INFO: Using a optical bay caddy to install a 2.5" SATA or PATA SSD/HDD
Linked from DIY: Adding SSD or HDD Storage using an optical bay caddy
Introduction
The HP 2510P is shipped with a 180gram 9.5mm Matsushi*ta UJ-852S PATA optical drive using a JAE50 rear connector. It can be swapped out for a optical bay caddy containing a SATA or PATA 2.5" SSD or HDD of your choice. Eg: use a 2.5" HDD via a caddy to provide data storage and a 1.8" ZIF SDD as a primary os and applications drive to improve response and maintain battery life. The slow 1.8" ZIF HDD could be sold to the ipod crowd or used as a data dump together with a 2.5" sata SSD. Optical drive can be converted to external USB unit or hotswapped if using a 1.8" primary drive. A PATA caddy can be had for as low as US$19 shipped, then add SSD or HDD cost.
Written and video instructions for removing the optical drive
Torx T-8 screwdriver is needed to undo two screws. Can even be loosened with a matched flat or phillips head and a little effort. Can see how easy it is: connect to
HP Media Services Libary, follow menus to select 2510P notebook, select FRU Remove/Replace, select Optical Drive.
SATA or PATA optical bay caddies available for the 2510P
The following 2.5" sata or pata optical drive bay configurations are valid, with or without a primary
1.8" SSD/HDD:
^1 rear multibay connector plate unscrews to reveal required JAE50 connector as shown in the review
^2: can be hardwired as master, but not slave, as described here, shown here. Update: the slave_mod works on a "topda" ebay caddy.
See
Comparison:_ebay_versus newmodeus 9.5mm sata-to-pata and pata caddy
Power consumption considerations to determine which 2.5" optical bay caddy to use
Use of a 2.5" drive will reduce the battery life from it's level when using a 1.8" drive. Consider the original 0.4W/1.1W idle/active
1.8" HDD power consumption as a guide to retain similiar levels of battery life. Power consumption of recent 2.5" harddisks is
here and
here. There's a 0.8-1W power consumption overhead by sata-to-pata bridge chip if opting for a SATA caddy. To put this in perspective, the supplied 1.8" ZIF drive has a idle power consumption of 0.4W. A
SATA caddy and an efficient 2.5" SATA drive pushes that up to 1.5W. That's a 1.1W increase at idle. If getting 5.5hrs of battery life from the 55Whr 6-cell with the ZIF drive, an average of 10W used, then using the SATA caddy and 2.5" SATA drive (11.1W) would decrease that by 30 mins even before considering the higher read/write power requirements of the 2.5" SATA drive. The
PATA caddy (without a bridge chip) and a PATA 2.5" HDD's general lower power requirements means a PATA caddy is a more battery friendly solution.
- PATA caddy to conserve battery life
A PATA caddy with a 2.5" IDE HDD like the 160GB Samsung HM160HC or 320GB WD3200BEVE, or even transplanting the 1.8" ZIF drive with a ZIF to 2.5" IDE adapter, all being the more battery efficient way of improving and extending the 2510P's storage capabilities. Only con of using 2.5" IDE drives rather than 2.5" SATA drives is the higher cost per GB and the limitations of 160GB-per-platter density: slower performance, smaller maximum capacity, and not suited for transplant into a newer SATA equipped notebook in the future.
- SATA caddy, noting 0.8W-1W consumption of bridge chip
The good value option. A 250-gb-per-platter SATA hdd in the caddy, improves speed and extends capacity and storage can be used in future notebook acquisitions. Another good one being a 2.5" SATA SSD like OCZ Vertex then using the 1.8" ZIF HDD to provide additional storage.
An tiny on/off switch disconnecting power to the bridge chip and the HDD could be used to save the constant 0.8W-1W. Useful if a primary 1.8" SSD/HDD is sufficient for on battery use. Can do that now by pulling out the caddy but that means extra wear on the JAE50 connector. Idea presented to newmodeus for consideration in their next revision.
Suggested setup for hotswappable optical bay and optical bay caddy + HDD
1.8" ZIF SSD as primary os and apps drive to give fast os and app response. Then one of the following in the hotswappable optical bay caddy depending on required capacity, performance and battery life. Battery life subject to whether you access the caddy's drive whilst running on battery if set to do spindown standby mode, except for (3) which adds a constant 0.8W-1W sata-to-pata bridge chip overhead.
1/ supplied 1.8" ZIF HDD using
1.8-to-2.5" adapter: lowest speed, capacity, power consumption and cost [PATA]
2/ 2.5" PATA HDD for capacity up to 320GB: faster HDD performance, balanced power consumption [PATA]
3/ 2.5" SATA HDD for capacity up to 500GB: fastest HDD performance, worst power consumption [SATA-to-PATA]
The master/slave configurations supporting hotswapping being:
2.5" optical bay^1|...1.8"....|.optical drive.|.Detail
.......Slave..........|.Master...|.Slave..........|pro: Easiest to setup. Best for hotswap configuration.
........................|.............|..................|con:
Write performance workaround. How to set ebay caddy as slave?.
