*Guide* How to install a secondary hard drive on your M14x w/ Pics!

[TitanGod]

Updated "June 4th 2011"

-->This is the 9.5mm caddy I used from eBay<--

-->To learn more about caddy, read this thread from the hardware section of NBR<--

Do this at your own risk. I take no responsibility for any mishaps you encounter along the way.

And last but not least... PLEASE READ STEP 5 CAREFULLY!!!! THE ZIP CONNECTOR CAN BREAK OFF IF YOU APPLY TO MUCH PRESSURE!!!

Step 1. Optical Bay I Purchase from eBay

Step 2. Opening the bottom panel

Step 3. This is the DVD optical disc bay that comes in the M14x

Step 4. Removal of screws. (GO TO STEP 5 BEFORE REMOVING STRIP)

Step 5. Careful removal of the SATA strip

Step 6. Optical disc bay vs Optical HDD bay

Step 7. How to remove the SATA strip from optical disc bay

Step 8. The SATA strip

Step 9. Removing the caddy from the optical disc drive



Step 10. Attaching the strip on the optical HDD bay exaclty as it was on the optical disc bay.

Step 11. The optical HDD bay with strip attached.


Step 12. The gap filler provided with the optical bay. It's to fill the space between the HDD and the optical HDD bay.

Step 13. What the gap filler looks like with the HDD in the optical HDD bay

Step 14. Removal of black panel form optical HDD bay. * must be removed for it to fit inside the M14x *

Step 15. Optical HDD bay with black panel removed.

Step 16. Placement of optical HDD bay inside M14x

Step 17. Drivers automatically installed.

Step 18. Computer detecting secondary hard drive

Step 19. HWinfo with the both the SSD the HDD in the info (Sata II 3Gb/s)



If you don't like the guide, please don't criticize. This is for the visual people out there who need help and want to enjoy the additional hard drive.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask

[2GStyle]

You might want to list the actually HDD caddy you purchased in the link rather then just a link to ebay to help some people.

[TitanGod]

Originally Posted by 2GStyle

You might want to list the actually HDD caddy you purchased in the link rather then just a link to ebay to help some people.

Just added it. Thanks for reminding me! Almost done with the rest

[2GStyle]

Originally Posted by TitanGod

Just added it. Thanks for reminding me! Almost done with the rest

btw nice work and this should be put up for a sticky!!!!

[Conspiracy]

I'm assuming during this process you can take the original drive (the 7200rpm one) and put it in the optical bay, take the new SSD and put it where the original drive was, correct?

I definitely plan on putting an SSD in and making it my primary, and if I'm going to do that, I'd like to put the cooler drive under the wrist rest.

And excellent guide, exactly what I was looking for the other day.

[TitanGod]

Originally Posted by Conspiracy

I'm assuming during this process you can take the original drive (the 7200rpm one) and put it in the optical bay, take the new SSD and put it where the original drive was, correct?

I definitely plan on putting an SSD in and making it my primary, and if I'm going to do that, I'd like to put the cooler drive under the wrist rest.

And excellent guide, exactly what I was looking for the other day.

That is exactly how I have it.

My Intel G2 SSD is in the original slot and the 500GB that the M14x came with is in the optical bay that I purchased.

Just make sure that you don't have windows installed on the HDD you have in the optical bay cause it will try to boot from it instead of booting from the SSD in original SATA slot.

[takeabyte]

Originally Posted by TitanGod

Just make sure that you don't have windows installed the HDD you have in the optical bay cause it will try to boot from it instead of booting from the SSD in original SATA slot.

interesting...never would have thought it'd boot from there..good to know

[TitanGod]

Originally Posted by takeabyte

interesting...never would have thought it'd boot from there..good to know

Yea, you can thank Paddon for that info and his ongoing woes with the optical bay and the secondary HDD.

I did it exactly as I have posted and everything went through smoothly.

Drivers installed on their own and I have not noticed any slow downs what so ever. It's running at it's standard SATA II speeds for a 7200 RPM HDD.

By looking at my HWinfo, I also noticed that it shows as both the ports are Sata II 3 Gb/s ports. I wonder if I can set up the RAID 0 with 2 SSD's (Overkill) lol I wouldn't even know what to do with those speeds lmao. I also don't have that type of money ><

[Neubeehunhun]

Thanks for the guide.

Would be nice if you add a pic of the finishing look. Also is double sided tapes strong enough to hold it in place, I'm worried it might bounce around if the tape gets loose?

[TitanGod]

Originally Posted by Neubeehunhun

Thanks for the guide.

Would be nice if you add a pic of the finishing look. Also is double sided tapes strong enough to hold it in place, I'm worried it might bounce around if the tape gets loose?

Yea I will add those pics by tonight (Got hungry so I forgot those pics) ... I'll show which double sided tape I used along with where I put it.The tape is more than sturdy enough to hold it in place. It does not bounce around at all...