Another Guide: Install SSD and replace ODD with HDD in a Portege R835-P56x

Before going through with the ODD/HDD swap you'll want to install Windows 7 on your SSD.

I tried installing Windows 7 with both the SSD and HDD connected and ran into some giant pain-in-the-butt problems. For some retarded reason the Windows 7 installer created the 100mb "System Reserved" partition on the HDD while installing the rest of the OS on the SSD. Halfway through the install process when the system rebooted I would get a "Insert System Disk, Press Any Key..." message (which would conveniently say "f**k you" to my USB drive) as it tried to boot to the SSD and the install would never finish.

Anyway, it works flawlessly if you just install to the SSD first, then format the HDD from within Windows 7.

First, place Activation Backup Restore onto a USB drive and boot up into your original HDD. Backup your activation. Save your USB drive for later. Shutdown.

Throw in your new SSD! My particular SSD (Crucial M4 128GB) fits quite tightly into the HDD area so I decided to remove the four little hard-rubber pads from the panel cover. I probably could have left them on but I think it fits a little better without them.




Load Windows 7 onto a USB drive (or DVD if you want) using an ISO and Microsoft USB boot drive tool. Install. Skip the activation section and restore your activation using ABR from within Windows using the ABR backup on your other USB stick. Shutdown.



Unscrew all your crap and rip your laptop in half. Unscrew all the brackets from your optical drive. Also, the two screws on the SATA cable.



Unscrew the top of your HDD caddy (I used a DV22 caddy from Ebay) and plugin your HDD. The top takes up too much space in the laptop and is useless. Secure the HDD to the back of the caddy using the included screws. Swap out its bezel for your ODD's bezel.



Put it in, reusing the upperleft and right brackets, but ignoring the lowerleft bracket (it doesn't fit the holes on my caddy at least).



Now, just put the panel back on, placing it in from right to left (starting with VGA port side). Wiggle with it a bit and make sure your ports all line up nicely like this before you start screwing everything back in.



The end! Just boot up, format the HDD in Disk Management, and you're done.



Note: The HDD caddy I got is just a few mm longer than the original ODD as you can see in the following photo. The ODD is sitting on top.



So from the bottom you can see a bit of the caddy, but the bezel is still flush with the side of the laptop. It's not noticeable unless you turn the laptop over.



From the top and sides you can't tell the difference.

 

Nice visual guide.

I guess if the extra metal that shows underneath the notebook bothers anyone, it can always either be painted or even perhaps colored with a black marker.

 

Nice guide Skeletron, you might want to edit your pics to cover up any serial numbers/barcodes etc on the hard drive/ram/etc.

 

Whoop! Thanks.

 

Thanks to this forum and the guides from nebody00 and Skeletron, I have just successfully replaced the DVD drive with the original HDD (I fitted a Kingston 100Gb drive a couple of weeks ago). It suddenly occurred to me that the HDD will be producing heat in a different place and wondered if anyone who has done this has experienced any problems due to heat?

 

slightly daft question but what screwdriver does one use to unscrew these tiny screws on the laptop? any link to one..? thanks!

 

I used one from a glasses repair kit. But any tiny screw driver should work. Just be very careful not to strip/damage the screws.

 

I did not experience any significant battery life loss or heat but the laptop does get warm when running games.

 

For anyone else who's done this, is the SD card reader somehow reliant on the ODD being in there, or did I not put something back together correctly? I just tried putting an SD card in and found it just slides all the way in with no spring resistance. Can't get it to read either.

 

Great article.!!!

 

I have no problem with my SD reader. I have ejected and put in several different SD cards since I replaced the ODD.

 

Ah, nevermind, I'm retarded. I was trying to put it in with the lid closed. I've been using it plugged into my HDTV for so long I forgot to open it.

 

I am trying to find this DV 22 universal caddy in Europe. Is there any other place besides ebay where I can order it? Thanks.

 

Any benchmarks ?

I plan to do same but I want to see the results before.

 

I think any universal 9.5mm HDD caddy will work fine, anargyr. You can probably buy one from any big computer wholesaler. There are some on Amazon.

