XPS 15 L502 2nd HDD (caddy)

Will this SSD work in my laptop DELL XPS 15 L501X

? OCZ VERTEX 3 SSD DRIVE 120GB TRIM VTX3-25SAT3-120G ? | eBay

 

totally, no dobts about that. Dell L502x has SATA 3 support, so you're good to go)

 

RU sure that DELL XPS 15 L501X has Sata 3 support too.. ?? My laptop is L501X NOT L502x so just a bit curious

 

sry for that, try to download HWiiNFO and check here:

 

Hi again plz check the image.. i can see just this SATA PORTS 2 and 3 : SUPPORTED nothing about port info.. dose that mean i can use SATA 3 ??? and that SSD too ???

 

according to Intel your HM57 chipset doesn't support SATA III, so no good... probably it's better to purchase the fastest SATA II SSD instead) still gonna rock the floor against regular HHD's!

 

this sucks (((( i was planning to buy sata 3 .. goona sell this fking laptop X_X

 

I confirm that it doesn't seem possible to boot on the SATA drive which is inserted instead of the DVD drive. Moreover, it seemed to me that SATA III was only available on the HDD location ; the SATA port of the original DVD reader is only SATA II.

____

my config :

XPS 15 L502x | Core i7 2630 QM | 8 Go Ram | NVIDIA Geforce GT 540M 2Go | Corsair SSD Force 3 120 Go | 640 Go HDD | WLED TrueLife 1366x768 | Wifi n | Win7 Pro

 

at the end whats the correct bay we (l502x) should buy?.

I am really thinking about if it has an screw thats connects to the laptops i wont buy a bay withouth that because the bay could go out by accidental.
Can anyone tell me if those bays has an screw to secure it to the laptop?

Thunbmails will be really apreciated thanks!!

 

^ This is the one I bought, it fits fine and comes with screws but the xps faceplate barely stays on. Any 12.7mm caddy should do really

 

I still ask my question are there any screw that secure the caddy to the laptop?

 

I am trying to figure out how it is secured to the laptop by an screw but it seems there are no screw that secure it like I see on that video.

Dell XPS 15 L502X Hard Drive Caddy Install, great addition to this laptop! - YouTube

 

Please can others confirm this as well?.

I find its strange that its not possible to boot the 2nd HDD from the boot (F12) options. are you sure that your new OS was installed correctly?.

What about using a bootmanager on the main HDD to boot the 2nd HDD?


cheers
css_jay99

 

Hello All,

I have a L501X, with 120GB OCZ Vertex 3 Replacing the default hard drive, and a 500GB Samsung (The Original Dell Supplied System Drive) in a HDD Caddy Replacing the Optical Drive.

With the OCZ Vertex and Optical Drive in Place, I can boot into an OS without Problems.

My Bios Boot order is:

Hard Drive
Optical
USB
Network

When I replace the Optical with the Caddy/500GB Samsung, I cannot boot.
The system posts, then I just get a black screen where I would expect to see my OS Splash.

In the Bios my Boot Order is:

Hard Drive:
OCZ Vertex 120GB
Samsung 500GB
USB
Network
Optical.

I have also tried Disabling the Optical Completely (Shift + 1).

I have formatted the 500GB drive using a usb enclosure to contain a single NTFS Partition.


Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,
Shaun

 

Just ordered:
eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices

Going to be report back when it arrives.
I have a 750gb 7200rpm hard drive in my XPS and just received a 60gb SSD under the tree, so I'm hoping the caddy will accept the bigger one and ill be able to boot of off the SSD

 

I think that is the ebayer I bought mine from several months back. I went thru a few configurations without a problem such as:
1) Intel X25M 160GB G2 with original 500GB 7200rpm
2) Crucial C300 256GB with original 500GB 7200rpm
3) Crucial C300 256GB with Samsung 750GB 5400rpm
4) Crucial m4 256GB with Samsung 750GB 5400rpm

 

Damn it, i should of read the description a bit more carefully.
Turns out the faceplate is non-removable. I might have to break out the dremel and see if I can do something that way.

If not, ill have to order the one with the REMOVABLE faceplate -_-

 

He, does anybody have any idea if this will work, or has anybody used it?

