Hi. Thanks for the very detailed video. I have a 15r 5520 model. I found the exact caddy you use however it is available in 2 dimensions: 9.5mm and 12.7mm, referring to the height of the optical drive I guess. Could you tell me which one you used and how did you know which is the correct height? Thanks
Me, too. I iMac screen died so I pulled my dinosaur Dell Inspiron 5520 out of the closet (can't stomach paying Apple $500 to fix a 2.5year old system when I paid nearly $1400 for it!) . Luckily, it can run Lightroom pretty well. Don't know about video editing yet. Planning on moving to a SSD drive, but want to keep the 1TB HDD for storage. I will give this a go. How has it worked out for you guys that did this?
Hey Chris, I just wanted to know if there was significant change in performance after u installed SSD ....and is it possible to guide laptop to boot from SSD inside caddy. Thanks for this video as I'm looking for this upgrade too.
The hard drive I put into the caddy was a 5,300RPM one so was never a good performer. When I made the SSD the primary drive the performance difference was incredible, I didn't notice any reduction in performance accessing the 5,300RPM drive via the caddy.
Chris, I've been searching how to replace the 32GB SSD in my 7530 laptop( dual drives with 1TB HDD). I came across your demo for adding the second drive, but wonder if you have any experience with the the 32GB SSD replacement?
Did the laptop come with an MSATA slot? That would be a better option for installing a second hard drive without sacrificing the BluRay drive or buying a caddy.
Hi, I had a same laptop as well and I just installed the new caddy drive into my laptop. The hard drive is shown in the Device Manager and it says its working properly, but i just cant access it from my computer and Disk Management.
Hi..I have a similar Dell Inspiron like yours but it is Dell Inspiron 14R SE 7420 I'm having the same bottleneck issue too due to that darn 1 TB HDD.(coz mine is 3rd Gen i7 with 8GB Ram). Both our laptops look exactly similar. I was wondering what's the size of the caddy you are using? I heard that there are different sizes like 12.7mm and 9.6mm.
Nicholas Chong Hey Nicholas - It's a 12.7mm caddy that I used on the Dell. I'm now using a Inspiron 7537 which didn't come with an optical drive, I miss having that bay as currently I only have a 240GB SSD installed relying on an external USB 3.0 drive for many things.
Chris Bryson Hi, thanks for tips. It's great you have a new laptop now. Laptops that come in without an optical drives are more common nowadays. Even my laptop in office (Latitiude 3340) doesn't come with an optical drive too.
hello Chris, I have the same caddy as you. When I plug it into my Asus N56VZ the led flashes blue and red continuosly. There is also a small switch inside the caddy, with 3 positions....any idea?
I have same Laptop. I try to upgrade it to SSD, when I going to ebay their is two type of size of optical bays. 127mm * 127mm * 12.7mm and 127mm * 127mm * 9.5mm what is the correct one I have to purchase.
Before you ask a question, how about to READ PREVIOUS ANSWERS?! Do you expect him to answer a hundred times the same question, because people are lazy?
I have a question about my laptop Dell 7520. I replaced the maid drive with ssd and I add the HDD with caddy in optical drive. It is working but the HDD is spinning all the time even I am not using it and the noise is too much. Any solutions?
hi bro, wondering do you have hdd failure sound (the sound when you remove external usb hdd without safe removal), i have this scary sound everytime i tried to restart windows but non on shutdown
shinnize I've no idea, I think we are talking incredibly small volumes of power consumption to use the caddy. As you'll be using it to run a second drive, more power will be consumed for sure.
I have a doubt really there is a change in power consumption on your laptop, I mean with the hard drive your hard drive less, if it is the case mentions how long it lasts and when it lasted?
Hi! I have the same laptop. Is it poossible to use 9.5 mm caddy on this laptop ? I mean the difference would only be problems with fitting the original dvd cover?
same situation here ... chris but i want to install OS (win 8.1) on SSD for good performance ...is it possible ? any driver issue on installing windows on SSD ??? plz telll me
I have a UEFI only laptop which can only boot from hard disk or usb there is no way to boot from optical so my question is does it still recognise as a optical drive in bios or does it show as hard disk?
Hey Chris, I noticed you are having two different RAM sticks, I was planning to upgrade my RAM, will it be compatible with different brands? The one I currently have is SAMSUNG 4 GB 1600 MHz 12800s.
If changed my 500GB HDD for a 120GB SSD then I put the HDD with an adapter in the DVD bay... All the Games and the Data hungry things should go on the HDD and the System and important Programms on the SSD. The SSD is runnig fine but the HDD isn't detected every time I have to restart the system 5+ times to get it to function... That can't be normal! Do you have an idea what I should do? And is the HDD in the DVD bay slower too in your system than it was befor?
