CF30 Media Bay HDD Convertion

I am about to convert my DVD drive to a 2nd HDD and was wondering what had been done before for shock protection.
The Caddy is 12.7mm or 1/2inch and the HDD is 9.5mm or 3/8inch so I should have just under 1/8inch to play with some sort of packing to absorb any shock. Also allow heat to transfer away from the Drive. Any suggestions welcome, I looked at threads dealing with the subject but none I looked at covered my question. Thanks Bob.

 

I'd say slaughter an old caddy for the shock absorbing foam.

 

I tried doing this on my CF-31 (as the connectors are the exact same, unlike the CF-30) and I just met utter failure!

Good luck!

 

Hi Waldeck

Have you seen this?

Add a 2nd HDD using the CD/DVD Optical Drive Bay : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

 

The interface on Toughbooks (especially CF-30's), I think is proprietary... Not sure if that particular one will work...

Jeff, any ideas on this?

I myself would LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE to toss a 500 or even a 1TB drive into the media bay slot of my CF-31...

 

Hi I58SR

That is the one I am looking at I think, along with a 1TB Samsung M8 SpinPoint. I understand from different site that you can let it stay dormant till you call it up for something.

I am thinking that I could use the Heat Pads from say a CF-29?

 

Hi Rob

This one I have works but the HDD interface is Not SATA

 

RIGHT! They made one for the CF-29 (Jeff has one for sale too) that went in there, but the 29 is ages old lol.

 

^ Oi! Watch it, mate. I just upgraded to a CF-29.


*Pats CF-29 on the lid* Don't worry, I wont let that big meanie-head insult you anymore.

 

Thanks Rob

Are you saying that you could not get the connectors to mate up. Or that the connectors mated up but the wireing to the male/female connections was not compatable.

Bob

 

I know that the CF-28 and CF-29 (since they both use the same media caddy) lend themselves well for this... But the caddy on the CF-30 IS the DVD along with the connector. It is about the same width or thickness as the DVD you would slide in. I don't know how you would pad it unless you pad it on the sides only.

 

Yep, I think it is a case of suck it and see. I'm going to order the caddy and HDD tomorrow. I am confedent that I can get the connectors to line up, its just that the wireing needs to be right from the HDD connector through the caddy to the CF30's connection.

I was going to try some CF29 Heat Pads when I can get some for the packing. Bob.

 

I don't think the heat pads would do much for you in terms of padding... Heat reduction maybe... But for vibration I would rather have dead air space if there were any space left over.

 

Not sure if that caddy will work doesnt look like it would line up

 

You have to put it in a CF30 (CF51) DVD caddy outer, that transfers the PATA contact over to the center. The outer is the back plastic bit that unscrews from the metal core. Think there are 5 screws on its 3 sides. If you use a CF51 caddy you have to remove the plastic latch. Until I get the caddy will not know how much modding is needed.

 

Hi Waldeck

The photos I posted are exactly that. I ordered the OBHD caddy and used the interface from a CF-51 CD/DVD caddy with the latch removed.

Remember this requires a PATA HDD not SATA.

 

Hi I58SR

Thanks for that. I was thinking I could put a SATA HDD into it. Is there a reason that the SATA HDD will not work? with the OBHD PATA to SATA HDD set up.

Can you give any more information on how your set went, it would help alot, also is your set up on a CF-30

Thanks again, Bob.

 

Hi Waldeck

Yes this is working on a CF-30. The rear of the cd/dvd drive interface is pata the interface inside mine is pata as well. It looks like this one has what we need pata outside and sata inside.

2nd HDD / SSD caddy (SATA-to-PATA) for HP (replace optical) [OBHD-SATA12-BU] - $42.00 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

Compatibility:

•Works with 2.5" SATA hard drives up to 12.7mm in height
•Interface at the back of the caddy is PATA/IDE

•Faceplate that comes with the caddy is rectangle and flat, but you can transfer your optical drive face plate to the caddy for a more custom fit.

 

Thanks I58SR, perfect, its on order. I am still checking out the HDD size to put in it. I am going for a Samsung M8 SpinPoint and I would like to use a 1TB but I read some were that some systems will not take a 750MB or higher. So once I'm happy with that I'll order what ever HDD.

Thanks for your help, I will let you know how it turns out.

Have a great Thanksgiving, Bob.

 

I wanna do this when I get my cf 53 next year to add a second drive. gonna have two 120 ssd drives! sweet

well thats if its the same drive bay, anyone have the cf-53 manual yet?

 

Hi Wichie

I'll let you know how it goes, have already thought how it can be improved. Should have got the 9.5mm or 3/8ths caddy and put the dampening on the bottom of it. Then the heat can dissipate through the caddy metal frame and the pads can wholed the caddy ferm in the slot. That can be done next time!!!! Bob.

 

Mmmmhmmm... going through the PATA/SATA adapter is gonna kill your throughput there. I'd say much better to go with capacity over speed, unless you intend to try a RAID 0 just for sh!ts & g!ggles; especially when you consider that adapter will accept a 12.5mm height drive and therefore you can have an additional 750GB-1TB HDD in your laptop now.

mnem
Wow! almost enough room for all my Farscape videos!

 

Well that was easyer than I thought it might be, bit of an anti-climax really.

All went well with the instalation.

I used this caddy from Newmodeus; 2nd HDD / SSD caddy (SATA-to-PATA) for HP (replace optical) [OBHD-SATA12-BU] - $42.00 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

The HDD was a; Samsung Spinpoint 5400rpm 8mb cache 1tb HN-M101MBB.

At first I forgot to change the link from master to slave, the very reason I got this makers caddy. It showed in BIOS but would not find the OS. Once I put the link to slave the computer started up and I formated the drive with 4 partitions, 1 being 80gb active. I unchecked the square for Enable Write Caching so I can Hot Swap the drive.
First of all the Panasonic Blue Screen would stay on for about a minute or so, but once the drive was formated it started up normaly.

All I neaded to do for vibration was to fit a bit of self sticking felt to the front plate as the unit is held in to the computer by the contactor. If you cut the felt just larger than the front plate it holds the caddy off the computer frame. Just have to leave a slot for the tool to remove the drive. One thing I found was the screws came loose that hold the HDD to the caddy, the screw drivers I had do not conform to the slots in the screws, a slightly different angle. Will have to get some more drivers.

 

Will have to get some more drivers.[/QUOTE]

Hi Waldeck

Here is a must for any tech… These fit great and the tips are tough...worth every penny

Wiha Slotted&Phillips Precision 7 piece Screwdriver Set | eBay

 

Thanks Mate, think my daughter is getting me a set.