E5420, possible to add second HDD?

[MortyEU]

Dear all,

Short and sweet: Is it possible to make the by now classical combo of SSD for OS+apps and HDD for storage in the E5420 chassis?

I have seen 2 ways of adding an SSD:

• 2½ SSD plus 2½ HDD in the Media Bay via an after-market tray. But As far as I know the E5420 doesn't have this option?
• mSATA SSD and regular HDD in the regular HDD bay.

Can the above -- or a 3rd option I didn't know about -- provide SSD + HDD in the E5420?

Thank you,

[sysdroid]

I personally don't know another options. I'm searching for a E5420 caddy to replace the optical by a HDD. Newmodeus seems not to have options for E5420 (for E6420 appears to have been added this month).

Does somebody know if there is already available a HDD caddy to replace the optical in E5420?. Is it possible to adapt the caddy from another existing model?. It is incredible that Dell doesn't offers this option as a standard...

[sysdroid]

In case anybody is interested, I asked NewmodeUS:

The caddy for the E5410 will work, but the faceplate is not a match.
2nd HDD / SSD Caddy for DELL Latitude E5410, E5420, E5510 [OBHD-SATA12-SATA-BU] - $44.75 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks
You can transfer your optical drive faceplate to our caddy for the perfect match.
http://newmodeus.com/pics/OBHD/OBHD-...tion-Guide.pdf

They have updated also their website to include E5420.

[MortyEU]

@sysdroid: Thanks a bunch! You have just saved me a fair amount of money and hassle with this tip, thank you.

The NewMode Electronics webpage is very unconvincing, because the photos clearly do not show a Dell E5420 chassis. But I learned a simple thing from Dells support site that I hadn't understood before: The E5420 has a fairly easily removable optical drive tray -- it just isn't hot-swappable, you need to take the backplate off and remove a screw.

A photo shows this clearly:

Source Dell's manual.

With this information, and the confirmation from NewmodeUS, I'm happy to buy an E5420 and their caddy.

[npaladin2000]

The Dell E5X20 series Latitudes do NOT have a hot swappable optical bay. You need tools to remove the optical drive.