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

Bought this one off ebay for a DV5T-1160US for $12.50 shipped.

Sata 2nd HDD Caddy Adapter IBM Thinkpad R400 DV16

NEW Sata 2nd HDD Caddy Adapter IBM Thinkpad R400 DV16 - eBay (item 250710608227 end time Jan-10-11 18:25:57 PST)

Has a removable faceplate that swaps with the DV5's DVD drive faceplate. What's more, works with HP 3D drive protection which recognizes the drive. Drive works at full speed in caddy and is plug and play.

 

It looks good. Does it come with the corner rubber bushings to install the HDD? Does it have holes to install it inside the laptop just like your optical drive or it just sits loose inside? Does your original optical drive sit over 1 or 2 flex ribbons? I'm sorry about the 100 questions but I'm looking to get the same exact one and modify it a bit. It looks like it would fit my old Vaio Z and it's inexpensive.

 

I did this conversion a few weeks ago. I removed the Blu-ray burner from my M17x R2 and replaced it with a 750GB HDD, but will soon switch that over to a 1TB HDD. The reason I did so was so that I can have a large storage drive, as well as run an Intel X25-M SSD RAID 0 setup, (2x160GB) Below are a few pics from the process. After I was done, I put the Blu-ray burner in an external enclosure, and ordered a slot load bezel, so that I could still use the blu-ray burner as an external. Its a great compromise since I don't use the optical drive to often.


Optical Drive Caddy:
Newmodeus Optical caddy for slot load drives:

External Enclosure for removed Optical drive:
USB External Enclosure For SATA Laptop DVD Drive Burner - eBay (item 110511352514 end time Nov-19-10 08:07:41 PST). Comes with both Slot load and tray load bezels.

Bezel: In the event that you don't get a slot load bezel from the above vendor with your enclosure.
Slot Loading Optical Drive Bezel Panasonic/Mata - MRC-0089 - Mac Recycling

EDIT: Switched the 750GB drive for a 1TB HDD.

Here are some pics.

 

It has the exact form factor of the DVD drive it replaces. As for the HDD, you simply connect it to the SATA interface on the inside and screw the drive down with the 4 included screws that mate with the standard screw holes of HDDs.

Then you simply slide it into the notebook. The fit is snug. Optionally, you can transfer a back plate from your original DVD so that you can fasten it to notebook - if yours has such a thing.

Maybe I'll take some pictures on Sunday.

 

according to intel rapid storage my cd drive has sata transfer rate 1.5 gbs

it says my two hds have sata transfer rate 3.0 gbs

First Im sure it says somewhere but can i fix this?

Do I need to? Isnt 1.5 gbs still faster than a 2.5 hdd can handle?

I intend to put a 12.5 mm hd in it, not a ssd.

 

you cant "fix" this its a motherboard hardware issue

however yes 1.5Gbs will not bottleneck your HDD for the most part

 

The optical drive is coming up as 1.5GBps because it's a SATA-I device. It doesn't need SATA-II transfer speeds. Your Intel I/O chipset otherwise can do SATA-II on the optical drive interface.

 

I’ve just received a samsung SSD today (bought it for a great price in the NBR marketplace), so I need to put my HDD in my optical bay.

I'm about to buy the following caddy:
SATA 2nd HDD caddy for 12.7mm Universal CD/DVD-ROM #HC5 - eBay (item 220611076435 end time Jan-19-11 09:55:04 PST)



The only problem is that there is nothing to properly secure the drive to the caddy, is there a caddy out there with some screw holes that lets you screw a drive in?

 

That Fenvi caddy has 4 screws that you put in your SSD's sides so it slides under plastic tabs to prevent vertical movement. Once in place the front filler panel is inserted to secure the drive from sliding forward. The combo fixing the drive firmly in place.

If you really wanted to pin the drive down then would need a newmodeus equivalent caddy OR would need to drill some bevelled screwholes as described here to the ebay caddy.

I'd suggest just go the ebay "Fenvi" caddy.

 

Also, see my post a few posts above.

