Two hard disks in a laptop

[pesuki]

In a desktop PC we can have two hard disks. Is it possible to have two hard disks in a laptop?

Very often if a fault arises and there is a hard disk failure it results in loss of everything. If important data or backup clones are stored in the second hard drive we can use that. An additional partition in the hard disk drive does not help in the case of hard disk failure. USB drives (pen drives or external hard disk drives) are awfully slow.

I hane an old Dell laptop Latitude D810 with a 100 GB hard disk and a brother of mine has an old Dell Latitude C640 with a 40 GB hard disk. Both of us are interested in adding an additional hard disk drive if possible. Even if we go in for new laptops (any brand) we should like to ensure the availabllity of two hard drives.

Is that possible? GUIDANCE PLEASE

 

[kbits]

http://cgi.ebay.com/DELL-2nd-HDD-hard-drive-caddy-D800-D810-D820-D830-D600_W0QQitemZ200323741227QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20090324?IMSfp=TL090324123002r34587

Of course, you lose your optical drive by doing so.

 

[boonality]

Um, to answer your question quite literally... you can have more than one hard drive in a laptop if there is an available slot, which means your laptop would already have more than one hard drive if the capability existed.

Now on to redundancy and RAID... You ought to probably do some research, you don't just get to keep your data if a drive fails, you have to make sure your hardware supports RAID, you have to know how to set it up, and maintain it, or recreate it if you will, if you do have a drive failure.

In short... if your laptop doesn't already have two hard drives, then don't even bother.

 

[aford10]

Your best bet is to add an external HD. You can get much faster (10K rpm) drives with external drives.

 

[pesuki]

Thanks KBits, boonality and aford10. There is of course no question of not having an optical drive.

I have a Western Digital Pocketbook Hard Drive and my brother has a Lacie External Hard Drive, both NTFS, but they are awfully slow, taking about 2 hours to copy a folder of about 5 GB. Our laptops have only USB 2 ports, no firewire. Even with large size flashdrives (16 GB, 32 GB) transfer speed is no better.

How do I find out what the speed of our external Hard Drives are,

Are there other brands of laptop that offer two hard disk drives? Can any of you suggest any?

 

[aford10]

I've never seen a laptop with 2 HD's. They are compact and don't usually allow room for extras like that.

An external enclosure with this HD, or the 150G version of it, should give plenty of speed. You should be able to get about 480Mbps.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136322

 

[cjl]

Your best bet is to add an external HD. You can get much faster (10K rpm) drives with external drives.

There's absolutely no point to a 10krpm external. They are limited by the USB port speeds anyways, so why would you spend the extra money for a high speed drive?



Now, 5GB should not take 2 hrs to transfer with almost any hard drive - that sounds like a port problem. Are your laptops USB 1.1 only? I can transfer 12 gigs onto my (16GB) flash drive in about 20 mins, and that speed is limited by the relatively slow flash drive, not the USB port (I can transfer the same 12 gigs onto my external hard drive in 5 or 6 minutes).

 

[aford10]

There's absolutely no point to a 10krpm external. They are limited by the USB port speeds anyways, so why would you spend the extra money for a high speed drive?



Now, 5GB should not take 2 hrs to transfer with almost any hard drive - that sounds like a port problem. Are your laptops USB 1.1 only? I can transfer 12 gigs onto my (16GB) flash drive in about 20 mins, and that speed is limited by the relatively slow flash drive, not the USB port (I can transfer the same 12 gigs onto my external hard drive in 5 or 6 minutes).

An external drive provides more disc space and faster top speeds. It will be limited by the USB port, but so will anything else. The external drive should be around for a while and can be used in future upgrades (laptop or desktop).

 

[cjl]

An external drive provides more disc space and faster top speeds. It will be limited by the USB port, but so will anything else. The external drive should be around for a while and can be used in future upgrades (laptop or desktop).

Internal notebook drives are faster than the USB port is, so an internal drive will be faster than any external that connects with USB. As for the space, I can't argue with that - the external definitely will offer more space if that is the key concern. There's no reason to get a 10krpm though - a 7200rpm external can easily saturate the interface, making any more speed somewhat pointless.

 

[aford10]

I'm thinking of current and future uses. The HD will probably outlast the laptop, as it sounds like an older one. A future upgrade that has esata or firewire will be able to handle the speeds better.

You have a good point though with the 7200rpm drives. I may have been a little aggressive with the velociraptor suggestion. The cavair black line has some very good HD's that would suffice.

 

[cyblade]

Newegg was selling a case that would hold 2 SSD's in a RAID1 configuration that fit into a SATA drive bay. perhaps speed and redundancy, of course for a price.

