How would YOU add another hard drive to this PC?

[Denvers Dawgs]

I've got an hp that I'd like to add another drive to. the problem is that all the slots ate taken up by 2 dvd writer and 2 other hard drives. I'd like to place it under neither them but not sure how to mount it. I have a pic of where I'd like it to go (Yellow High lighted area). Also I've looked inside and can't seem to be able to mount it to anything on the inner side of the case no room to get in there. So any ideas on how I can go about this.

Thanks for any help you can provide

[lafjax]

Velcro it in the yellow area. I've done this before and it works fine.

[budz]

http://www.svc.com/wpr.html

[Constant Gardener]

Make a simple bracket from sheet metal or angle stock. If you punch holes in your chassis, rather than drill them, there's less of a problem with metal scraps getting in the wrong places.

Double-sided foam tape, or silicone glue, work nicely, and absorb some of the disc noise, but they can be difficult to remove.

[handyguy]

Be sure your PS can support that much stuff too.

[mh2360]

Personally, I would use an external USB enclosure, unless performance is an issue...

[cal_tony]

I also would go with an external enclosure. Too many drives in a box could cause power supply problems.

I use USB/Esata drives. The Esata are much quicker than the standard USB only.

Tony

[aedipuss]

i use duct tape and have at times stacked multiple drives laying flat on the bottom of the case. the current computer i'm using has one sideways on the bottom of the case for a total of 8 - 5.25" devices.

[Denvers Dawgs]

Ok, so I just looked and I only have 300W max PSU. So 2 dvd drives and 3 hard drives will probably be too much for this?

[aedipuss]

most likely yes. most current systems use 500+ watts especially with power hungry amd cpus.

[edDV]

Your display card and motherboard are the main power hogs. HP didn't reserve much for enhanced display cards when sizing the PS.

Hard drives need more 12v amps to spin up during boot then settle into about 2A (24watts). Too many drives may drop voltage during boot.

[redwudz]

HDDs don't use that much power. Most of it is on startup-spin-up. I have a couple of servers with 9 HDDs and a optical drive and they ran fine on a 400W PS. I upgraded to a 500W PS to lower the noise level with a newer PS. The servers draw about 350W on startup, then it stays at about 140W. One of my other PCs with three HDDs and a couple of optical drives draws about 130W for normal operation. The PS can absorb a fair surge on spin-up, even above the rated output.

And where the power is used is important. HDDs use mostly the 12VDC rail. And maybe a bit of the 5VDC rail. PS ratings are usually for the whole PS output and may be deficient on some rails and higher than needed on others.

I would stuff the HDD in there and see what happens. With a PS, best to monitor the heat output from the PS. If it's hot like a hair dryer, then your existing PS is probably not enough. If it runs fairly cool, I wouldn't worry much.

A HDD can run in just about any position. I've used a hot glue gun to hold one in place. Easy enough to cleanly peel off the glue if you want to remove the HDD.

[Denvers Dawgs]

Thanks guys. I guess another external it is....

[classfour]

Interesting. My solution to date - to keep from overwhelming the OEM PSU: I purchase a new SATA HDD of a larger capacity, then transfer the contents of my D & E drive (a partitioned HDD) onto the new drive; format the secondary drive as a single large drive (my secondary has always been roughly double the size of the OS drive) and make an exact copy of the OS drive to the formatted former secondary drive.

I then stick the former OS drive back in case of failure - it still has the (outdated) operating system on it "just in case". At the moment, I'm sitting on two former OS drives - why, because larger drives are cheap and OS transfer software is just a google away.

At least this way, I can use the (only) two SATA ports on the MOBO; along with the limited power sockets in this tired old Dell.

[lacywest]

Thanks guys. I guess another external it is....

Not sure where you live ... but Target sells WD USB 2.0 External 500GB drives for 70 bucks ... or a Seagate for 75 bucks

[classfour]

And I can pick up a half-gig internal for $50 - and have the thing inside my machine for a little housekeeping.

I'm looking at the speed of the thing, as well as the loss through the interface - not the product cost.

I typically upgrade hard discs every six months or so, as the prices come down - my storage goes up.

Do you really believe an external would perform as fast or reliably as an internal? even at USB 2.0 speeds?

[classfour]

Lacywest: If you can find me a 500GB external at target for $75, please send the link. I checked: $99 seems to be the norm, and I then have to pay tax. Heck, I'd rather wait the two days for it to arrive from newegg and save $50. BTW: If I thought external was the way to go for someone who's trying to improve their rig, I'd have mentioned it. I've got about a dozen external drives - of various interfaces; even the ones that mount into a CD bay; and you just can't beat a good old "already, always there" drive in the machine. Heck, If I could stick another hard drive in my laptop, I'd do it.

Send me a link on that bargain that you mentioned: I want one - even if a half gig is a bit small.

[cal_tony]

Classfour.

USB no but ESATA yes.

I have a number of 1tb USB/Esata Fantom drives that were $100 each at either Newegg or TigerDirect.
Now they're selling the 2tb Esatas for $160.

I wouldn't buy another USB2 only drive again.

Tony

[classfour]

Bargains seem to be getting rarer. I know the "tiger" and newegg have the bargains - I've just not found that many at target. My son did recently score a Tony Hauk board and game for half-price, but that isn't the norm.

Most of the time, BB, Target, Kmart (you name it) are double what I can find online.

I'm cheap, but when I buy a drive: I research it; I do read the reviews.

I have managed to grab one turkey in the past year: Plextor 860SA noisy, poor burns - wouldn't even fit through the front of my tower without taking the tray cover off. Pulled the thing and stuck the old 712SA back in. As cheap as drives are (were that day), I paid nearly $50 for the thing. Sat on it too long before the install to gripe at newegg.

