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    DIY: Adding SSD or HDD storage using an optical bay caddy

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by User Retired 2, Jun 9, 2009.

  1. User Retired 2

    User Retired 2 Notebook Nobel Laureate NBR Reviewer

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    Your altering the correct address (FED1B418) but the wrong bit. PATA controller is bit 1 (second from the right). By default it's 0 so the PATA controller is enabled. You want to disable it with a 1, scan new hardware, then enable with a 0, scan new hardware. Hopefully a reset will mean it comes up re-reading the ATAPI device details. Also worth trying the 'hdparm -w /dev/sd[a,b,c]' to reset the HDD' after that too.
     
  2. crayonyes

    crayonyes Custom Title! WooHoooo !!

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    ah, silly me .. I was referring to the pic LOL ..
    yes bit 1 works to disable IDE and enable it.. but no luck with the hdd..
    I can't do reset with hdparm bcause it said No such file or directory

    edit: I guess I have to boot with a device in ..
    but I'm really curious about booting from odd caddy ..
     
  3. wy6688

    wy6688 Newbie

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    I just added 2nd HDD (Seagate 500GB 7200rmp) to My Dell XPS 1645
    via newmode SATA slot-loading cady, but with benchmark I only got 8MB/s.

    Seq read & Write, if the HDD connected with eSATA, the benchmark is
    90MB/s.

    Anyone know what caused the 2nd HDD read/write so slower?

    thanks
     
  4. moral hazard

    moral hazard Notebook Nobel Laureate

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  5. wy6688

    wy6688 Newbie

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    My XPS 1645 Optical Drive interface is SATA II (slot loading), there is no conversion chip and parts (except cable) between HDD 22 Pin (7+15) and 13 pin (7+6)
    SATA interface,

    so the much slow speed should not relevant to SATA to PATA conversion.

    http://forum.notebookreview.com/show...1&postcount=77
     
  6. User Retired 2

    User Retired 2 Notebook Nobel Laureate NBR Reviewer

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    I was not aware of slow issues when replacing sata optical drives replaced by HDDs. It could be that the bios too is sending commands to switch into lower speed mode there too.

    Try the steps here, as well as 'hdparm -W <drive>' to reset the hdd to see if can gain the full speed.
     
  7. User Retired 2

    User Retired 2 Notebook Nobel Laureate NBR Reviewer

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    "cheap" ebay caddy supplies being stopped

    EDIT: Appeared to be a Chinese New Year hiccup where accessories-less (yewelong) and notebookelite, who provided many of the ebay caddies stopper their listings plus other accessories like the DVD enclosure. Items there were affected shown below, linked to another vendor selling at the original bargain price:


    The ebay caddies work out about half the price of the newmodeus equivalent with the sata-to-pata version having slightly faster performance. See Comparison: ebay versus newmodeus 9.5mm sata-to-pata caddy for details on differences.
     
  8. neko neko

    neko neko Newbie

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    Hi

    Thanks for the help. unfortuantly my bios is upto date and their hasn't been a bios update for years.

    I'm completely new to RW everything so I doubt i can do that to capture the data.

    It sucks that the bios is white listing the caddy. It also pushs it into slow transfer mode when it does work.

    Hot swapping is an option but also a real pain I think.

    Is there anything I could do at all to get this working?

    Thanks
     
  9. User Retired 2

    User Retired 2 Notebook Nobel Laureate NBR Reviewer

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    Work through the quirks from the first post. Might be an item 6?

    Quirks applicable to PATA optical drive interfaces (ICH8M or older)

    1. Some system's bios sets the pata optical interface into slow UDMA2 mode. See software workaround.
    2. Some system's bios sets the timings to use 33Mhz rather than 66Mhz timings. Notably HP 2510P which then caps write performance to < 30MB/s. See software workaround.
    3. Phoenix bios directs boot to optical caddy HDD. See software workaround.
    4. Some Toshiba systems whitelist the HDD in a sata-to-pata caddy. See here
    5. See other workarounds here that enable/disable the IDE port.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 2, 2015
  10. crayonyes

    crayonyes Custom Title! WooHoooo !!

