Hacking a hard disk caddy into a fixed optical drive bay?

Ok, so the M1330 doesn't have a media bay where you can easily swap out the optical disk for a hard drive caddy (doh), instead it has a fixed slot loading optical disc drive ( http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=24475 on the left).

But I'm wondering if you took out the optical drive (by taking the laptop apart), whether you couldn't still get a hard disc caddy into the same space. Here's the page from the service manual picturing the optical drive install: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xpsm1330/en/SM/html/optical.htm. The M1330 seems to accept standard fixed 9.5mm slot loading optical drives ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=287304).

The hard disk caddies linked from http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=4936086 for optical drives look very similar (eg http://newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_27&products_id=220. It comes down to what the differences are between a standard removable 9.5mm optical drive and a standard fixed 9.5" slot loading optical drive. If it's only the length that's different (because the slot loader hides behind the plastic frame, whereas the removeable ones protrude to sit flush), then maybe a hacksaw can fix that.

Has anyone seen both fixed and removeable optical drives to compare?
I guess I won't know until I try, at least it will be a cheap experiment.

 

M1330 CD DVD double layer slot in Burner drive has is a 9.5mm UltraSlim unit with a JAE50 pata interface rear connector. A visual comparison suggests everything *other* than the ejecting mechanism matches a tray-type 9.5mm PATA optical drive. So can say with some surety that the 9.5mm sata-to-pata or pata optical bay caddy likely a direct fit. Best bet is a newmodeus caddy with a detachable faceplate. Right: M1330 slot-loaded optical drive

 

Ok it worked with the newmodeus caddy (I used PATA, since I didn't want the extra battery draw of the SATA converter, since the M1330 is PATA on the optical bay).

I had to pull the black plastic faceplate off the caddy, but once that was off it fit perfectly. The optical drive is mounted with screws which I couldn't do with the caddy, but the fit was flush enough that (with some extra tape on the sides of the caddy) the casing around it keeps it secure enough.

So there you go, you can get two hard disks in the Dell M1330.

 

Can you please post pics of what it looks like? I've linked this thread as a Dell M1330 example from the DIY: Adding SSD_or_HDD storage using an optical bay caddy thread.

 

Sorry I should have taken some at the time, it's back together at the moment (you need to take the M1330 completely to bits to get at the optical drive).

 

good luck, these slot loaded things can be a pain... I just love my Thinkpad T500 - optical is SATA.