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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. damaph

    damaph Notebook Guru

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    I never noticed that in the third picture. Too bad they don't show what the faceplate side looks like when it is off. Yeah, the fenvi website only has the older model in it.

    I think the older ones says LQE on the side while the newer ones say fenvi. I'm not sure though.
     
  2. Fintan

    Fintan Notebook Consultant

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    The old models have black plastic all around.

    Body of the fenvi's is mostly metal.
     
  3. User Retired 2

    User Retired 2 Notebook Nobel Laureate NBR Reviewer

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    Swapping faceplate on 9.5mm caddy

    There are 9.5mm DVD enclosures that have swappable faceplates, an example posted here. Means then. contrary to my earlier comments, that the faceplate IS swappable and the 9.5mm Fenvi unit may well allow it to be done.
     
  4. Fintan

    Fintan Notebook Consultant

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    I never doubted that, though relatively rare - the 9.5 mm drives are definitely not custom made for each model that has them. Faceplate can be taken off.

    Looks like the caddies are coming along nicely too.
    We only need one (wasabi? ;) ) to confirm it.
     
  5. damaph

    damaph Notebook Guru

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    I also knew that. I've taken off my faceplate on my laptop before. I just hope that the fenvi unit allows this.
     
  6. wasabi.

    wasabi. Notebook Consultant

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    Can someone tell me the difference (if any) between these two caddys?

    They look exactly the same to me.. but i want to be 100% sure.

    2nd HDD caddy Apple OptiBay SuperDrive Replacement SATA - eBay (item 280506718072 end time Aug-11-10 19:13:06 PDT)

    New universal 9.5mm SATA to SATA HDD caddy/adapter - eBay (item 250635565540 end time Aug-16-10 20:03:53 PDT)
    haha i would love to confirm, but a) i dont have my laptop yet and b) once i finally get my laptop and confirm it has a SATA ODD, it will take 7-10 days for the caddy to come from hong kong to my location :(
     
  7. User Retired 2

    User Retired 2 Notebook Nobel Laureate NBR Reviewer

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    The are exactly the same product just marketted differently. Seems the word "Universal" on the second caddy carries with it a $3 price premium.
     
  8. wasabi.

    wasabi. Notebook Consultant

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    awesome, thanks. repped.

    and its the newest fenvi caddy yes?

    looks like that's what ill be ordering then.
     
  9. damaph

    damaph Notebook Guru

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    When you get it, please tell us if the faceplate is removable or not. :)
     
  10. LaptopNut

    LaptopNut Notebook Virtuoso

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    Are you sure you want the 9.5 mm caddy?

    Maybe it is different for the laptop you guys are using but just to be sure.
     
  11. wasabi.

    wasabi. Notebook Consultant

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    no offense to the OP of that thread but he should have double checked which caddy his laptop needs

    the acer 4820tg has a super slim ODD bay, thus requires a 9.5mm caddy

    :)
     
  12. wasabi.

    wasabi. Notebook Consultant

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    just ordered my caddy for $17.36 (after bing cash back and ebay bucks)...

    can't believe i was going to pay around $45 for the exact same thing from newmodeus lol

    i will confirm for you guys if the faceplate is transferable.
     
  13. User Retired 2

    User Retired 2 Notebook Nobel Laureate NBR Reviewer

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    newmodeus told me why they don't have swappable faceplates on their 9.5mm ODD caddies:
     
  14. wasabi.

    wasabi. Notebook Consultant

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    Got my faceplate today... it's SUPER light!! damn..

    And it looks like the faceplate is not swappable, like nando just posted.

    If it's any consolation, the black generic faceplate on this caddy doesn't look half bad and blends in perfectly with any black notebook.
     
  15. damaph

    damaph Notebook Guru

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    How is the faceplate attached? Is it removable at all? On my laptop, the faceplate on my ODD is far from flat so the faceplate would be sunken in a lot and would look really funny.
     