 

[pesuki]

I'm afraid I made a big mistake, my only excuse being I'm getting to be 72 and tend to lose track of things. The transfer of a 5 GB folder from main drive to Western Digital Passport HDD takes only about 6 minutes. It takes 20 minutes to move the same file to a flash drive which is connecte4d to a hub of 4 ports.-, not the main USB 2.0 port.

My mind suddenly veered to the transfer time for a similar sized file from a USB 1.1 flash drive to his Lacie 360 GB External HDD. This was over 2 hours and I got mixed up.

I'm sorry, folks; but what a lot of informative interaction as a result of my confusion.

Thank you, all.

 

[GoatJacko]

I have an HP 9330us that has two HDD bays. I put a 320gb drive in each one and they both work great.

 

[pesuki]

Thanks for the info, GoatJacko. When I next upgrade, I shall go in for this machine.

Thank you all.

 

[pesuki]

GoatJacko,
I find on the HP website a dv9330us but it does not mention two HDD bays. Can uou kindly post the link for this model?

 

[aford10]

I believe GoatJacko is mistaken on either having a 2nd HD or on the model of laptop. The specs don't list a second HD or a secondary controller that could utilize a second HD. It doesn't even mention an expansion bay.
http://www.ciao.com/HP_Pavilion_dv9330us_Entertainment_Core_2_Duo_T5300_1_66_GHz_17_TFT__15379605#productdetail

 

[lacroos]

I have a HP Pavilion DV9620us laptop with two 120GB hard drives, one in bay 1 and one in bay 2. My daughter has the same laptop with a 250gb in bay 1 and nothing in bay 2.

 

[pesuki]

I have a HP Pavilion DV9620us laptop with two 120GB hard drives, one in bay 1 and one in bay 2. My daughter has the same laptop with a 250gb in bay 1 and nothing in bay 2.

Yes, the specs say 120+120 Hard Disk. However the dv9 model does not seem to have reached the Indian market. Shall wait for it.

Thank you, lacroos.

 

[Guest]

I too had an HP laptop with 2 drives. The greatest advantage of this is that the main operating system drive gets the wear and you keep your data safe on the 2nd seldom used drive. Before I sold this laptop I was considering installing a 32gb solid state drive as the main operating system drive and a large 7200RPM drive to store my data.

 

[RetiredChief]

If buying a new laptop - Look for esata port on laptop - Much faster than USB for an external Hard drive.

esata enclosure is only $15 -> $25 and with a 2.5" drive almost fits in your shirt pocket - and is almost as fast as internal HDD

I have a "Cheap" toshobia (Md 305 - $550) that has 1 combo USB/esata port. It also has a 2nd drive bay, But toshiba was too cheap to add the connector ($2 part) so that a 2nd HDD could be added as the pin out is there(may have also crippled the bios to that even if you modified the MB. There more expensive models (Same model really, just more expensive. enable the 2nd HDD.

Added - Reference to Thumb drives - There are big differences in read/write performance between the various models (this is even with USB 2.0). The "Fast" ones above 16 Gigs are a lot more expensive then the "Slow" ones you catch on sale.

 

[pesuki]

1. Can an esata port be connected to my Western Digital Passport HDD (160GB) and my brother's Lacie 360 GB External HDD ? If so what kind of connector would it need?

2. Would esata be faster than the forthcoming USB-3?

 

[RetiredChief]

Ref below
http://compreviews.about.com/od/storage/a/eSATA.htm
Extract
So, here are the speeds for the various interfaces:

•USB 1.1 – 15 Mbps
•FireWire (1394a) – 400 Mbps
•USB 2.0 – 480 Mbps
•FireWire 800 (1394b) – 800 Mpbs
•SATA 1.5 – 1.5 Gbps
•SATA 3.0 – 3.0 Gbps
Based on these theoretical numbers, SATA is over twice the speed of the fastest provided by Firewire and four times faster than the best USB can provide. If the eSATA devices is using the faster 3Gbps interface, there is even greater speed potential. END QUOTE

USB 3.0 approx 10 x Usb 2, That should be approx 4.8 Gbps so Yes USB 3.0 should be faster. BUT bear in mind HDD are NOT fast enough to fully use SATA 3.0 let alone USB 3.0 (SSDs are getting there).

2nd Passport and Lacie would have to have a esata connector on it, if not answer = No.
I never buy preassembled external drives. I always buy an enclosure (look for Usb / estata so that it can be used on ether/or) and then I can swap out, or use multiple drives with that enclosure.

Eddited - Had to revise my statement on USB 3.0

 

[polocanthus]

I asked HP about the DV7 series and they said yes.

I also looked inside an Acer 7735z. There was a space but no connector on the motherboard.