Newegg.ca - SilverStone SST-TS06 Plastic with diamond shape exterior Black USB 2.0 External USB Slim Optical drive Enclosure with 2.5" SSD/HDD Conversion Tray (Bla

 

Hi! Zuffy, could you kindly confirm that the caddy in your link allows you to boot the system from the second hard drive you put in it? Did you need to reinstall the OS after you put the HDD inside caddy? Any BIOS changes you had to make?

I bought my caddy from ebay hosting the original HDD with original OS (win7 home), and I put a SSD as OS drive. I could NOT boot from the original HDD inside the caddy. Press F12 and choose to boot from CD/DVD drive, the HDD will make a loud "click" sound then blank screen nothing happens. I could access the HDD if I boot off SSD but I just can't make the dual-boot to work. I think a lot of people are having the same problem I heard from other forums.

Thanks in advance!

 

I bought this caddy. It did not arrive yet.

It is compatible with :

DDELL Inspiron 1750 1764 1564 1545 1470 1427 1410 M5030 N7110

DELL XPS 14(L401X) 14(L402X) 15(L501X) 15(L502X) 17(L701X) 17(L702X)

other IBM computers that take a 12.7mm drive

This item will replace the following drive DVD model number and increase your HDD volume by adding a 2nd HDD:
GSA-GT30L,GSA-T30N,GSA-T30L,GSA-T50N,GSA-T50L, TS-L633, GSA-GT20L, GT10N, UJ-880A,UJ-890A etc DVD Burner drive.

Key Features:
Plug & Play, Supports hot swapping
Fast & Reliable connection in ThinkPad, just as the primary HDD
Fully integrated into ThinkPad laptop, no cables/PSU/software driver needed
Dual boot, Support installation of 2nd operating system on the 2nd HDD and boot selection

Hope it'll work without problems.



Try this prog.

I use it already for a long time. You have to install it on your bootable first disk. Take a careful look at each section. If you're not a fully unexperienced user it's easy to handle.

 

Thanks Micmax. I was actually looking for a solution that doesn't require installing any booting programs on OS disk. But if that's the only way then I'll have to go with it. Quick question: will EasyBCD work when I change the disks inside the caddy?

I was trying something called Super Grub 2 Disk, but didn't succeed in making a bootable USB drive yet.

And for the caddy, I took apart mine yesterday, there's no IC chips, just a wiring PCB with a hdd LED, kinda like a USB extension cable that just wires different connectors together and that's it. So if mine doesn't work with F12 boot menu, yours probably not gonna work.

ps: I'm on BIOS version A06.

 

Sorry to bring back up an old thread, anyone buy one from Amazon?

Amazon.com: SATA Hard Drive Caddy Adapter Bay Dell XPS L502X: Everything Else

Says fits the l502x and has a removable front.

I might buy this if anyone has purchased it before and can confirm that it fits. I already have an SSD to put in, and the the XPS 15 I have coming in has the 750GB 7200RPM drive that will be going in the caddy.

 

I don't know if it is exactly the same one but my caddy looks similar. Here are some pictures of the caddy with the stock 500gb hdd, a crucial m4 ssd and also of the xps 15 faceplate stuck to the front of it.

Notice how it has the same blue chinese character stamp as the one in the amazon pic.

 

why not ebay? amazon costs much more. I paid like $11 for mine. they do look like the same tho.

also could someone post here if a way is found to boot from the caddy? I tried but could NOT boot from caddy using the boot selection menu (F12). my setup is SSD inside the laptop as SATA0 and original HD as SATA1 in the caddy.

 

I like dealing with Amazon because of their return policies, regardless if it is sold by Amazon or a seller on there. If I get something that is broken or not as described, I can return it without questions and I don't have to pay to return it. I don't mind paying extra for better service.

 

I bought that same exact one from Amazon and am using it in my l502X right now. Works like a charm.

 

Another question I had, what speed are you guys getting with the caddy? I haven't really researched the SATA ports for the l502x ODD yet and I was wondering if the caddy is slowing down the drive transfer speeds, if at all. For instance, if the ODD connector is Sata3, is the caddy is downgrading it to Sata1 or Sata2.