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    Quick Update Comparing WD3200BEKT in Native AHCI vs Caddy Performance

    Here's the performance comparison between Native AHCI speed and Optical bay caddy (ebay sata-to-pata 12.7mm caddy) in Dell Vostro 1400

    • Native AHCI
      [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]

    • ODD Caddy (as 2nd hdd)
      [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]
    *I cant believe caddy's access time is faster than Native AHCI :eek:

    I also found out that when the notebook starts with dvd-rom plugged-in and hotswap later, it capped the speed into udma2
    But if it starts with caddy inside, it'll automatically set to udma5 .. easy fix with hdparm.
    I still can't boot from caddy, startup with only caddy attached ( no primary hdd) makes the system pop up a warning.
    I guess my last chance is by using EasyBCD. Will report on that later :)

    Cheers!
     
  11. moral hazard

    moral hazard Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    My GT627 has a SATA optical bay, would it be possible to have raid?

    Is there such a thing as a miniPCIe raid controller or something similar?
     
  12. Cubic X

    Cubic X Notebook Consultant

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    What optical bay carry does fit in my Compal JHL90?

    It has a 12.7mm height ODD and a ICH9-M chipset. I would like te see if it is possible to remove the DVD-RW and place an extra HDD in it :) .
     
  13. Fintan

    Fintan Notebook Consultant

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    @Moral hazard
    Your notebook will most probably not be equipped with Raid options. It was probably never designed to accomodate 2 hdd - let alone in raid config.

    @cubix
    You have 1 of 2 essential parameter for a caddy: the height.
    The 2nd would be the interface of your current ODD: SATA vs PATA.
    Find that and you can figure out what you need in the first post of this thread. Aside from cosmetic problems, it will be a fit.
     
  14. Cubic X

    Cubic X Notebook Consultant

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    My current ODD has a SATA interface :).
    So I need a bay which is 12.7mm high and has a SATA interface, does it matter if it is made for a special type notebook? On ebay I see this kind of bays for Dell systems, Lenovo, HP, IBM, ect. I don't see a special bay for the Compal JHL90 (or Sager NP2096, which is the same).
     
  15. Fintan

    Fintan Notebook Consultant

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    Aside from cosmetic differences in the front-plate of the drive, no problem.
    ODDs have standard sizes.

    Now you know what you need, 12.7 mm with SATA interface - just look for that and disregard things like model numbers.

    I had the same requirements as you had and found one on ebay. (which was specified for IBM R400).

    Seem to be more difficult to find now however.
    Refer to first post - nando has made a nice list of options.

    PS: Don't worry about your english ~ my gf is worse. A little tip though - living goes with a V, not F. ;)
     
  16. Cubic X

    Cubic X Notebook Consultant

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    I will search for an optical bay on ebay then, thanks for your'e information and confirmation :) .

    PS: thanks for the tip! Changed the F to a V ;) :p
     
  17. Joe Bleau

    Joe Bleau Notebook Virtuoso

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    I need some help please. :) This is for a Vaio F Series, similar to the FW. I saw the post #1 info about the FW. The Optical bay is 12.7mm, SATA interface. I know I need a HDD/caddy interface SATA to be used with the OEM SATA drive which is 9.5mm thick.

    The question is: can I use a 9.5mm HDD Optical Bay Caddy in a 12.7mm Optical bay slot? I don't mind shimming with rubber or sheetmetal, if needed.

    There is no 12.7mm caddy SATA/SATA on Fleabay @ the present. :(
     
  18. User Retired 2

    User Retired 2 Notebook Nobel Laureate NBR Reviewer

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    A 9.5mm sata-to-pata caddy works in a 12.7mm pata optical bay. The rear connector starts at the same height from the base, with the 12.7mm optical drive just having a higher top metal cover. I would then predict the same scenario occurs with the sata version.

