My sister had an HP Media Center Laptop at one time that had the ability to handle two hard drives. Most laptops don’t come with that option but you can still add a second hard drive by buying a special hard drive caddy that lets you replace your DVD drive with a hard drive. An Optical Bay 2nd Hard Drive Caddy.
I bought one a while ago but never got around to using it until today.
So basically you just slide the drive in making sure it is attached to the SATA plugins inside the caddy. There are four screws to put in the back of the caddy to secure the hard drive. Four screws and a little screwdriver came with the caddy.
Then you will have to remove the DVD drive from your laptop. Usually, there is one screw under the laptop that you have to remove first, then the DVD drive should pop right out. Here’s what it looks like on mine:
The only problem I had with my caddy is there is no latch (not sure what to call it) for the screw to go back in so I have no way to securely mount it in my system. Luckily, my laptops, like me, never travel. This is what I’m referring to from a DVD drive.
So I might have to use The Handy Man’s Secret Weapon, Duct Tape, on the edge of my laptop to keep this drive from falling out. Otherwise, it works. I can access the drive as a second hard drive in Windows.
—
So – – my ‘looksee’ revealed that the caddy comes in different thicknesses so as to replace an optical drive of a specific thickness. The question is: at what point on the optical drive does one take the thickness measurement?
Take the drive out and measure the thickness side edge or put your DVD model number in the search engine of your choice and look up the specs for the DVD drive. If no DVD drive is included, then try to find the specs from your laptop using the brand name and model number. Measure the DVD drive in mm. It should be close to either 9mm or 12mm.