 

The cd bay is SATA 2 (3Gb/s) not Sata 3. The bay runs at full Sata 2 speeds as reported by Intel IRT and my own copy tests. I put my 750GB drive in the bay, and my SSD on the main SATA port. I run critical programs off the SSD, do most of my data storage and games and such on the 750GB hard drive. The laptop was fast before, now it's just insane

 

Thanks for the reply. I have a 64GB Kingston SSD that's going in for now and going to order the Intel 520 120GB in a few days. I'm going to put the 750 in the caddy to store my vms. I thought of putting the Kingston in there but then I can probably only store a few images. So far I will order the Intel 520 and Corsair 16GB memory. Again, I appreciate the replies.

 

My pleasure for a fellow DFW citizen! I run a number of VMs on my 502 as well, and I run them all from the 750GB drive with no issues. I ended up going with the Crucial 16GB of ram, tried the Corsair but got consistent blue screens. I think I just had a bad dimm.

 

hi everyone, finally I'm able to answer my original question on my own:

It is possible to boot from the second HDD inside the caddy. I used this tool here: SystemRescueCd (made a bootable USB)

ps: the BIOS boot menu just won't do this job, at least not on my machine, BIOS ver A6

ps2: I put a SSD inside the laptop (SATA-3) and bought a caddy hosting the original HDD (note: caddy/optical drive interface is only SATA-2) which contains all the factory OS and restore. the caddy has no IC chips in it, only some wiring on a PCB, so I suppose there's no difference b/t $10 item you find on ebay (like mine) and more expensive ones elsewhere.

ps3: every time I boot my machine, there's a click sound from the HDD, which I don't think will do any good to the drive, but I'll have to live with that for now.

 

Huh? Last I checked, the XPS 15 L502x has two SATA ports, both operating at 6.0Gb/s speed.

 

The optical bay sata port is only Sata 2 - 3gbps.

 

Maybe someone can shed additional light on this, but HWiNFO64 v3.92-1500 reports:

​

My OEM HDD (SATA 3.0Gb/s) is sitting in the caddy, so I'm happy either way. Nevertheless, it's good to know for certain.

 

Actually I may be wrong as well. My OEM Western Digital drive was reporting 6Gbps while in the primary Sata port, and now only 3Gbps when in the Optical Bay port, so I assumed the optical bay port is Sata 2. When I Google my WD Model number, everything comes back as Sata 2. Now I don't know what to believe.

 

Believe my HWiNFO post.

Anyway, the same tool correctly reports the SATA 3.0Gb/s characteristic of my OEM 750GB Samsung. Either in the primary bay or in the caddy, this drive only operates at that speed, which is fine to me. The SSD, on the other hand, is flying at 6.0Gb/s. (When the HDD was in the primary bay, I was able to feel the vibrations under my left palm. Now, I need to muffle it somehow because the hollow caddy seems to amplify its access noise.)

 

the noise gets louder no matter what as time goes. at some point I just get a new one since HDDs are so cheap and I don't want end up with anything bad happening to the data.

I agree, SATA-2 or -3 won't make much difference for HDDs, no way they can get close to 6Gb/s. maybe the cache would benefit but all laptop HDDs have very limited cache anyways.

also, HM67 chipset seems to work pretty well with Sandforce SSD. I got the Kingston HyperX, so far no BSOD/hanging/slowdown on Win 7 Pro. Just want to share this in case anyone wants to give it a try. I guess Sandforce BSOD is a thing of the past, at least with latest FW and use it on HM67.

thanks guys!!!

 

Ok guys so I have few questions.
From reading these forums I was under the impression that the caddy only supports sata 2. But you guys seem to think it supports sata 3? So in this case I can just put an SSD in the caddy and boot to it and it will give me the same performance as I would get if I installing it in where the current hard drive sits? This would save me having to take keyboard etc off to install the SSD, which I would like to avoid if I can.

I got the Dell XPS L502x laptop and I am looking to upgrade the hard drive in it.

So there is this sata 3 OCZ_Vertex_3 max iops.
Buy Cheap OCZ Vertex 3 MAX IOPS 2.5" 240GB SSD - SATA III - MLC ()

And the sata 3 regular version
Buy Cheap OCZ Vertex 3 2.5" 240GB SSD - SATA III - MLC (VTX3-25SA)

My question is, which SSD would suit the mother board best? Will the max iops be over kill? There is about $100s difference so if I wont see the performance maybe I can use the slower drive.
Cheers in advanced.
G0biin

 

That's interesting. Newegg shows only $20 difference between MaxIOPs and regular Vertex 3 (in the 120GB size):
Newegg.com - 120GB, ocz "vertex 3"

I wonder why the huge MaxIOPs upgrade cost for the 240GB size?