I got this one and it works perfectly: NEW Sata 2nd HDD Caddy Adapter IBM Thinkpad R400 DV16 - eBay (item 250710608227 end time Jan-10-11 18:25:57 PST)

Look to see if Australian eBay sells a optical caddy for Thinkpad R400

Has removable bezel.

Edit (Pics):






Upgraded the 320GB Sami with a 500GB WD drive.

 

Well I've just made an offer for a fenvi caddy and the Thinkpad R400 version (looks better than the fenvi).


I think I might get an enclosure for my dvd drive, but I can't find one that works over esata.

Would using a USB enclosure bottleneck the dvd drive?

 

You should be good. USB max is 480Mbps. DVD @ 24x is 250Mbps.

 

Ok, what about blu-ray, that would be over 850Mbps @24x right?

 

I think the max (recording/read speed) for Bluray would be 12x which is 430Mbps. I don't think they can reliably go over that.

 

Not regarding speed.
But I found that power is a problem.

Mine will burn a CD via USB-only just fine.
But for a DVD an adapter is needed, USB will not provide enough power.

 

So the USB version is pretty good, I read one description on ebay and it looks like Fintan is right, it requires 2 USB ports (for full power).

Probably worth spending $8 on one.

BTW I got the caddy that 2.0 had suggested, can't wait for it to arrive.

The seller for the fenvi caddy said it could take up to 40 days (if I remember the email correctly) so I didn't go for it.

 

guys im interested in doing this mod for my asus f8sn and c90s but i dont know which caddy to get?

i think the f8va is similar to f8sn so this one should fit
2nd Drive Caddy for ASUS F8Va Series (add 2nd HDD or SSD) [OBHD-SATA12-SATA-BU] - $44.75 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

however i prefer to get a cheap on from ebay (unless theres a good reason why i should get newmodeus?)

Based on nando's first post, im a little confused as to whether its a pata or sata interface one i should get...because im sure the hdds are sata, but not sure about the connector for the dvd drives.
does it vary based on the southbridge/chipset for each laptop? (cause nando has a table in his post distinguishing them...so confused)
i think the f8sn seems to have ICH8m and c90s seems to have ich7m (for desktops? as it uses a desktop cpu, not sure)
thanks for any help

im hoping to get one caddy which i can swap between these laptops. the c90s is the priority. I can only use one laptop at a time and having a swappable caddy would be useful and faster than an external hdd.

 

The two systems have ICH7/ICH8M so would need a sata-to-pata caddy of appropriate size as linked from the first post. I'd suggest grab the ebay "Fenvi" branded ones for the swappable faceplate and sturdier metal construction.

 

thanks nando!
how do i measure whether its 9.5 or 12.5 mm? like whereabout on the optical drive do i measure between? the faceplate? or pop it out and measure the silver metal part housing the lazer and all?

 

Just measure the drive itself, not the faceplate.

BTW: The swapping idea might be a bit difficult, unless the laptop's custom driveframes are the same.

 

oh right so its the drive part not the faceplate part

i wont be switching that often. and the c90 is really easy to access

thanks ill measure it when i get home tonight

 

just bought the caddy
but im a bit hesitant to buy ssds atm cause prices may drop with new drives coming out soon?

 

This is really interesting!

 

Just got it, works like a charm. Thanks, nando4, I can never give you enough rep

 

Does using Dual hard drives like a SDD for primary and using an HDD in the optical drain battery double the amount of using 1 harddrive? Or is it equal to or less than having an optical drive. I would assume more draw since you dont use an optical drive 24/7.

 

See section Setting standby idle standby timeout to improve battery life on the first post. Once the HDD is spundown it consumes negligble amounts of power and is still available to spin up if the operating system does a read or write to it.

So then battery life improvements compared to say a stock HDD will be determined by how efficient of an SSD you choose as the primary drive.

 

do ssds consume less power than hdds?

casue if it does then doesnt that mean
ssd+hdd at idle = or is < than hdd always on?

but u get the benefits of ssd speed?

btw ive never heard of K3VLAR as a brand before, any good? wat controller do they use and are they value for money?

 

Has anyone actually done this on a VPCS.... series?

Also if you're in the UK where did you get a fenvi caddy from - none of the ebay fenvi sellers i#ve seen will ship to the UK?

