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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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.

 

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 ><

 

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...

 

don't forget to update your sig w/ the other hdd

 

Thanks! It should be updated as of now

 

I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere yet, but the DVD ROM you pull out of the M14x, is just a simple SATA connection, we can just use an adapter to hook it up through USB when needed, right?

 

Isn't it best to disconnect the battery prior to swapping drives?

 

Yeah this should be included at the beginning of the guide imo.

Nice guide though

 

TitanGod did you find that the "gap filler" is a loose fit ? It sometimes falls out of my caddy because its so loose. Not to worried though because when the caddy is fitted its probably held in place by the laptop frame. Great guide btw, much better than what i could have done.

Have you found that the HDD just vanishes sometimes when your using it ?

 

I haven't had a chance to transfer any files to the hard drive. Today I should be transferring some shows and stuff I have and I'll keep you updated.

* I also added another picture as to where I put the double sided tape.

 

ermm.. you do know the optical drive has a metal frame around it that you can take off at attach to the caddy lol

then you screw it down as normal cant beleive you just stuck it down with tape

But when i said it was loose i ment the black clip in thing that goes behind the hard drive to fill the gap

 

You have to be kidding me.....

 

lololol!!!!!

 

Ok forgive me guys, I completely over looked that panel you can remove from the original optical bay and place it on the HDD optical bay... Going to fix this immediately!!!

<---- Epic Fail

 

I just took pictures and i'm going to revise it in a little bit, after I eat my yogurt.

 

ok cool, btw you dont need tape for that and im pretty sure its not ment to have screws.. but that depends on the yogurt

Im only joking lol

Still a great guide m8, wish i had this for when i did mine and im sure it will help many people so i am going to give you some rep

guys give this man some rep

 

Titan, do you have the problem with the transfer rate being slow?

 

Not at all, I'm using the USB 3.0 port and transfering some files from my external to the WD 500GB and it's transfering at 70MB/s.

Not slow at all...

 

I mean inside, with the caddy and the secondary HDD.

 

that's what he's doing, transferring from the usb 3.0 to the internal 500gb caddy drive

 

How do YOU know?!?! Lol jk

But arklight, that is what I'm doing. It's going from the external to the 2nd hard drive an it's fast. From the SSD to the 2nd hard drive is also fast too. No problems what so ever.

Is yours giving you problems???

 

i read what you said lol

don't worry, not stalking ;P

 

Sorry didn't quite read properly. Because some people are experiencing slow transfer speeds from the caddy.. but I guess if your's doesn't do that, then it may be a faulty caddy. I got mine today. No 2ndary hdd yet.

 

Let me know the results when u get it... I still need to
Update the guide but I'm not home -___-

 

I'll definitely be following this if I decide to get an SSD. Great guide.

 

Don't follow this guide until its updated. Doublesided tape is not the way to go. Remove the drive cage and install it on your drive caddy.

I did it this morning, and was scratching my head reading this thinking.. '.. did this guy realize that you can remove the cage and put it on your caddy???'..

I read the other followups and noticed that others have mentioned this.

 

lmao, its a great guide its just got that one little problem.

I cant help but LOL each time i look at it

easy mistake to make though if its your first time putting a caddy in, personally i think he did a great job and a very detailed guide.

But agreed dont use tape !

 

before you start bashing my guide you need to learn how to read....

I already stated that I'm going to fix it and not to put double sided tape. I haven't had a chance to fix it but i'm gonna get to it today.

 

I updated the guide , if you see any other mistakes let me know.

 

does the type of caddy matter? like im guessing that macbook pro one is the same one u used to install it into ur m14x?

 

yes the type of caddy matters as there are 9.5mm versions and 12.7mm versions. MBP/slot loading drives are 9.5mm, the 12.7mm will not fit

 

That's the same exact caddy I use in my Mbp. Some caddies on eBay are also 1.5gbps Sata I so yeah look out for that.

 

Should I get the same caddy or is there a better one I should get?

 

I looked to see if there was specifically a "SATA II" caddy but found nothing.

You can get any "9.5mm" caddy, doesn't have to be this one in particular.

I'm using this one with the WD 500GB and it works fine.

 

Great guide, thanks! I ordered the exact same dock from ebay and thanks to you it only took a few minutes to swap the drive.

One thing I noticed, though, is that just like the SSD runs at SATA II when it should run at SATA III, the hard drive runs over SATA 1.5GBps when it should be SATA II...

I opted for a 500GB 5,400rpm drive instead of the original to save a little on battery life, heat, vibrations and noise (I'm just using it for storage anyway, so a few extra MB/s makes little difference). It is slightly older than the original drive but definitely SATA II. In actual usage this has no practical implications whatsoever, but anyone considering a dual SSD setup should be aware.

 

the whole Sata II/III issue with dell and their stupid bios. There is a whole thread about it. It's retarded but hopefully it'll get fixed one day.

As for the Sata 1.5 for the 2nd hard drive. Yea it's more than enough speed for a mechanical drive. I think Mechanical drives max out at like 90 - 100 MB/s so Sata 1.5 should suffice.

 

Just ordered my crucial m4 128gb and the same caddy you used titan...will be installing it following this guide soon

 

Small Question. What size is the hard drive that is in the M14x already? Is it a 3.5 or 2.5?

 

2.5"

10char/

 

So what happen to the DVD Drive? Is that mean the 2nd HDD is swap with the DVD Drive?

 

Yes this is a guide for installing a second HDD in the ODD slot.

 

currently on step 5 and confused..what am i supposed to do to get that strip off?

 

oh boy...i broke the white thing that holds the ribbon...broke one side, what do i do ((