These are 17 inch laptops, which gives more space for the second drive.

This is the reply from HP:



The HP Pavilion dv7 notebook PC series does have (2) hard drive slots with all applicable connectivity needed to install another hard drive.



You may need to purchase the "SPS-HDD, HARDWARE KIT" part#480457-001 from 3rd party vendors or online resellers to facilitate this procedure.



I apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced with this issue.



The HP Pavilion dv7-1428ca Entertainment Notebook PC (NV207UA#ABC) features:



-Operating System: Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit with Service Pack 1
-Microprocessor / 2.20 GHz AMD Turion X2 RM-74 Dual-Core Mobile Processor
-Microprocessor Cache / 1MB L2 Cache
-Memory / 4096MB
-Memory Max / 8192MB
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-Video Memory / Up to 1918MB
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The online user manual for the DV7-1428ca seem to show a hard drive carrier that will hold 2, butare the connections for the second hard drive there?

 

[bigmutt]

I have an HP 9330us that has two HDD bays. I put a 320gb drive in each one and they both work great.

When I bought my HP HDX18t there were choices in the hard-drive configuration: - one 500GB or two 250GB drives. same price. I chose the one drive, thinking I would add a second drive into the other bay.

Has anyone done this? I'm just not sure how to configure the laptop for two drives instead of one.

I've already ordered the 2nd HDD and an HP bracket that's needed.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Rick

 

[drtlawson]

I've used dual internal drive laptops for several years. I'm a college teacher and use a good deal of media in teaching - so the space is needed. Most major manufacturers offer dual drive units in 15" or larger configurations - although you may have to do some digging to find the models.

Check with HP Support for insallation (location of 2nd drive bay and steps for accessing it). The additional drive slot should be available without having to take the entire laptop apart (on my Toshiba removing two screws allows me to pop open to second drive area). Be sure (you probably know this) to use a SATA or IDE (older) drive, depending on HP interface. Size-wise, "notebook" drives are all the same size, except for the newest very large capacity drives: these are standard width (2.5") but are thicker than standard drives (I think WD's new 1 TB 2.5" is only one in that category as of this post -

If your laptop is designed for two drives, both cooling and additional power usage will not be an issue (hard drives are not a major source of power usage in laptops, particularly if set to go to idle after a few minutes of non-access).

Basically, turn the computer off, remove battery and power supply (SOP). Put the new drive in. Be sure it is seated firmly (it should fit snugly without any movement). Re-attach mounting screws. Put the door/cover back in place (& battery etc.). Restart the computer.

If you access your CMOS setup screen (F5 on an HP?) it should show a second physical drive present. Going back to early PC standards, these will generally be drive 0 (typically your C: drive) and drive 1 your new drive). HP will probably have a proprietary partition on your existing drive that contains diagnostc and recovery software - but it will not show up as a logical (with a letter) drive. FYI, if you ever upgrade your main drive, mirror this special partition on your new drive.

Let Windows start normally.

Everything should be automatic. Your system bootup will remain on the existing drive. The new drive will show up as the next available letter (you can change this in Windows if you want - but most just use the default).

If the drive needs to be partitioned and formatted ("initialized") , Windows will tell you. If it is already formatted, you can use it immediately or choose to reformat it in a different scheme. Options are usually: FAT32, NTFS, or the GUID (in order from oldest to newest and, no surprise, from most compatible across OS to least compatible other than newer versions of Windows). If you are going to do this, it is best to do it first on a still empty drive. If you intend to only use it in a Windows environment, NTFS and GUID both have performance and recovery advantages over FAT32.

On my laptops I always move "My Documents" from its default location to D:\My Documents. Use Windows own steps to do this, to insure all your data is moved to the nw location and Windows "points" to it for future use. You may do this for documents, music, pictures, videos or whatever. It is generally best to leave the program installs in their default locations on the primary bootup drive - makes it easier if your uninstall information becomes corrupted later.

Setting up a second drive as a RAID drive requires specific design considerations that are not normally available for a second internal laptop drive.

External drives add storage but usually at a lower data transfer rate than internal. As an alternative, if you have a newer laptop that includes a fast bus access slot (such as ExpressCard), an eSata adapter can be purchased for $25 to $50. [Sadly, only a few laptopcs include an eSata connector built in] An eSata (external SATA) drive will come very close to the performance of an internal drive (much faster than USB 2 or even Firewire 800). There are other issues with external drives (size, external power source for most, etc.).

My trusty Toshiba A205 (now with two 320GB-7200 drives) has served me for three years (the longest I've used any one laptop). With Windows 7 the overall performance is still quite acceptable. When I upgrade (summer 2010) I will only look for dual drive options.

DrTom
Webb City, Missouri