i'm buying a 500gb SATA for my HP m1070n, but im not sure where i'm supposed to put it; my existing drive is mounted onto the side of the media-drive bay (an optional internally mounted overpriced external hard drive), and there is no apparent place to put another one even though there is room for three more sata's to be plugged into the motherboard (red-blue-white, bottom right)--



anyway, im confused.. i need both drives to be internal (i already own an external hard drive), so where should i put this new drive?

It's sorta tough for me to make out your exact drive bay situation from your pics. Do you have any open slots under or above your CD/DVD drives? If so, you should be able to install the drive there. If that isn't the case, is there any room inside for you to improvise & attach the drive with some add on brackets, or even wire ties? Or, you could always use the "sloppy" solution & carefully lay the drive on the bottom of your case. Not the best method, I know, but if you really can't install it to an open slot, that would be your only other option.

Otis

u could make 2 holes on the bottom of the case and attach hdd vertically on 2 screws

That's the one problem with some pre-built (HP, eMachines etc) systems...they often mount the HDD a little weird.

In my mum's eMachine, there's no room for a second HDD, so her only option is to buy an external sometime in the next couple of weeks.

The others have come up with some interesting solutions for you to try, though.

LOL, I long ago ran out of room in my case for hard drives (6). I have one laying on the floor of the case, no problems.

the optical drives just about hit the case at the top, and as you can see right under them is the vertical media-drive bay, and between that and the motherboard is my hard drive (mounted to the side of the media bay), about an inch from the ram.

i think i can fit it in the space between my other drive and the motherboard, but installing a hard drive right on top of another just kinda sounds like a really bad idea.

i think i'll just screw it in to the inside of the media bay; there's vent holes on the side i'm mounting it into, and about an inch of space from the other hard drive (they'll be mounted side by side [] [] ).. is that enough for it to not overheat or interfere with the other hard drive? fyi its a samsung HD501LJ.


one more thing, i've located the other hard drive power cord in the case, so all i need is a SATA cable (im sure they're cheap online) and the jumper set to slave to get my new drive up and running, right?

Hi,There is no Master/Slave jumper with SATA drives.
Also, you may need some power supply adapter (also rather cheap) as SATA drives normally need a different kind of power connector. Or is there already a power connector for SATA drives?

Michael

I've had hard drives mounted the same distance from each other, they've been fine.

Hi
Some SATA HD's offer both types of power connection. Western Digital for one.

Edit: Damn you Arachne I wanted to be post #8 as I like to keep it even.

my brother has the exact same model HP. There's no room to add ANYTHING in those stupid machines. instead they give you a useless empty "media bay." I dont think I've ever even see the HP media drives for sale anywhere lol.

but mounting it somewhere is probably a slightly better plan than laying it on teh bottom of the case. it's going to be cramped in there as it is, but at least that gives it a tiny bit more airflow. if you're worried, keep an eye on your temps for a couple of days after you install the drive. You should be fine though.

although this is coming from a girl with not only a drive on the bottom of her case, but one mounted to the side and the power supply having a grand old time sitting on TOP of my case (yes, on the outside)...not that I'd recommend ANY of that, but I'm just trying to prove that chances are you won't blow anything up

if that power cable connected to the hard drive in the second pic is the standard sata power cable then yes there is another one of those thats not being used.

and does it matter where i plug the drive into the motherboard?.. it seems like the connectors are color-coded four different colors for a reason..



hp 'personal media drives' run about $140 for a 160gb, whereas my 500gb only costs $125. you're basically forced to pay that much cause its the only drive that will fit in there, what a joke.. oh well, i'll MAKE my 500gb fit! and theres the hp camera dock on top of the case also.. i use it to dock my ti-84+ instead, haha.

You should check the manual for your MOBO as to why they are color coded. SATA connectors are sometimes color coded to help you determine which chip (controller) they are using (if you have more than one SATA controller on the board). This can affect the speed at which drive will perform (1.5 Gbs, 3 Gbs) depending on the chip speed. The color can sometimes be use to determine if they support a bootable OS (usually RED means bootable, BLACK means not). And finally, even though you don't need a master/slave setup like IDE drives, you still have different channels, so those colors could help determine which channel each uses. If you don't have the manual, the board should be labeled next to each connector (SATA1, SATA2, etc.).

Otis

my one internal (bootable os) drive is plugged into the black.. these are my connectors as labeled:

Black - SATA 1? (no label, there is a capacitor in the way)
White - SATA 2
Blue - SATA 3
Orange - SATA 4

which connector should i be using? i might use my new HD eventually to boot linux, but thats not completely important. i heard there was some advantage to using 1.5gbs over 3, but i forget exactly what that was so i'm not sure which i should be using (or which connector it is).

Buy a NEW Tower and Swap everything over to it...Will Solve ALL your Probs...

i think if i was gonna swap towers it'd be simpler to just buy an external enclosure for my drive..

anyway i figured out that if you slide out the enclosure for the media drive the holes it was mounted on align perfectly with the hard drive's.. mounted on some rubber grommets and its running quiet at ~43 degrees, i replaced the slot in the front with a metal screen so it would get more air.

My Dell came with a 32 gig, I added a 200 gig, and with nowhere to mount it, I had to make some brakets to hold it in place, as I feared if I had to move it for any reason - it would not bridge any contact inside the case, and have never had any problems with it at all.
BTW, the 32 gig I use for the OS, everything else go's on the 200 gig.

Bill