Benchmarks? I dunno. I'm using a Crucial M4 SSD, which is capable of SATA-III speeds, but since Toshiba is refusing to release a BIOS update to enable SATA-III in the R835, I'm stuck with SATA-II. Still, it's a huge difference from an HDD. I boot up in about 5-10 seconds and all my programs open up in a flash. Very cool.

 

Hi folks. Thank you for this and the other thread with instructions!

For the record, this worked great on my Toshiba Portege R705-P35. I hadn't seen anyone with an R700/R705 who had done this, hence the post. The chassis is pretty much identical and the instructions are the same.

I already had a 64 GB SSD in the laptop, but being able to reinstall the 500GB hard disk as a second drive has been nice. I pretty much never used the DVD drive.

QUESTION: What's the deal with the optical drive power on/off utility? I notice that it still shows up in the system tray. Has anyone uninstalled or disabled the utility? I'm not sure if it will be messing with the HDD being on/off since it clearly can't tell the difference between what kind of device is installed in that bay. It is merely tied to that second SATA port.

Interestingly, even in the BIOS, it lists the second drive bay as the "ODD" (optical disc drive) under the boot-order section (though it recognizes the correct model of the HDD). Not a big deal, but a potential point of confusion when setting which drive to boot from.

 

Thanks so much for this. It worked great. There are a couple of tricks to know.

1. There are hidden screws. You have to open the RAM hatch and the HD hatch, and theres a hidden screw there. There is also a rectangular hatch which needs removal, as those screws attach the two sides too.

2. Although my caddy would allow the attachment of the lower left bracket, it wasn't a good fit, and it fell off during assembly. So don't bother with it.

3. You need to buy a caddy made of metal. The first one I bought was plastic,and it didn't work.

4. If you have gotten all the screws loose, then the back will come off easily. If it doesn't one of the screws is still attached. I loosened all the screws, but left them in the cover, and just lifted it off, so I didn't have to track which screws went where.

5. Before you re-assemble the machine, be sure to take a black sharpie and darken the area of the caddy that is next to the bezel. This will make a better looking installation, and a sliver of the caddy will show, and if it's black it looks OEM.

6. You put the cover back on first on the right side. You tip the left side up, and slide the ride side over the usb and other plugs, making sure they are flush with their holes. Then tip the other left side down.

7. Screw in all the screws. You are done! I erased the hiberfil.sys and the pagefile.sys on the hard drive, and then moved everything to a single folder I called Old System. That way if I ever want to boot from the Hard drive, I can still move everything back.

 

As someone who did this a couple of months ago (on my Toshiba R705), I can confirm that the comments by Android94306 (above) are on-the-money.

 

I know this is off subject but I stumbled onto this thread because I was considering getting the Portege R835-P56x. I wanted to know if the CPU is upgradable. Is it soldered in? Or is it something that can easily be swapped? I figured someone on this thread might know the answer since you guys have opened the laptop. Thanks.

 

You said in another post that this would work for a r705... but I have a different connector for my cd/dvd drive. I'm told it's a zif... it looks like this:




Any ideas on how to get this to work with a caddy?

 

Does anyone have the part # of the cable used for SATA LIF SSDS?
its here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120878464066#ht_500wt_945

Its soldered in unfortunately.

 

Sorry, guys, please, advice me which 128 GB SSD is better to buy and istall to R835? Is 2.5 format SSD ok? Which company' s is better qualty, speed and longlife? Thank you in advance for replies

 

I would stick to Intel, Crucial, or Samsung SSDs. Most modern SSDs are fast enough that you will not notice performance differences in everyday usage. Reliability is a much bigger concern. OCZ and other brands have very, very poor reliability rates. Check the % of bad reviews on Newegg for Intel/Samsung/Crucial and compare to the other brands. The brands i've mentioned usually have 1-3% negative reviews. OCZ, for instance usually has 20% or greater negative reviews from people with failed drives. I've personally had two OCZ SSDs. One was incompatible with our laptops (the Vertex 2) and had lots of problems with sleep and startup. The other was in a desktop computer and just died after only 7 months. My 2 crucial SSDs are going strong after a longer amount of time.

Just my two cents.

 

Thank you ver much indeed, you really helped me