 

I'm thinking of swapping out my ODD with a caddy from Newmodeus for my Dell XPS L501X.

Here's the caddy:

2nd HDD or SSD Caddy for DELL XPS 15 (replace optical) [OBHD-SATA12-SATA-BU] - $44.75 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

Used the FB discount code; thanks!

I believe I will want to be able to hotswap so most likely use the stock 500 GB Dell drive and use an Intel X-25M 80 GB SSD that I have laying around.

Any tips or cheaper options? Has anyone tried the Fenvi for the L501X?

 

I have a Sony Vaio TX670P notebook. I decided to upgrade it and replace both HDD and DVD with SSD and SATA HDD in caddy respectively. HDD->SSD replacement was a success. DVD->SATA HDD in caddy - not so. After I installed SSD, I aligned partitions, installed Windows XP and fully updated it. Then I bought a new HDD - WD7500BPVT (SATA disk with advanced format functionality), made 4 partitions and aligned them using WD align tool on my desktop PC. I installed it into Caddy ( pic) and Caddy - into notebook instead of DVD-RW (IDE connection pic). When I started notebook I got the following error:
The problem seems to be caused by the following file: PartMgr.sys
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
pic
Though this error is not rare, I could not find a solution related to my case. Any help is very much appreciated.

 

Hi,
i have a HP NX 9420
i just bought my second caddy for using a hdd instead of the dvd drive.
None of them work. When windows starts, i get a bluescreen after a few seconds.
I wonder if it´s really possible to use a hdd instead of the dvd-drive?
Is there a bios limitation?

Thx in advance

 

Are you trying to boot from the caddy?

Is your Windows install up-to-date?

Are you in AHCI or IDE mode?

 

Hi,
i installed a OZC Vertex2 instead of the original hdd, so no i´m not booting from the caddy.
btw, how would i do that. There is no such option in the bios.
if i press f9 for the boot menu, i just get "primary hdd"

WIndows 7 is up-to date
I think i´m in ahci mode. There is no such option in the bios anyway.
I added a screenshot from the device manager.
i appreciate your help.
Thx

 

If I'm reading your screenshot correctly, then the caddy is in IDE mode?

I would try updating to the Intel RST driver v10.1.1008 and see if that helps you.

Did you do a clean install, or did you clone your original HDD?

In the BIOS, you should have an option to enable booting from 'other' devices.

Then you may have the option of seeing the caddy there (it might show as 'optical' drive though).

Good luck.

 

can anybody tell me which hdd caddy may i use for acer aspire 5930?

 

Hi,

many thanks for the thread, really inspiring. I took the plunge, and did it on my Fujitsu Lifebook P7230. This could have turned it again in the dream machine, though it triggered a quirk I don't think I have seen in the whole thread. I put the Intel X-25 M streamline SSD (120G). I managed to make work everything, with one problem: although write and read speed are not the best one, yet well above the 30 MB/s, when used as a boot drive, for some reason, very frequently the drive stutters for a fixed period of time (7-8 sec). I have then tested the drive in other configs, and this does not occur (even as a boot drive). if using it in the Fujitsu, but not as a boot drive, same thing, no problem, it works without stuttering. Since the main reason for me was to use it as a boot drive, to speed up my laptop's speed, it kind of kills the interest of using it...

Any thoughts / help would be appreciated.

many thanks guys.

 

The Fujitsu Lifebook P7230 uses a ICH7M I/O chipset. Meaning, the optical drive bay uses PATA and your caddy has a sata-to-pata chip on it.

For non-stuttering performance, swap the primary HDD into the optical bay caddy and put the X25M in the primary SATA-I drive bay. You'll get AHCI performance but will be limited to SATA-I < 130MB/s speed. ICH7M only has a SATA-I (1.5Gbps) interface.

Then apply Quirks applicable to PATA optical drive interfaces (ICH8M or older) on the first post to improve write performance of the HDD in the optical bay caddy.

If your X25M is already in the SATA-I primary bay and you're seeing stuttering then I'm not sure why that would be. Perhaps try updating the bios to the newest version as well as switching AHCI/IDE mode in the bios.

