How do I add second 3.5" internal drive to installed boot SSD

[txreal]

I have a 120gb boot SSD installed with dual boot Win 7 and Linux. After checking HP slimline s5260f mobo specs, I should be able to add a 2nd internal hard drive. Will this work? Western Digital 1 TB WD Blue SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive,

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0088PUEPK/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

If yes, please recommend SATA cable and power cord.

Sorry, I searched tomshardware storage forums and googled all over , but couldn't find a hint of solution I can use.

Thanks.

 

[John_VanKirk]

Hello,

Please check your manual (not online) or physically look in your computer to see if there is an extra SATA port and slot for an additional HDD.

The specs say:

1 external optical drive bay, 1 internal HDD bay, 1 Pocket Media Drive bay

Internal drive Serial ATA hard drive 750GB 7200RPM

Would be very unusualy to not have an additional drive bay or additional SATA ports, but physically check and report back. Possibly you already know this since it has been modified with the SSD as the boot drive.

 

[jsrudd]

Sometimes slim desktops like this require laptop hard drives (2.5'') instead of desktop drives (3.5''). An easy way to check would be to see if your SSD looks like it's taking up the whole drive bay. If the SSD is taking up the whole drive bay then the computer is built to house 2.5'' drives. Otherwise 3.5'' drives are alright.

In the event that there is not another hard drive bay, but there is an additional SATA port, you could consider modding the case so you could mount the SSD drive on the bottom of the case. SSDs do not need as specialized mounting bays as HDDs because they are not as sensitive to movement.

 

[txreal]

Hi John_VanKirk & jsrudd,

Thanks for quick replies. I looked inside and both power ports are used and also no room for 3.5 internal hd. On second thought, maybe I'll go for external USB 2 for portability
Thanks.
ps. tomshardware and its users are my first go-to source

 

[John_VanKirk]

Hi again,

Just food for thought if you are going to consider an external USB drive.
Consider one with 2TB or less size, and one with it's own power supply, and one that does Not encrypt data at the HDD firmware level.

Could even buy, say, a Vantec USB 2 enclosure and install the HDD of your choice.

There are just too many requests for help of corrupted external USB drives, for whatever reason (connectors, marginal power, USB/SATA bridge electronics, even dropping it) that makes me concerned of their stability. And remember that using an ext USB drive for backup is not your sole storage location for data, it's a backup for data primariy stored somewhere else.

 

[txreal]

Hi again,

Just food for thought if you are going to consider an external USB drive.
Consider one with 2TB or less size, and one with it's own power supply, and one that does Not encrypt data at the HDD firmware level.

Could even buy, say, a Vantec USB 2 enclosure and install the HDD of your choice.

There are just too many requests for help of corrupted external USB drives, for whatever reason (connectors, marginal power, USB/SATA bridge electronics, even dropping it) that makes me concerned of their stability. And remember that using an ext USB drive for backup is not your sole storage location for data, it's a backup for data primariy stored somewhere else.

Hi John_VanKirk,

Thanks for the tip. I just bought this (try to get close to 1TB and stay under $100, with decent auto scheduled backup to come with it)

I try not to get a huge backup drive, like a 2TB, because I'm afraid to store alot of data in one big drive in case it breaks

Toshiba 1TB Canvio Desk Desktop External Hard Drive (Black/Black) (HDWC110XK3J1)
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Canvio-Desktop-External-HDWC110XK3J1/dp/B008DW95NA/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1351118437&sr=1-1&keywords=Toshiba+1TB+Canvio+Desk+Desktop+External+Hard+Drive+%28Black%2FBlack%29+%28HDWC110XK3J1%29

Yes, I backup online and on external hd, which this is for. Thanks again.

 

[John_VanKirk]

That looks great!! USB 2 or USB 3.0 for speed.

One thing to remember with your external HDD, never disconnect it from your computer while it is running, or use the "Safely Remove" feature in the system tray to prevent any corruption of data.

You will have lots of fun with it.

 

[txreal]

Best answer selected by txreal.