  16. wasabi.

    wasabi. Notebook Consultant

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    10characters
     
  17. Joe Bleau

    Joe Bleau Notebook Virtuoso

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    Could you clarify? This is a 9.5mm caddy, right? Because the 12.7mm Fenvi's tabs are standard & can be swapped for the OEM bezel.

    You photo is not very big but it looks like standard ODD tabs IMO. Did you remove your OEM bezel to compare it?
     
  18. User Retired 2

    User Retired 2 Notebook Nobel Laureate NBR Reviewer

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    Can't see the detail of the Fenvi caddy's clip edges, though I'd say a faceplate swap does look possible. Can compare to the faceplate to the one successfully transplanted in a 9.5mm optical drive to USB optical enclosure swap here.
     
  19. wasabi.

    wasabi. Notebook Consultant

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    @ joe

    did you click the thumbnail? my photo is huge lol

    and yes its 9.5mm. i have not tried my bezel on it yet.
     
  20. damaph

    damaph Notebook Guru

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    Thank you sooooooo much. Looks like it might have the same placement of clips as my faceplate. :D rep added
     
  21. Joe Bleau

    Joe Bleau Notebook Virtuoso

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    Err... yes I clicked on the thumbnail, I posted a few things in this forum myself & know about it. :) It's small in the sense that your post is about the bezel & there is all this useless black cloth & little in showing the tabs & bezel itself.

    Also, why write "And it looks like the faceplate is not swappable" if you did not check with your OEM bezel side-by-side to check the location & size of the tabs? :confused:
     
  22. wasabi.

    wasabi. Notebook Consultant

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    ur welcome damaph! good luck
     
  23. ToTi

    ToTi Notebook Enthusiast

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    Can I use this for U43JC Bamboo?
     
  24. Carmaniac

    Carmaniac Newbie

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    Hi
    Can I have a picture of the Fenvi 9,5mm caddy, without the front faceplate? Or a picture of the original faceplate. I want to see if I can adapt my Vaio S faceplate on it...
    Thanks !!
     
  25. User Retired 2

    User Retired 2 Notebook Nobel Laureate NBR Reviewer

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    wasabi posted a pic but it is no longer listed. We briefly saw the 9.5mm Fenvi caddy has clips like this 9.5mm usb optical drive enclosure allowing faceplate swapover.

    Is any pioneer willing to to buy a 9.5mm Fenvi caddy, try the faceplate swap and do a comprehensive write up for others to replicate?
     
  26. Carmaniac

    Carmaniac Newbie

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  27. nbrguy

    nbrguy Notebook Enthusiast

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    I would like to share my experience with doing this procedure.

    My Compaq V5000 laptop's hard drive port died and would not detect any hard drives hooked to it.

    So I decided to buy a caddy to hook the hard drive to the DVD port instead.

    I considered buying a cheap caddy from eBay, but they all seemed to be poorly constructed using cheap materials. So I bought a caddy from newmodeus (model OBHD-PATA). It's PATA to PATA so it's a straight pass-through, no bridge chip.

    I received the caddy and installed the old hard drive to the DVD port. The screws are tiny! Good thing I had a small screwdriver. It came with a normal DVD faceplate which didn't sit flush with my V5000. It also came with a white plastic faceplate with holes to let you mount your old DVD drive's faceplate. This didn't work snug enough with my old DVD faceplate. So I ended up using the white plastic faceplate by itself. It looks weird and "naked", but I don't mind.

    I then did a fresh install of Windows XP (using an external USB DVD drive). It went smoothly. Windows XP had no problems booting from the caddy.

    The speed of the hard drive felt the same as when it was hooked up to the normal hard drive port before. I checked Device Manager and it showed that the hard drive was running at Ultra DMA Mode 5 which is the same as before.

    So this procedure has given my V5000 a second life! The only downside is you have to use an external DVD drive which I don't mind.
     
  28. LaptopNut

    LaptopNut Notebook Virtuoso

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    When I did this, I installed my removed laptop CD drive into a slim external USB caddy and it works perfectly.
     