 

Does anyone know the weight of just the caddy? I'm thinking of getting the Asus U30Jc and I want to save some weight by removing the optical drive, but I don't need the extra HDD (at least not yet). I was considering putting an empty caddy in there, but would like to know whether there is any point, or would the weight be about the same? Are there any other options, like a faceplate I could just put on there?

 

hey quick question to make sure im doing this right?
i type in notepad
@echo off
hdparm -y -S 12 /dev/sdb &REM set standby timeout=1min, standby the drive now
exit
i save as a bat file it works. but idk how to put it in startup? and should i change anything above to make it better?

 

Hi, I just learned about this.

Anyways, I wanna get this done asap.

Is this what I need?

9.5mm Serial ATA Optical Bay Hard Drive Adapter/caddy - eBay (item 310281612281 end time Mar-20-11 19:18:20 PDT)

I can't buy via eBay since it wont ship to Canada unless I pm the guy...

I just need to pop this in with a hard drive and I'm done? 2 hard drives 1 ssd on a notebook?

This is a vaio ns laptop and I measured the drive at approx 12.7mm so this 9.5mm should still work with no problems?

OBHD Matrix 3 080510 Q

EDIT IS THIS WUT i NEED? for the cheapest amount?

http://cgi.ebay.com/12-7mm-SATA-2nd...closures_RL&hash=item4aa96eaea8#ht_3217wt_937

EDIT http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/0/4/2/7/2/6/webimg/267776933_o.jpg
my cd rom looks like it has that curve....so do I Need the smaller caddy???? 9.5mm caddy? Is 9.5mm drives compatible with 127mm, but not the other way around?

 

Just pick the same height as the current optical drive - most probably 12.7 mm in height.

Furthermore, look for the offers which are branded 'fenvi'. Those are more solid than some others on ebay.

 

I scored a fenvi for $14...

how long is this going to take to arrive?
the auction says 15+days to canada

 

Sorry if this has been answered elsewhere. I just ordered a Dell XPS 15 and am going to add the 2nd HDD (a G.Skill Phoenix Pro 120GB SATAII) to the machine. Is there any benefit other than easy swappability in moving the mechanical drive to the optical bay?

I guess what I'm asking is should I put the SSD on the known SATA III connection inside the computer (supposedly a pain as it requires taking the machine apart) or will I be fine with it in one of these caddies? Can the caddy take advantage of SATA 6.0 if I ever upgrade?

Thanks,

Chris

 

There might be, sometimes the odd-connection behaves differently. Chances are slim though, for safety you might want to put your boot drive in the primary slot.

For most people the answer is obvious; whenever faster sata drives are affordable - your XPS will be very much obsolete. It's very doubtful there will ever be such an upgrade, don't you think?

 

Might be 15 days, but don't complain if it's a month.
It varies, some stuff I get in a week, worse cases a month.
Rarely never I'm happy to say

 

Um, the Vertex III (Sata III SSD) is either out or about to released and if I ever replaced the data drive it would be with a SATA III drive. The Dell XPS 15 has SATA III connections so if I ever have to replace the SSD, I would obviously upgrade. I'd rather not have to take the machine apart unless it's absolutely necessary. I suppose what I'm really asking is does the Caddy support SATA II and SATA III connections. Does it not matter as it's the Mobo connector that matters?

If the connections are essentially the same (SATA III on the internal boot drive and SATA III in the optical bay) and the caddy just passes data through and doesn't hinder anything, there would be no point to not put the boot drive in the caddy for me as I'd never put the DVD drive back in. Primary v Secondary connector is irrelevant, just a BIOS setting

 

Yes, the caddy doesn't do really anything - just a place-holder/bracket for the disk inside.
So it would be fine with both SATA-300/600. It's up to the motherboard to deliver that

 

Thanks for the clarification.

 

hi i'm new to the forum

this is really a great forum,
because it provides a lot of tips, insights and infos

keep posting folks

 

The caddy supports SATA III. The board inside only swaps the orientation of the SATA connector cables. You could in theory build your own optical bay with a box for the drive and male-female power and data SATA cables. As long as the mobo connector suports SATA III. Sandy Bridge only supports 2 SATA III connections, so not every connector supports SATA III on every laptop model.