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Can I get a third hard drive into my inspiron 530s?
Hi,
I'd like to get a third internal hard drive into my system. I asked dell tech support and they said I could take out the dvd drive and put one in but that I couldn't take out the media card reader (next to the dvd drive on my system) and put one there because the slot was too small. Both slots seems to be the same size to me so I'm confused. Im a big fan of Dell but they have given me poor tech support before, so thought I'd ask here, see if anyone can confirm dell are wrong or my eyes need testing!
Cheers,
Sachin
keithg2
935 Posts
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March 5th, 2009 06:00
There are only 3 SATA power connectors in the 530s from what I can tell in the manual. So, if you have 2 SATA drives and a SATA DVD/CDROM drive then no, you can't put another SATA hard drive in without freeing up a SATA power connector. I personally think a DVD/CDROM drive is more important than a 3rd internal hard drive, but it's your system! Why not use an external USB drive like the Western Digital Passport or larger.
sach160
11 Posts
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March 5th, 2009 07:00
Thanks Keith. I guess I'll give it a go and just see what happens!
If I cant fit it in the media card bay, is it ok to put the hard drive in an external housing and just keep the case slightly open so I can still connect to the mother board via SATA. The computer never moves so maybe this would work fine and also help with the cooling. Or are there issues of dust getting into the system like this?
keithg2
935 Posts
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March 5th, 2009 07:00
I wouldn't advise that because of static electricity issues as well as dust and dirt. You're best solution would be an external drive like I mentioned if you can't put an internal drive in a bay.
sach160
11 Posts
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March 5th, 2009 07:00
Thank you for the response, much appreciated.
Doesnt the media card bay use the same sata power as the dvd drive? If so I could use that no? But if not, could I not just use a power splitter cable? When I asked dell they didnt say anything about not having enough power cables - they said that space wise it wasnt physically possible, which seems dubious to me...
I use the pc as a musician for recording and need 3 drives for optimal performance - one for OS, one for audio recording and one for streaming samples. I have tried using an external drive via usb2 but it's a lot slower than sata which is why Im trying to get three in there...
keithg2
935 Posts
0
March 5th, 2009 07:00
Not sure how the card reader is powered but there is a 4pin molex power connector that you could use with a 4pin molex to SATA adapter. Then you only need to figure our what bay to use. Keep in mind that the 530s is a small compartment so heat may/may not be an issue with a 3rd hard drive.
Dave576
170 Posts
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May 6th, 2009 07:00
sach160,
I just put in an eSATA connection into my 530s so I can use my external hard drive with the eSATA cable. The Mobo doesn't know its not an internal HD and runs just as fast as my internal HD, its the same SATA connection to the mother board.
The SATA to eSATA cable and back plate came with the A.C.Ryan (there are many brands available) enclosure. You can put any HD you want into it or you can get any complete external HD like Western Digital or Seagate they both have external HD with eSATA connections available, then buy a cable and backplate.
The SATA to eSATA cable hooks directly to the SATA port on the Mobo, then run the cable to an empty PCIe or PCI slot and put in the backplate. My 530s has 4 SATA ports on the Mobo, one is used by the CD/DVD, one by the internal HD, one for my eSATA, leaving 1 port free. If you have 2 internal HD's and a CD/DVD you will have 1 SATA port free on your Mobo.
The external HD will work with your 'system setup - SATA mode' in IDE setting, if you leave your external HD powered up and plugged in when you bootup and shouldn't be unplugged until after you shutdown. That is how I ran mine for the first couple of days.
IF you want to be able to hot plug it (more or less like a USB) then you will need to load drivers and switch the system setup - SATA mode from IDE to RAID. This can be done without re-installing your OS (as seems Dell will tell you). IF you want to do that reply on this thread and I'll give you the info I have. It worked for my system. My computer did seem to run faster after I switched 'system setup - SATA mode' from IDE to RAID. You don't have to run your HD's in RAID, I switched the BIOS to RAID but didn't switch any HDs to RAID and everything is running good.
As for your drive bay question the CD/DVD is a 5 1/2" bay, the media card reader is a 3 1/2" bay. I don't know for sure but think you can put a 2 1/2" laptop HD in the 3 1/2" bay. Will be hard to find a carrier for it, but shouldn't be impossible. I have not looked for them before.
Good luck.
Dave