ vertex 2 120 gb 2.5 inch
and it works perfectly

 

Just finished Thanks a ton for this.

BTW, in steps 12-14, there's another tab you should move over to the caddy that you didn't show or mention. Its on the other side of the ODD and needs to be there so the O screw can thread into something from the bottom of the laptop to secure the caddy.

So this was the first time opening up my laptop and I found a screw missing AND my interposer had a broken tab. Great!

 

Just modded mine last week

I recommend the eSATA/USB cable for connecting the optical drive externally. One clean cable that works. I played a Blu-Ray using it and it was flawless!

 

So, which type of ODD fits on XPS16?

 

Where do you install the SSD?

 

My HDD is in an external enclousure

 

@funkmasterta: hey i was wondering weather this one fit into your xps since the first one did not? i am about to buy this one... and which xps do you exactly have? an xps 1647? thanks!

 

So this enclosure works for the bluray player? id rather have 2 hard drives than blu ray since i use bluray less often....

Also, the above link shows usb 2.0? isnt it better to get a case that supports sata to esata via esatap cable? Or could u just not connect the sata to usb part and just use the case?

 

Yep it works fine. i did not need esata. i only kept it to use when i need to use an install disc. so far, i have not used it. it was tested once and put in my lappy bag. i dont think ill ever need it. nothing is on disc anymore

 

Thank you, just thought for bluray i might need it. anywayx got a esatap cable and this case which will work just great i think: igadgitz Hartschalentasche Hardcase tragbar aus: Amazon.de: Elektronik

 

damn i broke the interposer...


still works but only one screw the other side broke when i tried to open it.

guess ill call dell?

mayb they can just send one or can u buy these?

 

Replaced ODD to 2nd HDD. Thanks man.

Step 10, there is a component in the ODD to hook the screw, it's similar to the component mentioned in Step 12. So just screw those 2 components to the HDD Caddy, everything looks original.

 

hello, im sending in my old xps for replacement. since i also put in a second hdd im now unable to find the screws, the 3 screws that connect the hinge thingy to the optical drive and to the mainboard. (not the black plastic thing).



how do i get these screws? or do u think i could just send it back without that specific part?

 

A MAJOR +1 to the OP, his guide was perfect and now I have a super fast system with a fast 64gb SSD boot drive and 500gb internal storage drive.

The mod is time consuming, but it's totally doable for anybody with a bit of experience working inside laptops.

Thanks!!

 

Is there any reason to put the SSD in the stock slot and your normal HDD in the caddy? (instead of the other way around? - since the HDD is already in stock place..why change them?)

 

Since usually the ODD has the lower bandwidth(SATA I) vs SATA II on the HDD slot..

 

Why would a motherboard have two different connectors? Since SATA II is backwards compatible..
How do I find out whether it's SATA I or II?

 

To come back to my own question.. I just installed a Samsung 830 256GB SSD using this guide. It was pretty easy, even though I didn't have the XPS manual (never got one ). Some of the screws were damn tight.. especially the one last screw that hold the palmrest.

Anyway, I put my SSD in the main SATA, and old HDD in caddy. Intel Rapid Storage Tech tells me both are Sata 3GB/s. So I guess they are both SATA 2 like I expected .

Running 260 mB/s read/write.. I guess that's normal for SATA 2?

 

I also found this after seeing other laptops get way better speeds
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...et-can-not-take-full-advantage-fast-ssds.html

Guess you were done with throttling? NOT!!! Apparently the sata scale with the CPU bus or something.. when I force 100% cpu usage and and re-do benchmarks the 4k writes are 2x higher....... Should be in the OP imo!! I might as well have bougtht some cheapass OCZ !!!!!!!!!!! When you disable CPU drive in registry speeds are also better but it disables turbo boost....

 

Curious how you would "eject" the drive. Will the eject button on the laptop still apply to the externally connected drive?

 

yes the eject button works

 

Crap, I bought the wrong cable!!

I decided to use the optical drive, externally (when needed). What type of cable do I need?

I definitely do NOT need the eSata/usb to SATA !! That's what I bought after reading a post on here, but I realize now that the topic was about SSD's and not Optical/DVD drives!!

 

You need SATA to USB, not eSATA to USB

 

The cable that I bought is [SATA] to [eSATA/USB]
Purchased here: Amazon.com: SATA 2.5 INCH Drive 22 Pin Power over ESATA + USB Combo Cable: Computers & Accessories

This is the same thing as SATA to USB.

Can you please send a link to what you are referring to? I want to use the optical drive without any external case.

 

Something like this
Amazon.com: sabrent USB 2.0 TO SATA/IDE 2.5/3.5/-INCH Hard Drive Converter With Power Supply & LED Activity Lights (USB-DSC5: Electronics

 

Well phooey!! This cable did not work either. Now that's two cables I've bought that have no use!!

Thinking of removing my supplied HDD and keeping the SSD and DVD drive... perhaps with all these cables, I can find a way to use the hard drive externally !!