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Adding 2nd hard drive to Small Form Factor Precision Tower 3420
Newbie here. I have a 256 SSD drive and am thinking about adding a hard drive. I've looked at online videos and it seems easy when the second slot is right there in front of you. But I opened the 3420 today and am confused by what I see. The SSD is sitting on top. I assume the second slot is underneath it. Exactly how does one get to it - there's not enough room in front to simply slide the new hard drive in. The manual only deals with removing and installing the one hard drive. Do you remove the whole drive assembly?
Any hints or links to videos would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
DELL-Chris M
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December 15th, 2016 10:00
Correct. Remove the top HDD, you should see the space for a 2nd drive.
Video123
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December 15th, 2016 12:00
Thank you. So I do as shown here:
www.dell.com/.../Removing-the-hard-drive-assembly
and then I put the new drive underneath. Two more question please:
The additions I am looking at are bare drives. I know I will need a SATA cable. Do I also need a bracket, or is that already sitting in the second hard drive slot? Also, should I get a straight or a right angle SATA cable connector?
Thank you !
DELL-Chris M
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December 16th, 2016 09:00
Not sure. You need to remove the top drive and check. These are the parts I see on the parts page =
GNW2H Cable, SATA, 160mm, Slim Form Factor
JVPMX Cable, HDD (Hard Disk Drive), SATA, 180mm, Blue
HG2F3 Cable, ODD (Optical Device Drive), HDD, SATA, Slim Form Factor
3PC1W Cable, ODD or Slim ODD (Color in Orange), SFF
9M3YR Bracket, HDD 2X2.5", Caddy, SFF
F3TJ0 Bracket, HDD, 2.5", Caddy, SFF (Looks like 9M3YR)
H8V8K Bracket, HDD, 3.5", Caddy, SFF
honest_abe
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August 27th, 2017 15:00
I have a similar issue. However, it looks like there is room for only 1 hard disk if there is a DVD drive. Correct?
If no room for another disk under the HDD with a DVD, it looks like I could simply put a SSD and lay it on top of the HDD with double backed tape (I did this with an HP SFF computer years ago) but even if this is possible, is there a place to connect the SSD SATA cables?
If not, that would mean adding a SATA PCIe card. Correct? Any recommendations?
My plan, like the 9 y/o HP machine, is to remove the cables from the HDD and make the SSD be the primary disk then connect the HDD to the alternate (internal or PCIe card).
djkramtx
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August 28th, 2017 21:00
There is a blue tray that has you existing drive on it. Flip it over, it has a spot for another SATA drive.
I put in a NVMe pci-e drive directly into the motherboard. $300 for a 500GB Samsung on Amazon, blows away the SATA drives in speed.