    Could try a US$22-delivered 12.7mm sata-to-pata caddy and a US$14-delivered 9.5mm sata-to-sata caddy and swap the circuit boards. Total cost=US$36. Getting close to the US$45 that newmodeus charges, but could always then re-sell the extra 9.5mm sata-to-pata caddy you'd make from the unneeded parts.
     
  19. Joe Bleau

    Joe Bleau Notebook Virtuoso

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    Thank you nando4, that's the info I needed: "rear connector is the same height from the base".

    It should be easy to stick some sliders on top of the 9.5mm caddy to eliminate the play.

    I saw your post about the 12.7MM SATA/SATA being removed from eBay but noticed that some HK power sellers you linked to have 0 listings @ the present with this note: "we don't work from Feb.11 2010 to Feb.21 2010 for holidays".

    So maybe it will be back & they don't want unhappy customers waiting for replies or shipping during the holidays?

    BTW, anybody reporting HDD overheating problems using their caddy?

    nando4, you are one helpful & persistent person, you have been working on this thread for a longtime! Vacations? :)
     
  20. Fintan

    Fintan Notebook Consultant

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    You are correct, in my experience business will start again after the Chinese New Year's holiday. For most people I know that will be after next weekend.
     
  21. User Retired 2

    User Retired 2 Notebook Nobel Laureate NBR Reviewer

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    HK/CN Traders are back online. eg: US$19-delivered 12.7mm ebay sata/sata caddy. US$25-delivered version without the lower right corner faceplate cutout but missing the front filler panel to prevent SSD/HDD from dislodging from the sata connector. Would need a fair bit of force for that to happen.
     
  22. arjunprabhu

    arjunprabhu Notebook Consultant

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    would these work in the sager np8690 (W860CU) ? they have stanard 12.7mm dvd drives, but the faceplate is a bit different? -- any idea ?
     
  23. arjunprabhu

    arjunprabhu Notebook Consultant

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    Nando - can you suggest a caddy for xps 1647/1645 ?

    to the best of my knowledge, xps 16 series have
    - SATA based ODD
    - 12.7mm high
    - Slot-Loaded.

    I know that this caddy would work, but I wanted to know if there is a ebay/cheaper version available.

    thanks in advance
     
  24. User Retired 2

    User Retired 2 Notebook Nobel Laureate NBR Reviewer

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    A Dell user informed of successfully installation of the ebay 12.7mm sata-to-pata caddy but had to remove/dremel the faceplate to make it fit in the slot-loading bay. The US$20-delivered 12.7mm sata-sata has the same chassis and is the right interface for your system, so would likely fit with the same modifications.
     
  25. arjunprabhu

    arjunprabhu Notebook Consultant

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    Thanks Nando - I did see this link (from your 1st post), but wasn't sure if the faceplate was removable.

    I dont really have a power tool like dremel and was looking for caddy without a faceplate or one where the faceplate can be take off easily by hand....
     
  26. ickibar123

    ickibar123 Notebook Consultant

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    What about for an Asus G50v(t)? It is a matter of the caddy matching up with screw holes and the cable header position on laptops that aren't listed to be compatible.
     
  27. arjunprabhu

    arjunprabhu Notebook Consultant

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    Folks, just wanted to report that I was able to install the 2nd HDD on my Studio XPS 1647 system.

    I have created separate thread with Pics for those who are interested.

    Thanks to this thread and special thanks to Nando for all the useful information here.
     
  28. krayzeemofo

    krayzeemofo Newbie

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    Thanks for this thread! I have successfully added the universal (ebay) 12.7mm caddy to an Acer 4736Z. One issue I have noticed, though I'm not sure if is with the caddy, is that my old boot partition doesn't seem to want to work. I have installed a new drive in the old drive slot, and the old drive in the caddy. My intention was to have it dual boot, but for some reason, it appears that winload.exe is corrupt on the old hard drive...I have tried the repair option that the startup disk offers, but have yet to have any success.