 

Newegg American. Mwave Australian

Also did we work out if the mobo of the dell l502x will support the 12800 ram.

 

It's SATA 6Gbit/s. (Strictly speaking, it's not the caddy that supports that speed. The caddy only has the two physical SATA connectors at one end. That SATA speed is supported by the Dell motherboard and Intel chipset. So, as I wrote earlier, the L502X has two SATA ports, 0 and 1, both operating at 6Gbit/s.)

Yes, you can give it a try.

 

I'm using OCZ Agility 3 Sandforce SSD in the primary bay and I have no BSOD, hanging, etc either. I'm glad to see this as my previous experience with Sandforce SSD were horrible.

 

the question for you is if you could install OS directly to caddy at all. most people if not all never tried this, and I don't think you can. even if you could get around it with certain tools, the time you put in would be a lot longer than the 5 minutes taking off the palm rest and mount the SSD inside on SATA3.

if you have the extra c$sh, go for the expensive one for extra speed. but either way, putting SSD in the caddy would be a bad decision as I see it. on the other hand, putting HDD in the caddy you won't loose much performance. I still believe caddy is only SATA2, why would dell put a 6Gb/s chip for optical drive??? plus the eSATA port is SATA2.

 

There is the speed of the port, and there is the speed of the device plugged into that port.

Port 0 operates at SATA 6Gbit/s, but the OEM HDD that comes with the system only runs at 3Gbit/s. (But you can replace the OEM HDD with a SSD that runs at 6Gbit/s.)

Port 1 operates at SATA 6Gbit/s, but the OEM optical drives that comes with the system only runs at 1.5Gbit/s.

The caddy itself has nothing to do with SATA speed. It contains no "chip" of any kind. It only provides the SATA connection: one side to the motherboard, the other side to a HDD/SSD.

 

I will try both and get back to you guys. It seems I am getting conflicting info
Here are my reasons for putting the SSD in the caddy.

1. If you put the hard drive in the caddy, people have reported vibrations when it powers up. So putting the SSD in the caddy would stop this issue.
2. I dont have to open the laptop up and replace hardware. In my experince you can do more damage and the laptop never seems the same afterwards.
3. If the SSD caddy does work at the sata 3 speed their is no point moving it to the primary port as it will do exactly the same thing in the caddy.
4. Its much easier to add a the SSD to the caddy.
5. If I want to sell the laptop in the future. I would have to open and remove the SSD from the primary port, where as if I have it in the caddy I can just remove the caddy and pop in the DVD Rom.

Hung, What are your reasons for putting the SSD on the main port?

 

ok, for my L502X, the first thing I noticed after getting the caddy is that it can not be booted from caddy using F12 menu (had to use 3rd party tool, which was why I'm here asking about the problem in the first place).

Another thing is I'm not sure if caddy is SATA3. just checked HM67 specs, it has 2 SATA3 ports only, either caddy or eSATA one of them has to be SATA2.

so for those two reasons I naturally put SSD inside. wasn't hard for me, one screw and a few minutes, done. you have to be careful not damaging the edge of palm rest. search for the service manual on how to do it.

but try having your SSD in the caddy first, see if you can install OS on it and boot from it. let us know, I'm curious

 

Just bought this caddy New 2nd HDD Hard Drive Disk Caddy Adapter Bay for Dell XPS 15 L502X L501X SATA | eBay

Will there be a way to mount it with the screw like the CD drive or it won't have screw holes for that? Cause otherwise I'm afraid of it pulling out

 

^^^ Watch this or this, and you'll have a pretty good idea of how to handle the caddy adapter.

 

Hi, i am facing a strange issue after i replace the original 500GB(7200RPM) HDD with Samsung 128GB Sata III SSD and move the HDD to optical drvie caddy. After i boot into windows both drive appears in the computer but after some time(5 to 7 minutes) the HDD partions disappear from my computer. This also happens if i resume the PC from sleep mode. Please help me out. This issue is bottle necking the PC performance and storage. Thanks