Can I add 2nd Hard Drive?

striped phantom · Local time: Feb 2, 2007, 11:11 PM

First, I have an HP Pavilion computer and I don't have any knowledge of how any RAID stuff works.
I want to add a second hard drive, but my computer came with no hard drive cage for me to add an additional hard drive.

It more or less looks like this.. (image taken from google image)

My primary Hard Drive is screwed to the front end of the chassis, vertically.
There's no space to set it horizontally, but there is space vertically for another hard drive (I think.)
But I don't know where I would screw in the 2nd hard drive securely (no hard drive cage.)

BTW, I contacted those HP bastards online (twice) and they said I can't install a 2nd internal HD and that I should buy an external...

There must be a way (that's also safe?), any ideas?

Sol · Local time: Feb 3, 2007, 01:34 AM

The only place it looks like another hard drive would fit would be in the floppy casing above your primary drive, although the cabling would be a bitch to negotiate. What are you planning to do with this second drive? Use it in a RAID setup, or just for backup/additional storage? If all it's going to be used for is the latter, then an external drive would be the easiest solution.

striped phantom · Local time: Feb 3, 2007, 06:17 AM

It'll just be additional storage. The floppy casing would be a really tight fit (or not fit at all.)

The only reason I'm trying to go with internal is because I thought it's cheaper and has faster transfers. Is that right?

Anyone have suggestions of a good external drive? I might as well look them up to see what suits me best.

Cam · Local time: Feb 3, 2007, 10:34 AM

External drive? Fuck that shit, waste of money. Buy an internal drive and an external enclosure, I think the enclosures cost around $40.

Also this is why you never ever buy HP/Compaq desktops, their cases and often their hardware suck ass. Full tower server cases with your own hardware ftw.

Radical · Feb 3, 2007, 08:20 PM

Unless HP uses some weird proprietary floppy drive, your HD will fit in the floppy drive cage because floppy drives and hard drives are both 2.5 inches wide.

striped phantom · Local time: Feb 3, 2007, 11:57 PM

I just now tried to slide my current hard drive into the floppy drive. It won't fit in either. There's a metal thing that keeps it from sliding in properly. If I force it in, it'll put pressure on the hard drive itself. Not good.

I'll look into getting an internal with an external enclosure. I'm not too familiar with those. Will I have to use USB for file transfer or are there some enclosures that has SATA?
I'm looking for data transfers that won't be too much slower than my primary hard drive.

Thanks for all your help, BTW.

Slash · Local time: Feb 4, 2007, 12:01 PM

Originally Posted by Radical

Unless HP uses some weird proprietary floppy drive, your HD will fit in the floppy drive cage because floppy drives and hard drives are both 2.5 inches wide.

You mean 3.5

And Phantom, in response to yours,

When you go looking for an External Enclosure, make sure its USB2.0 for starters and can give the drive good air flow. There are some out there that sucks with airflow and stuff so be careful.

Check Newegg.com for some deal on them

Omnislash124 · Feb 4, 2007, 02:20 PM

Don't these computers usually have 2 external bays at least? I fit a third hard drive in my Dell by putting the third in place where a 5.25" CD/DVD drive should be. Shouldn't be much of a problem since it most definitely should fit there. This should work unless you already have 2 CD/DVD drives in your computer.

If it's just for storage, an internal HDD/External casing combo would be best since you don't have to go into your case and do anything.