Hot Swappable Hard Drive Slot

[DJFr0st]

So, I was looking some stuff up today about my computer (Lenovo X510 I got for gaming) and I thought the slot on my desktop was something for an SSD, but in fact it is a "hot-swappable hard disk frame". I just have a quick question, can I use any hard drive with this thing or only compatible ones or what? Also, would it be any faster/slower than the 1.8 TB hard drive inside my PC? And I'm pretty sure that a hard disk and hard drive are the same thing, correct me if I'm wrong.

Here is the manual, its on page 7/57 and #12 on the picture.
http://www.lenovo.com/shop/americas/content/user_guides/x510_ug_en.pdf

 

[Ralston18]

Hard disk and hard drive are the same. Not aware of any "marketing speak" or other differentiations being used.....

Usually there is some "carriage" or "cartridge" used to hold the hard drive. Once the drive is mounted in the carriage you simply plug it in and out as warranted for use.

The slot/location looks like an old 3 1/2 floppy drive location and will probably only accept a 2.5" HDD or a SDD because the frame requires some of the 3 1/2 inches.

As for the speed: depends on the available cabling. Hopefully have SATA power and data cables available that would need to connect to the frame.

If the frame is fixed for floppy drive or IDE then you probably will not get any worthwhile speed. Could use the setup for just data backups maybe that run at night or other slow times.

Can you provide a picture of the frame or a link to an image and specs?

 

[DJFr0st]

Hard disk and hard drive are the same. Not aware of any "marketing speak" or other differentiations being used.....

Usually there is some "carriage" or "cartridge" used to hold the hard drive. Once the drive is mounted in the carriage you simply plug it in and out as warranted for use.

The slot/location looks like an old 3 1/2 floppy drive location and will probably only accept a 2.5" HDD or a SDD because the frame requires some of the 3 1/2 inches.

As for the speed: depends on the available cabling. Hopefully have SATA power and data cables available that would need to connect to the frame.

If the frame is fixed for floppy drive or IDE then you probably will not get any worthwhile speed. Could use the setup for just data backups maybe that run at night or other slow times.

Can you provide a picture of the frame or a link to an image and specs?

Here are some photos, the image dump I used made my pictures larger so its a bit blurry, hopefully you can get the details and my dxDiag.

dxdiag pastebin- http://pastebin.com/fEzkn8wb

Front- http://www.dumpt.com/img/viewer.php?file=oqj8m6aemuly6yft15zk.jpg

Front with disk frame open- http://www.dumpt.com/img/viewer.php?file=1yo7bzdlvjypxbhhweyh.jpg

Frame (top)- http://www.dumpt.com/img/viewer.php?file=67locsgaky7e4tutpi6e.jpg

Frame (bottom)- http://www.dumpt.com/img/viewer.php?file=naxryrqdl7yt79sn3jm8.jpg

Inside of slot- http://www.dumpt.com/img/viewer.php?file=e81ogxy9j08jj7pw32zh.jpg

 

[Ralston18]

The photographs are really not clear enough with the possible exception of the last one.

That looks as if there may be a cartridge, tray, carriage that slides in. Cannot see the inside back connections to be sure.

Do you have a piece (cartridge, tray, carriage) that slides into that opening? A photo of that could help as well.

 

[ArtPog]

Your "hot-swap hard disk frame" is basically a mobile rack without the mobility (since it's fixed) in the Lenovo's case bay. It's an excellent device for installation in a desktop PC since it affords you the opportunity to utilize any number of 3.5" & 2.5" disks without the bother of internally installing them in your desktop case.

You should experience no difference in speed with any drive installed in that hot-swap bay as compared with the same disk internally installed in the system. Presumably you will be using the hot-swap bay for disks designed for storage, backups, etc. You'll find it invaluable as such.

Every desktop PC we build is equipped with one or more mobile racks to house removable HDD/SSD drives. The basic difference between the device we use and the Lenovo one is that our racks contain removable trays or caddies in which the disk is inserted and can be easily removed.