  29. Joe Bleau

    Joe Bleau Notebook Virtuoso

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    I have one of the Fleabay caddy & no, they are not flimsy like Newmodus' which needs a top cover while the Fleabays' do not for better ventilation & cooling. & that's not talking about the 50% savings.

    None of the Fleabay caddy owners in this thread reported "poorly constructed using cheap materials". The photos below are for SATA/SATA caddies.

    It's not always what it seems because everything is relative. ;)

    [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
  30. Fintan

    Fintan Notebook Consultant

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    Sorry to disappoint, but my first caddy was rather flimsy.
    When I replaced it with the 'fenvi' caddy I noticed a few cracks in the all-plastic frame.

    On the other hand, the 'fenvi' branded caddy is rather sturdy.
    Besides the fact that it allows OEM faceplate and so looks rather nice too.
    Sure it will last a lot longer.
     
  31. Joe Bleau

    Joe Bleau Notebook Virtuoso

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    Could you post some photos or data about the cracked one? Could it have been damaged during shipping from HK to your home?

    BTW if one looks at the ODD itself, one might notice that the casing is not made of thick stainless steel. So how sturdy does an internal caddy must be? :rolleyes:

    One Newmodus ODD HDD SATA/SATA caddy owner, MelodyMaster, wrote here that it was barely thicker than tinfoil & replaced it with a Fenvi because of the bezel thing. Dunno if it's true, never saw one in person but seems correct by looking at the photo posted above.

    *****
     
  32. icsterm

    icsterm Notebook Enthusiast

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    Question: If my ODD drive is 12.7mm height and the HDD is only 9.5mm, do I need to add some tape to avoid the HDD moving in the ODD caddy? Can i get ODD adapter with 12.7mm body height and 9.5mm HDD slot height?
    LE: nevermind, just read that it has screws included.
     
  33. damaph

    damaph Notebook Guru

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    I ordered one about a week ago and I could do the write up, but I don't have a camera so I would have to take the pictures with my phone.
     
  34. nbrguy

    nbrguy Notebook Enthusiast

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    Yes, a real ODD is made of thin metal, but feels sturdy enough.

    The newmodeus caddy is made from very thin metal, but does not feel cheap to me. I'm happy with it except for the faceplate issue I mentioned.

    The Fenvi looks decent, but their website is crap, and they don't sell on eBay.

    The Fenvi clones on eBay look cheaply made, but I may try one of them next time.
     
  35. Joe Bleau

    Joe Bleau Notebook Virtuoso

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    Did you not see the photos, tutorial & testimonials about people who bought their Fenvi on Fleabay? Why do you persist on commenting about a product that you did not see nor touched yourself? :confused: Why do you want people to spend twice as much or more if they don't live in USA, for their caddy? :confused:


    Fenvi bought on Fleabay vs Newmodeus:

    [​IMG] [​IMG]

    False again, there are no brands caddies & Fenvi branded caddies on Fleabay. With these searches, one needs to open the product page & check the images:

    Search with: sata sata caddy 9.5mm and sata sata caddy 12.7mm. For example 9.5mm here and 12.7mm here for $20 including shipping worldwide so why pay $42 + shipping from Newmodeus? :confused:

    This 9.5mm caddy has a ide/PATA laptop interface & a SATA HDD interface, for example. One must make sure that both interfaces & thickness fits their needs.
     
  36. anseio

    anseio All ways are my ways.

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    I got my Fenvi on eBay and it seems perfectly fine and sturdy.

    I really don't know if it's a clone or not since Fenvi is a chinese company. So, how will I know if a product sold from China is a counterfeit of a chinese product? I'm not going to spend my energy on it, since my unit works great.
     
  37. Fintan

    Fintan Notebook Consultant

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    Would not surprise me for a second if the newmode models are identical to the fenvi's.
    I did find that fenvi itself is a rebranding of another brand.

    Give something a respectable name. Say shipped from USofA or worse made in..
    Charge double...
    Old story.
     
