L502X ; flush Drive Caddy ; SSD

I am interested in trading out my main drive with an SSD and using it in a drive caddy.

I can't afford a sizable SSD, maybe a 60GB.

So I'd like to use the secondary drive to hold most games and things of that sort.

Do you think this kills the purpose of an SSD?

I know the swap partition would be on the SSD and the OS itself.

I am also looking to somehow make the caddy flush, I know it would look funky with the Blur-ay faceplate, has Dell made a caddy for it yet? Or a company with a high enough quality product?

If not flush, anything cheap and won't cause any problems other than how it looks?

Yeah, all sorts of I have no clue what I'm doing since I've never used an SSD or drive caddy before thoughts.

 

buy this:

edit: nm, they seem to have changed what they send out, and it is no longer compatible.

its 1/3 the price of the more expensive one people list sometimes and it works fine. The only problem is one of the screws is too short to attach the small bracket to lock it in place. Its probably not going to go anywhere anyways, but I attached it with some plumbers goop (super glue, or any adhesive would work as well). The faceplate snaps off your old DVD player, and snaps onto this new caddy so your computer doesn't look funky.

Using a SSD for the OS will speed up your boot time, but I'm guessing that is about it. A SSD is the most major upgrade you can make to your computer to make it snappy. You don't need the latest one that supports sata 6 or whatever, even an old one would be preferable than a mechanical disk. Just make sure it has TRIM.

What I did is put an old 120GB SSD that I had from a previous computer where the normal drive goes. You have to remove the palmrest for this, but it is very easy. I put my 7200RPM hard drive in the caddy and have all my mp3s and photos on it. Ideally you want to run your apps and games off the SSD.

The tricky part is when you want to install windows on the SSD, it is going to keep booting off the mechanical drive (or maybe give a boot error). The easiest way to get around this, is remove the mechanical drive then install windows on the SSD. You can then put the second drive back. This is why you should put the hard drive in the caddy, its much easier to remove than under the palmrest.

So my advice if you are cash short, is buy the largest drive you think you'll need for your apps and games (hopefully its not too many). Buy a used one off ebay that has been out for a couple years, sata 3 is fine. Just make sure it has Trim and do a little research on the one you want to make sure it doesn't have any issues.

There's another point of interest when doing this mod, you can install the SSD, then install windows from the DVD. But what if you ever have to do another install again? Sure you can put the DVD back in, but if its a blu-ray maybe you want to sell it (especially for more cash for that better SSD!)

use this program: Welcome to RT Se7en Lite - Slipstream Service Pack,Integrate Updates,Integrate Drivers,Integrate LP,Remove Components,Enable or Disable features,Unattended Setup,Apply Tweaks,Add Icons,Wallpapers,Themes,Bootable USB or DVD

for about $9 or less you can buy a small 4GB USB thumb drive and keep it as a dedicated Windows 7 install device. If you can afford it, buy an 8 GB one, because this program will let you put SP1 and all updates into the installer. my 4 GB one wasn't big enough, so I'll have to update every time I do a new install.

The important part is putting the USB 3.0 drivers in there. They are available on the Dell site, but you have to extract them from the installer. I'll attach them for you in this post.

after RT 7 Lite does its thing, you can modify the install by injecting the .inf files, this will let windows install off of USB 3. You can also create a bootable USB stick with this program, so no need for the microsoft program.

This is probably more than you wanted to know, but I hope it helps.

 

Totally exactly as much as I wanted to know and is totalllly appreciated.

You made my day.

Thanks!

 

Very handy info - many thanks.

Does anyone know a UK source for this caddy - or another that takes the face plate?

Can't see anything from the UK on ebay / google.

 

This is literally the only similar caddy I can find in the UK:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2nd-Hard-Driv...K_Computing_HardDrives_RL&hash=item2eb2daafbf

Not mentioned in spec but seems pretty universal - recon it'll work for my l502x?

Only alternative seems to be hong kong:

12.7mm SATA 2nd HDD caddy for ACER BENQ HP DELL ASUS | eBay UK

Thanks, M

 

Try NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

That's where I got my one.

 

Thanks SA, was trying to source something locally really.

No matter now - just take plunge on a 256GB M4 so plan to run everything off the SSD with a USB3 external HDD for archiving.

Current PC usage shows about 55gb for OS and all apps plus another 150GB of docs and media so I figure I will be fine with this together with existing 2TB external. So will leave optical where it is for those "you never know" moments ....

 

Also consider using an esata cable for your external drive, its pretty quick.

 

I couldn't find anything local. Had to order from the US but it arrived within a week.