Installing a extra HD in CD tray.

[Chriske]

Hi,

I know not the correct spot to post this item but in a way it is, because it helps storing even more data on your laptop, even when you're getting 'out of space' on your HD. Most of you, me included, uses USB-HD these days. But these things are rather slow.
I recently bought a CD-to-HD tray. Purpose is to replace the CD with a HD. Works flawlessly.
Remove that one screw on the back of your laptop(that one screw hold the CD-reader in place. And the good news is : most of the time that one little screw is marked with a 'CD-logo') pull the CD-reader out of that laptop and replace it with a HD or SSD. Booting again that new HD-SSD is automatically detected by BIOS and OS.
Not all CD-trays have identical shapes of course. But the good news is(again)  for every other laptop there's a specific tray.
Depending on the OS you're using, there's no limit of the HD-SSD size you can put in.

Yep, I thought might ask... No I didn't use my CD-reader anymore at all, for years now. It only sits there gathering dust, doing absolutely nothing.
And I think there are lots of people thinking now : yep indeed, when was the last time I did use my CD/DVD...😉

This is mine :
For a laptop 10+ years old.

[wornish]

Are you posting on the right forum?

[Chriske]

I know this is a astronomy forum, but as more and more items in astronomy are PC/laptop related and so more data needs to be saved/stored, I thought this post would benefit to you(us) all.
Thinking about RAW images, to name one.
not..?

[tooth_dr]

3 hours ago, Chriske said:

Hi,

I know not the correct spot to post this item but in a way it is, because it helps storing even more data on your laptop, even when you're getting 'out of space' on your HD. Most of you, me included, uses USB-HD these days. But these things are rather slow.
I recently bought a CD-to-HD tray. Purpose is to replace the CD with a HD. Works flawlessly.
Remove that one screw on the back of your laptop(that one screw hold the CD-reader in place. And the good news is : most of the time that one little screw is marked with a 'CD-logo') pull the CD-reader out of that laptop and replace it with a HD or SSD. Booting again that new HD-SSD is automatically detected by BIOS and OS.
Not all CD-trays have identical shapes of course. But the good news is(again)  for every other laptop there's a specific tray.
Depending on the OS you're using, there's no limit of the HD-SSD size you can put in.

Yep, I thought might ask... No I didn't use my CD-reader anymore at all, for years now. It only sits there gathering dust, doing absolutely nothing.
And I think there are lots of people thinking now : yep indeed, when was the last time I did use my CD/DVD...😉

This is mine :
For a laptop 10+ years old.

That is something I hadnt thought of.  I have a decent dell i7 laptop, but unlike my old dell, this one has only one HDD bay.  It does have a CD driver.  This is really genius, thanks for sharing, away to order this and new SDD

Edited October 13, 2020 by tooth_dr

[bottletopburly]

 Yes your correct in bringing it to the attention of others 👍I added a ssd drive to mine too never had the need for a disc since most stuff required can be downloaded off the net , simple to do even if your not a technical type you can never have to much hard drive space when imaging .

Edited October 13, 2020 by bottletopburly

[Chriske]

What I absolutely should add to this thread : a better solution in a case like this, it would be far better to use a 'small' SSD as main drive, and a HD as storing-device.
Although it is much slower a HD is far better to save and read/write very often. If you buy a good HD it will last a lifetime.
A SSD has a limited ready and write capability. Therefore it would be better to use it as boot-device. Booting OS and software from a SSD is way faster.
But for most users it is rather difficult to completely rearrange your computer this way. Don't even know if MS would allow you to reinstall your OS on another drive. (I'm Linux user myself).

That said, for most users re-installing all again from '0' : your PC will be even faster.

[stash_old]

Used this for a number of years - normally out lives the Laptop. Plus you can remove and add another SSD or HD via this caddy so its good for  backups of older Laptop (you know the thing everyone does - dont they) - wouldn't try swapping with power on.

[Chriske]

32 minutes ago, stash_old said:

wouldn't try swapping with power on.

No not at all..!!!!😳😳😳

[bottletopburly]

I put ssd as master and hdd as slave 👍

[DaveL59]

one thing to check tho, the CD SATA interface is often not set to run at the full speed the port the SSD/HD is connected to. On some you can sort that in the BIOS if the manufacturer made that option available, some don't.