    I believe the error was 0xc000000e(?...something like that)

    Any ideas?

    Thanks.

    edit: I would swap it out, but the caddy seems rather fragile and insertion/removal of drive to the power/data slot seems to cause it to bend/flex quite a bit.
     
  29. User Retired 2

    User Retired 2 Notebook Nobel Laureate NBR Reviewer

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    If you superglue the faceplate down to the underlying chassis/plastic, it gives it a lot more rigidity. Otherwise pulling on the faceplate will see it flex around the two screwposts and will likely break.
     
  30. Chango99

    Chango99 Derp

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    Mine just arrived today. I am enjoying it, but am starting to notice the vibrations from my HDD as I have gotten used to my SSD by now.

    Also, it's a bit annoying with the Libraries folder in W7, but owell.
     
  31. mr.rhtuner

    mr.rhtuner Notebook Consultant

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    Has anybody installed on of these caddy's on a Dell M1530?

    I have one and would love to install one but on newmodeus site, it states its a lot of work and is a bit of a harder job then usual.
     
  32. User Retired 2

    User Retired 2 Notebook Nobel Laureate NBR Reviewer

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    Follow the How to Disassemble a Dell M1530 instructions (Yes, until step 6, disassembling the palm rest). Then there’s 2 screws securing the optical drive. You can remove it from there. -James, quoted from the same link.
     
  33. neko neko

    neko neko Newbie

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    I'm trying to get a bios mod done so the bios won't whitelist the caddy. I need the hardware id of the caddy but can't seem to find it in the device manager.

    Can anybody point me in the right direction please?

    Thanks
     
  34. JTravers

    JTravers Notebook Consultant

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    I was wondering if anyone knew whether this mod could be done to a VAIO SZ7 (or earlier) series laptop. I would love to keep a larger drive in the optical bay in order to store my media.

    Thanks for the input.
     
  35. Fintan

    Fintan Notebook Consultant

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    Re-read the last few pages in this thread, but found no conclusive answer to my question.

    The SATA-SATA 12.7 mm ebay unit will work with an 12.5mm drive?
    It's designed for 9.5 but 12.5 is certainly less than 12.7 - the position of the connector being the deciding factor.
    Not found anyone who actually took the jump and tried it.

    Seeing the WD WD10TPVT @ 1tbyte becoming available here, feel the urge to put an ssd as primary and retain the 1 terabyte internal storage.
     
  36. Avor

    Avor Notebook Enthusiast

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    Just did that over the weekend in my SZ3 series. Of course the whole caddy does not fit, but if you screw out the controller board and fit it plus the HDD in the bay, you're good. The only precaution you should take is to secure the drive in place. And one more thing, you'll have to take the cover off your dvd drive to cove the hole on the right side of your PC.

    Works more or less ok in my SZ370P, but I haven't figured out two issues yet. First, I get an average speed of 25MB/s across the whole disk (eBay caddy), which most likely is the result of DMA2 mode of the controller. The solution is described somewhere in the title post to this thread, but I haven't tried this yet. The other issue is that I can't boot from the caddy. Looks like the bios is looking for a DVD-like boot sequence structure, but finds only a HDD boot schedule which the bios cannot interpret.. Any suggestions on this?
     
  37. rawrjar

    rawrjar Notebook Enthusiast

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    Writing just to say "Thanks!" to nando4. You clearly know your material! Excellent guide. I am currently researching buying a SSD for the ASUS U30JC-A1, and then putting the factory-shipped hard drive in one of these bays. I've asked the notebook reviewer for details on the optical bay, and I will let you guys know how it goes once I try it out :)

    My understanding, from reading these posts, is that the standard 2.5" laptop HD that ships with an Asus notebook should fit in these optical bay adapters. Is that correct?
     
