[SOLVED] How to fit new HDD into my PC case which doesn't seem to have drive bays?

[realghostbuster]

Hi there,

I'm hoping to install a new 4TB WD Blue hard drive into my PC case to go along with my 1TB HDD boot drive but I'm trying to understand how I would go about slotting it into the part of the case where the hard drives are supposed to be placed.

From watching videos online, people tend to have PC cases whereby they simply slot in a new HDD into a drive bay and it clicks into the bay. My PC case doesn't seem to have those kinds of "click-in bays" and I'm not even sure how my current boot drive is placed in my case. The kind of PC case that I have is a budget one called "X11 Advanded X Station" that I got maybe 8 years ago. The boot drive and the DVD-Rom drive were built into the case when I purchased it.
I've uploaded a video on Youtube of myself trying to unscrew the boot drive from the chasis here:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYLYDInJC3U&feature=youtu.be


You can see that I'm having difficulty pulling out the boot drive even after taking over the screws at the side. I'm doing this in order to understand how it is placed securely in the PC case so that I will now how to do the same with the new 4TB HDD.

You can also see from the video that I have a decent amount of space above where the boot drive is placed.
Do you think I would have to purchase some sort of plastic drive bay and place it above the boot drive in the PC case in order to accomodate the new HDD? Do drive bays come in different sizes or are they kind of universal like ATX standard PSU units?

Any helpful information would be greatly appreciated!

Kind regards,

Brendan

 

[Obakasama]

Have you looked at the other side of the case? Removed the other side panel? Most drives in those sort of cases are held by screws on both sides, and the clip only shows one side.

 

[jay32267]

Hi there,

I'm hoping to install a new 4TB WD Blue hard drive into my PC case to go along with my 1TB HDD boot drive but I'm trying to understand how I would go about slotting it into the part of the case where the hard drives are supposed to be placed.

From watching videos online, people tend to have PC cases whereby they simply slot in a new HDD into a drive bay and it clicks into the bay. My PC case doesn't seem to have those kinds of "click-in bays" and I'm not even sure how my current boot drive is placed in my case. The kind of PC case that I have is a budget one called "X11 Advanded X Station" that I got maybe 8 years ago. The boot drive and the DVD-Rom drive were built into the case when I purchased it.
I've uploaded a video on Youtube of myself trying to unscrew the boot drive from the chasis here:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYLYDInJC3U&feature=youtu.be


You can see that I'm having difficulty pulling out the boot drive even after taking over the screws at the side. I'm doing this in order to understand how it is placed securely in the PC case so that I will now how to do the same with the new 4TB HDD.

You can also see from the video that I have a decent amount of space above where the boot drive is placed.
Do you think I would have to purchase some sort of plastic drive bay and place it above the boot drive in the PC case in order to accomodate the new HDD? Do drive bays come in different sizes or are they kind of universal like ATX standard PSU units?

Any helpful information would be greatly appreciated!

Kind regards,

Brendan

I wouldn't get too hung up on where to place the drive.
When I'm in a situation like yours I put the drive wherever it will fit and function and won't hurt anything.
I would orient the drive either horizontal or vertical.....and make sure the drive case doesn't touch anything electrical.....and secure it to the case or something sturdy somehow.
I have used velcro or zipties or other things to secure the drive.

 

[realghostbuster]

Have you looked at the other side of the case? Removed the other side panel? Most drives in those sort of cases are held by screws on both sides, and the clip only shows one side.

I'm trying to get the other side of the case to open but it's proving to be difficult. It wont slide off as easily as the other side.
I don't mind not being able to remove the boot drive at the moment. I'm more worried about figuring out how to slide in the new HDD. Maybe there are HDD adapters that I could purchase for my particular case?

 

[realghostbuster]

I wouldn't get too hung up on where to place the drive.
When I'm in a situation like yours I put the drive wherever it will fit and function and won't hurt anything.
I would orient the drive either horizontal or vertical.....and make sure the drive case doesn't touch anything electrical.....and secure it to the case or something sturdy somehow.
I have used velcro or zipties or other things to secure the drive.

Surely there are plastic adapters that I could get for my new HDD that would be able to fit into my particular case? I just don't know which kind of one I need for my particular case..

 

[jay32267]

I'm trying to get the other side of the case to open but it's proving to be difficult. It wont slide off as easily as the other side.
I don't mind not being able to remove the boot drive at the moment. I'm more worried about figuring out how to slide in the new HDD. Maybe there are HDD adapters that I could purchase for my particular case?