Yeah, I'd grab a half-gig external at target for $50 - have you ever seen their return policy? Open the box and test the thing quickly!

[Bwizzy]

I see that you say you have 2 DVD burners and 3 HDD. How about you upgrade from the DVD burners that have ribbon cables and migrate your data to some more modern high capacity drives. How much storage do you have and how much are you going to need? It might be easier to replace those 3 HDD with 1 or two depending on what you're going to be needing for storage

[lacywest]

Lacywest: If you can find me a 500GB external at target for $75, please send the link. I checked: $99 seems to be the norm, and I then have to pay tax. Heck, I'd rather wait the two days for it to arrive from newegg and save $50. BTW: If I thought external was the way to go for someone who's trying to improve their rig, I'd have mentioned it. I've got about a dozen external drives - of various interfaces; even the ones that mount into a CD bay; and you just can't beat a good old "already, always there" drive in the machine. Heck, If I could stick another hard drive in my laptop, I'd do it.

Send me a link on that bargain that you mentioned: I want one - even if a half gig is a bit small.

I went into the store to buy it ... here is the receipt ... actually dont have it anymore ... I sold it yesterday to a friend who wanted some games on his PC ... so I sold the harddrive with the games transferred to it.

I was in there shopping in the middle of Dec 09 and Target had a sale going on and the drives on their shelf were on sale. He he he he ... 3 bucks off the advertised price ... I did grab another one ... but as I was walking to the checkout ... I changed
my mind and bought my wife something instead ... ... had I not changed my mind ... I could have gotten one for 66 bucks. And price comparison ... Walmart was next door and their USB drives were in the 80 bucks range ... I was really surprised that Target was selling Seagate and WD USB drives for such decent prices. The Seagate was selling for 75 bucks. These models were not the ones that stand up ... they laid flat on the table ... which appealed to me ... less chance of falling over and becoming broken.

This is what it looked like ... but this is a 1 TB model. The one I bought was the 500GB model.

http://www.target.com/mdp/B002E7HEVU/ref=br_qi_1_8?

And the Seagate model looked liked this one ... http://www.target.com/mdp/B001UI49XA/ref=br_qi_1_14? but it was a 500GB model.

[lacywest]

By the way ... I am not real happy with the new way to leave messages ... I seem to have a gap in my message up above and cannot seem to fix it.

Another addon ... maybe I should get back over to Target before all the 500GB drives are gone but the money I got yesterday ... I spent on Ebay and NewEgg ... in the last 20 some hours ... he he he he.

[classfour]

Lacy, must've been a one-day sale: I MEANT "find me one at the PRESENT TIME". I've got an external burner that I paid $50 for one month ago, but you can't find one anywhere for that now.

I still stand by using an internal drive, as the speed, etc. is superior to an external for video work.

[lacywest]

Lacy, must've been a one-day sale: I MEANT "find me one at the PRESENT TIME". I've got an external burner that I paid $50 for one month ago, but you can't find one anywhere for that now.

I still stand by using an internal drive, as the speed, etc. is superior to an external for video work.

I did understand your question and I do feel for you ... perhaps the Target Stores in your area are not selling them at that price or they are not selling that model ... when I do a comparision with Target and Walmart ... they sell two different models and the ones Target sells are 20 bucks cheaper.

My wife wants to go up town today ... I will go by Target and see what they are selling there ... I'm curious myself.

I will bring my camera along and snap some pics of the prices they have there.

Just a add on ... I use a external Maxtor 500GB USB Drive [Staples had them on sale for $80 and I bought 2 of them] for my video capture drive for MCE 2005 and it is the same drive that my games are installed on ... Crysis ... Crysis WarHead ... Fear 2 ... and the games play just fine.

My video card is a BFG Nvidia 9800 GTX ... core speed 750 MHZ ... last week I did a Crysis marathon ... I barely stopped for sleep ... man that game is awesome !!! I had a heck of a time trying to defeat the huge Alien creature on the aircraft carrier ... I had to modify the suit settings to keep from dying.

What I am saying is ... the external drive works fine for me.

[classfour]

Is that Maxtor a Maxtor, or an honest to goodness Seagate? Just curious, as Seagate owns the brand.

If Target is like WalMart, all stores are NOT created equal. I've seen differences between stores here 25 miles apart.

Thanks

[lacywest]

Is that Maxtor a Maxtor, or an honest to goodness Seagate? Just curious, as Seagate owns the brand.

If Target is like WalMart, all stores are NOT created equal. I've seen differences between stores here 25 miles apart.

Thanks

The Maxtors I've got now are after Seagate bought the company ... when I got those Maxtors at Staples ... that was the last time I found anymore. I had one of the boxes sitting around and yes ... Seagate is on the box. They have a firewire interface included ... which I have not tried out yet.

Amazon link >>> http://www.amazon.com/Maxtor-OneTouch-FireWire-Desktop-External/dp/B000VB5MZG/ref=sr_1...6039499&sr=8-4





As for Target selling the WD USB drives ... they are still there today ... there was 3 on the shelf but I bought one of them.

The $99.99 price is for the 1 Tera Byte Harddrive.




Here you go ... at Amazon ... Seagate brand ... 9 new from $68.99 These are the Seagates that Target was selling for 75 bucks.

Seagate Expansion 500 GB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive ST305004EXA101-RK

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Expansion-Desktop-External-ST305004EXA101-RK/dp/B001SJVU...6039802&sr=1-7

[lacywest]

Check out Newegg ... they have the Seagate for ....

Seagate 500GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive ST305004EXA101-RK - Retail

Original Price: $79.99 You Save: $10.00 $69.99

$4.99 Std. Shipping*
Web page >> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148404&nm_mc=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r...ate-_-22148404