  38. Fintan

    Fintan Notebook Consultant

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    ah, you found the thread.
    Yes, it will fit fine with the right model (one of the four).
     
  39. leslieann

    leslieann Notebook Deity

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    Thank you SOOOOOO much, as well as who bumped this thread!
    I have been looking for this.
     
  40. JKleiss

    JKleiss Notebook Evangelist

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    Another thread as an example
     
  41. JTravers

    JTravers Notebook Consultant

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    Excellent. Good to know someone has attempted this. That might just give me the courage to try it myself. If I decide to take the plunge, I'll be sure to post my results/suggestions/problems here.

    Sorry I couldn't be of more help to you right now.

    Edit: Found the instructions you need to get out of UDMA2 mode.
     
  42. JTravers

    JTravers Notebook Consultant

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    Just wondering why/in what way the caddy does not fit. The SZ7 has a Panasonic Matshi ta UJ-852S 9.5mm drive. I'm curious why a 9.5mm caddy wouldn't fit in its place.

    Thanks for the explanation.
     
  43. Avor

    Avor Notebook Enthusiast

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    My bad, I ordered a 12.5mm caddy =)) and it will take another 3-4 weeks for the 9.5mm to arrive here in Russia.
    Thanks for the link to the DMA solution, figured it out. The other problem that remains is that the drive is not recognised after resuming from hibernate. I vaguely remember there was a workaround, but i can't find it. If you link that, I'd be grateful
     
  44. JTravers

    JTravers Notebook Consultant

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    Not sure if this addresses your problem, but see if this post helps.

    Does the hard drive in the caddy work otherwise? Is it working well? Any problems? When you shutdown and restart the SZ, is it recognized without a problem?

    It looks like you've got the UDMA stuff fixed, so is it safe to say that the VAIO SZ works pretty well in this configuration? I replaced my primary HDD with an SSD and now want to put a 500GB HDD in the optical bay. Do you think I can get this to work without too much trouble?

    Thanks for all of your help and advice (and sorry for all the questions ;) ).
     
  45. rawrjar

    rawrjar Notebook Enthusiast

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    I didn't see it on the first few pages, so I'll assume that if anyone encountered this error, it's buried somewhere: I've swapped hard drives successfully, and the laptop is now booting off the internal drive, but Windows 7 doesn't see the caddy drive (even though the BIOS does!). Any suggestions?

    Edit: Found the answer I was looking for in this thread:

     
  46. Avor

    Avor Notebook Enthusiast

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    Should be available if bios sees it. Try Computer Management - Disk Management, maybe the drive is not mounted, so you'll have to manually assign the drive letters
     
  47. 1shado1

    1shado1 Notebook Consultant

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    Feel free to slap me if this is a silly question. I see Intel chipsets discussed, but is there any reason this wouldn't work with my AMD chipset (see below)?

    Processor and Chipset
    •
    AMD Turion™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-60
    o
    2.0 GHz, 1MB L2 Cache, HyperTransport™ Technology @ up to 800MHz
    •
    AMD M690G chipset
    -------------------------
    My laptop is a Toshiba L355D-S7809, if that matters. I've already removed the Optical drive and have determined it has a PATA interface.

    Thanks for any help offered to a non-computer guy. :D
     
  48. JPH127

    JPH127 Notebook Enthusiast

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    I've got an ebay caddy in my Sony Vaio FW notebook(first series with PATA optical drive). Inside the caddy I have a spare HDD as test, when I copy files from my primary disk to the caddy the maximum speed I get is like 30 MB/s. It shows up as an USB HDD in my device manager, but I can't find it with hdparm. Anything I can do to make my drive any faster?
     
  49. Ayle

    Ayle Trailblazer

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    Has anyone tried raiding 2 7k500?
     
  50. Kaar3l

    Kaar3l Notebook Enthusiast

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    Raid0 would be pretty awesome with any drive i think
     
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