.......Master........|.Slave^2.|external USB.|pro: Best performance when using a fast 2.5” drive
........................|.............|..................|con: can’t hotswap in optical drive, so go external USB
.......Master........|Master^3|.Slave..........|pro: Workaround for best 2.5” performance and hotswap
........................|.............|..................|con: 1.8” connected/disconnected when 2.5" removed/installed.
.......Master........|.Slave.....|.Master^4....|con:
not possible -> need a hacked ODD firmware
^1: set by jumpers on the SATA caddy or IDE drive for the PATA caddy
^2: set by wedging a wire between pin 1 and 2 as explained here. Source: Toshiba Storage Europe.
^3: 1.8" ZIF socket physically connected only when 2.5" drive swapped out for optical drive.
^4: Jumpering pin 45-47 (CSEL to GND) to force master on the optical drive has been unsuccessful. Bios taking ages to boot. Google says a special Toshiba UJ-852s firmware can set it as master, though Toshiba won't supply it. Requires further investigation. Google tells me other UJ-8xxx work as master with a jumpered pin47 and 45. Perhaps pin47 needs to be isolated from the systemboard to get it working?
Cloning the drives
With the 2.5" HDD in the caddy, I cloned the 80GB drives using Linux dd/ntfsclone commands. Windows users may opt for
Acronis Easy Migrate 15-day Trial instead. Then set the drive paths in C:\boot.ini, so have an option for Master-XP or Slave-XP. Booted off the 2.5", then using XP's partition Manager as a guide to drive mapping, changed the C: path in registry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices to point to the 2.5" drive. This setup means I can bootup from either 2.5" or 1.8" drive, the latter providing hotswap optical drive access.
Converting optical drive to be an external USB unit
Two inexpensive ways, all available on EBAY for < $20US, all with the ability to use either the optical drive or the optical bay caddy as external USB unit, even hotswapping between them. Very handy for imaging purposes.
- Use a genuine $20US HP Multibay II cradle, HP Part PA509A.
NOTE: Multibay connector on the back means is probably a fraction longer than (2). I would consider gluing the multibay-II-to-JAE50 interface board from notebookelite's optical bay caddy into the cradle if intending on using the optical bay caddy and optical drive as hotswap units.
- Use an $20US external enclosure, again from notebookelite trader: USB External Slim Case For Laptop DVD DVDRW 9.5mm Drive. A cheaper option than (1) for non-US customers, probably slighty shorter too.
A word of caution about the 9.5mm Thinkpad Ultrabay slim caddy |  | And/or USB-converting accessories, their rear connector is not compatible with a HP 2510P. We can see this below:
Left: 2510p DVD unit with 9.5mm thickness and standard JAE 50 connector
Right top: Thinkpad ultrabay slim DVD, of correct 9.5mm thickness but wrong interface connector
Right bottom: Correct JAE 50 interface but too thick at 12.7mm |
Bios boot menu
To confirm if indeed your caddy is slave, in
the bios set:
System Configuration -> Boot Options
* Multiboot = Enable
* Express Boot Popup Delay = 5 | | Bios Menu | Master drive naming | Slave drive naming | | System boot device [F9] | Notebook Hard Drive | Optical Disk Drive | | HDD Self Test | Notebook Hard Drive | Notebook Multibay |
|
Will present a menu on bootup giving you 5 seconds to choose which drive to boot from.
Hotswapping the optical drive and 2.5" drive in optical bay caddy
Setting standby idle standby timeout to improve battery life
Versatility: using 9.5mm caddy in other 9.5mm/12.7mm optical bay systems
Sections covered in
DIY: Adding SSD or HDD storage using an optical bay caddy
Summary Notes- 2510P does not observe cable-select settings. Must hard set storage as master or slave.
- PATA caddy requires jumpers on the 2.5" IDE HDD to be set as either master or slave.
- newmodeus SATA caddy has master/slave jumper. As slave, it is a direct drop in replacement for the optical drive.
- Bios options "Notebook Hard Drive" and "Optical Disk Drive" requires following translation with caddy installed:
- Notebook Hard Drive refers to the Master drive.
- Optical Disk Drive refers to the Slave drive. Can boot from it OK, even without Master installed. - 1.8" Toshiba ZIF HDD can be set to slave by wedging a wire bridging pin 1 and 2 (bottom right of photo).
- Interface read is capped to UDMA5/ATA100 speed of 83-90MB/s.
- With a primary 1.8" SSD/HDD, XP allows hotswap of the optical drive and SATA/PATA caddy
- 9.5mm JAE50 caddy fits and works in systems using a 12.7mm PATA optical drive
- 3D Driveguard (accelormeter) engages on the optical bay caddy HDD as shown.
- SATA-to-PATA bridge chip consumes 0.8W (newmodeus) of power or 1W (ebay), regardless of if HDD is spundown or active. Requested newmodeus see if this can be reduced, or if a tiny faceplate on/off switch could be added to extend battery life where running a 1.8" primary drive on battery is sufficient.
I have
no affiliation with any of traders of products highlighted above. Their product is simply used to assist 2510p owners improve their drive performance.