  38. YESHHHH

    YESHHHH Notebook Consultant

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    I bought a fenvi caddy from ebay and installed it into my laptop.

    Acer 4820TG (i5 450M, ATI 5650, 4GB RAM).

    For some reason nothing shows up in my device manager? How do I "activate" the second hard drive?
     
  39. User Retired 2

    User Retired 2 Notebook Nobel Laureate NBR Reviewer

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    Other than the obvious of faulty caddy, loose connection, the only other possibility would be the bios disabling the sata port if it doesn't see an optical drive. Quick test would be to bootup with the ODD present, use hotswap! to disable the optical drive, disable the port in Device Manager, insert the caddy with HDD, then enable the sata port and do a device manager scan.

    If the bios is disabling that extra sata port then would need to use baredit to enable it as discussed here.
     
  40. YESHHHH

    YESHHHH Notebook Consultant

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    I downloaded hotswap and i'm not sure if i'm doing it right.

    First I disabled the DVD drive in hotswap.
    Then I disabled the DVD drive in my device manager.

    I put in the caddy and nothing happens. When I scan for new hardware, nothing happens.

    When I put the DVD drive back in, my computer automatically detects it and I can use it instantly.

    Any ideas? Am I using hotswap wrong?
     
  41. Joe Bleau

    Joe Bleau Notebook Virtuoso

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    Sorry but that's false, see photos of both I posted previously which shows clearly the obvious differences.

    The Fenvi is better & cheaper! ;)
     
  42. Joe Bleau

    Joe Bleau Notebook Virtuoso

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    Start > search: disk management and mark as active may work.
     
  43. Carmaniac

    Carmaniac Newbie

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    Hi
    Feedback with 9,5mm Fenvi: Adapting a faceplate is possible. But I had to adapt mine, and cut some plastic pieces.
    The result is very nice !
    I can't post pictures now, maybe later if you want.
     
  44. levil1

    levil1 Newbie

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    Hello,

    @Carmaniac if it's possible I'd like to see you mod ;)

    thx
     
  45. mootothemax

    mootothemax Newbie

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  46. Fintan

    Fintan Notebook Consultant

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    There's two things you do need to know:
    1) the height of the original drive, either 12.7 or 9 mm high
    2) connection of the original drive, Serial ATA or IDE.

    With this information, refer to post number 1 in this thread and find what you need. A caddy from ebay branded "Fenvi" is your best choice.

    Once you have this info, please get back to us with the info.
    We will be happy to help you.
    The height is no problem I assume, if you cannot ID the connector make us a picture and we can do that for you.
     
  47. mootothemax

    mootothemax Newbie

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    Ah yes, I could have left some more useful details :)

    1. It's a Seagate Momentous 320GB 7200, 9.5mm heigh.
    2. SATA interface

    Thanks!
     
  48. alstrike

    alstrike Notebook Consultant

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    Hi guys,

    I need help with one of these caddies, it´s this one:

    New Laptop 12.7mm SATA TO SATA 2ND HDD HARD DRIVE caddy - eBay (item 180561353188 end time Sep-20-10 12:32:44 PDT)

    Has anyone been able to install it in an Aspire 5740G? I had one but it didn´t fit properly, I tried to mod it but ended up wasting the caddy. A friend of mine also bought one and it could fit properly but the laptop (5740G as well) didn´t boot at all with it installed.

    Please help!!! If this caddy doesn´t work at all with the 5740G, is there any other caddy that works with this laptop?

    Thanks guys
     
  49. anseio

    anseio All ways are my ways.

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    I'm not sure why it didn't fit properly. It should have. I know mine required a bit of wiggling to get that screw peg at the end to slide into the small space.

    Re: not booting. Was your friend's BIOS set to boot from the Internal Optical Drive as 1st in boot order? That might have been an issue.
     
  50. niffcreature

    niffcreature ex computer dyke

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    hmm DIY eh?

    soon i will supplement your thread nando4 with a true DIY caddy... made from a only a broken SATA dvd drive and cable.

    hah! :p
     
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