After looking at the video....most likely that drive is secured on the other side with screws. You can either remove the other side of the case and see if you can get access that way or perhaps the whole bracket assembly comes out of the case and you can get access that way.

....but it looks to me like you have tons of room above that drive to fit another drive.

 

[jay32267]

Surely there are plastic adapters that I could get for my new HDD that would be able to fit into my particular case? I just don't know which kind of one I need for my particular case..

I wouldn't even worry about adapters.....as long as the drive isn't contacting anything electrical....and is vertical or horizontal (you don't want it slanted) and it's secure (and it doesn't even need to be secure....but it's MUCH better if it is because you don't want it flopping around in there.

 

[jay32267]

Surely there are plastic adapters that I could get for my new HDD that would be able to fit into my particular case? I just don't know which kind of one I need for my particular case..

I've even wrapped drives in cardboard so they didn't contact anything electrical.

You MAY be able to find brackets for your case....but maybe not...and they might be really tough to find if they exist.

 

[Obakasama]

An earlier internet search didn't turn up much immediate info on the case, so it's unlikely there are specific brackets/adapters for it (depending what sort of bracket/adapter is in mind).

 

[realghostbuster]

An earlier internet search didn't turn up much immediate info on the case, so it's unlikely there are specific brackets/adapters for it (depending what sort of bracket/adapter is in mind).

Are you saying that because there probably aren't any specific brackets/adapters for the case that I should be able to use a standard one that I can buy online or that it would be very difficult to find a bracket online for my particular case?

 

[Obakasama]

With respect to the case, I don't believe the manufacturer made any accessories specific to it.

As for other adapter/brackets it will depend what you have in mind. A generic 2.5" drive adapter to install in a 3.5" drive bay is fairly common.

 

[popatim]

There won't be any brackets to fit the HDD. There is only the screws for that type of case.

There is also no need to remove the screws from the boot drive since you said you wanted to install it 'along with' the boot drive.
Mount in the next slot down, secure it with 4 screws , attach two cables (one form the PSU and a Sata cable goes between the HDD and to a port on the motherbd), boot into windows and if you don't get a popup saying a new disk was detected then go into disk management and rt click on that drive in the lower section and select 'initialize'.

Now whether you wasted your money buying a 4TB disk depends entirely on how old your PC is. If your bios isn't graphical (lets you use a mouse in it) then this probably isn't going to work or will limit it to 2TB if it does.

 

[realghostbuster]

There won't be any brackets to fit the HDD. There is only the screws for that type of case.

There is also no need to remove the screws from the boot drive since you said you wanted to install it 'along with' the boot drive.
Mount in the next slot down, secure it with 4 screws , attach two cables (one form the PSU and a Sata cable goes between the HDD and to a port on the motherbd), boot into windows and if you don't get a popup saying a new disk was detected then go into disk management and rt click on that drive in the lower section and select 'initialize'.

Now whether you wasted your money buying a 4TB disk depends entirely on how old your PC is. If your bios isn't graphical (lets you use a mouse in it) then this probably isn't going to work or will limit it to 2TB if it does.

Thanks for the helpful reply. I have Windows 10 64 bit installed on my boot drive so I'm sure I wouldn't have issues with the BIOS stuff. Do you think it would be wise for me to purchase the 2TB version instead of the 4TB version and just buy another 2TB WD Blue down the line if I need it and install it into the remaining SATA port on my motherboard?

 

[popatim]

Whether a 4tb drives works or not is a motherboard issue, not which OS you are running.
That is why I mentioned the bios.
Graphical w/mouse = yes.
Keyboard only = probably not.

 

[realghostbuster]

Whether a 4tb drives works or not is a motherboard issue, not which OS you are running.
That is why I mentioned the bios.
Graphical w/mouse = yes.
Keyboard only = probably not.

The mother board I have is a ASUS P6H61-M which is supposed to have "UEFI BIOS - EZ Mode".....

My gut feeling is that it is non graphical bios. I still can use multiple 2TB HDD's with my motherboard though depending on how many SATA ports I have remaining on the motherboard?

 

[popatim]

With that being a socket 1155 motherboard, I would get 2tb drives.

 

[realghostbuster]

With that being a socket 1155 motherboard, I would get 2tb drives.

Okay thanks for the advice. I'm glad I went with a Seagate 2TB HDD rather than the WD Blue 4TB that I had planned to originally get....