Boa noite, tenho um notebook da Dell Inspiron 15R SE, com as espicificações abaixo: 3ª Geração do Processador Intel® Core? i7-3632QM (2.2GHz até 3.2GHz com Intel® Turbo Boost 2.0, 8 Threads, 6Mb Cache) 8 GB de SDRAM DDR3 a 1600 MHz Disco Rígido 1TB SATA (5400 RPM) com 32GB mSATA SSD (para Intel® Smart Response) Placa de Vídeo AMD Radeon? HD 7730M, 128-bit, 2GB Eu gostaria de expandir a memória Ram dele, porém eu gostaria de saber se este notebook é compatível com 2x memórias Ram de 16 Gb, segundo o site da intel, este processador suporta até 32 Gb de Ram conforme o link abaixo : ark.intel.com/pt-br/products/71670/Intel-Core-i7-3632QM-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_20-GHz-BGA Eu ví algumas memórias DDR3 1600 Mhz de 16 Gb de Ram da marca Crucial e Adamanta, conforme os links abaixo: www.amazon.com/Crucial-16GBx2-PC3L-12800-SODIMM-CT2KIT204864BF160B/dp/B011ISG132/ref=sr_1_13?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1467933220&sr=1-13&refinements=p_89%3ACrucial%2Cp_n_feature_four_browse-bin%3A2253866011%2Cp_n_feature_five_browse-bin%3A677429011%7C9559990011 www.amazon.com/dp/B01ASESRCA?psc=1 Vocês teriam conhecimento se existe mais alguma marca que as fabrique ou se funcionaria na minha máquina, e se sim, conhecem alguém que já testou ? Atenciosamente, Abner Pereira Dancuart.
thank you,from malaysia :)
video helps a lot!,especially the part of remove the panel.
Awesome! Thanks for demonstrate it!
I don't knew that hd caddy exist.
Good luck in your life!
Hi. Thanks for the very detailed video. I have a 15r 5520 model. I found the exact caddy you use however it is available in 2 dimensions: 9.5mm and 12.7mm, referring to the height of the optical drive I guess. Could you tell me which one you used and how did you know which is the correct height? Thanks
AlexulQ Hi, it'll be the 12.7mm caddy you require.
Chris Bryson Thanks. I placed an order for a caddy and ssd and will use your video as a guide
Thx. I wanted to know, too.😊
Me, too. I iMac screen died so I pulled my dinosaur Dell Inspiron 5520 out of the closet (can't stomach paying Apple $500 to fix a 2.5year old system when I paid nearly $1400 for it!) . Luckily, it can run Lightroom pretty well. Don't know about video editing yet. Planning on moving to a SSD drive, but want to keep the 1TB HDD for storage. I will give this a go. How has it worked out for you guys that did this?
Thank you very much it was a walk in the park doing this after your video (I forgot to take out the battery but got away with it)
Thanks, i have a 7420 the position is similar and this video helps a lot!
is it 12.7mm or 9.5 mm one?
This was 12.7mm
Thanks for the guidance!
Hi, Brilliant video thanks :-) Where do you get the caddy from?
Hi Tommy - I got the caddy on eBay.
Chris Bryson link please! i have the same notebook.
I have dell inspiron 3542 do you know which caddy I need? I mean the 9 mm one or the 12.7?
It'll be the 12.7 you need.
Hey Chris,
I just wanted to know if there was significant change in performance after u installed SSD ....and is it possible to guide laptop to boot from SSD inside caddy.
Thanks for this video as I'm looking for this upgrade too.
The hard drive I put into the caddy was a 5,300RPM one so was never a good performer. When I made the SSD the primary drive the performance difference was incredible, I didn't notice any reduction in performance accessing the 5,300RPM drive via the caddy.
Great video!
A couple of questions
1) Is some specific sdd requiered?
2) What about Drivers?
3) Have you tried to install win 7 to the sdd?
No specific SSD. No drivers needed, I didn't try installing the OS to the drive.
Can you post the link of the caddy you bought?
+Abhilash Mittal It's this one, any would do. bit.ly/23Dz5tE
+Chris Bryson That link is for a HDD docking station.
Sorry you are right, wrong video. I bought mines on eBay. Any 12.7mm caddy should be compatible.
Chris, I've been searching how to replace the 32GB SSD in my 7530 laptop( dual drives with 1TB HDD). I came across your demo for adding the second drive, but wonder if you have any experience with the the 32GB SSD replacement?
+Walt Birchall Not personally Walt, but I'd assume it's simply a direct swap.
Thank you Chris!
Great! Thank's for the tip!
I have the same laptop, but do you know if it is possible to upgrade the video card
Hi, can you tell me what's the height of the caddy that you're using?
Never mind, I saw that you've already answered that question in a comment below. :)
Did the laptop come with an MSATA slot? That would be a better option for installing a second hard drive without sacrificing the BluRay drive or buying a caddy.
+Anywhere True
+Anywhere But also in my country that's a more expensive solution :P
Which cable should I buy to use the DVD driver as an external driver?
what size of the caddy ?
12.7cm.
Thanks for sharing!
Hi, I had a same laptop as well and I just installed the new caddy drive into my laptop. The hard drive is shown in the Device Manager and it says its working properly, but i just cant access it from my computer and Disk Management.
If we push the drive button, is it pop out?
If it is, the drive would still connecting to the motherb or not?
Hi bro. I have inspiron 5520. and now i buy a ssd and wanna use from caddy for hdd. please tell me caddy model. tnx
i want to know caddy size for inspiron 15r se 7520. what size of caddy should i buy.
thanks this came in handy!
where can i order a caddy like that? i have the same laptop and i'm waiting for my SSD and would like to use the HDD removing the optical drive.
Ebay, at least that's vwhere I found the one I bought.
Brian Martin so the cheap caddy from ebay will do? Are the bezels all the same?
i have Dell i5 7th Gen " inspiron 15 5000 series " which one i can use 9.5mm or 12.7mm ?
Hey chris what hdd size did u buy for it 2.5 or 3.5. ..?
It'll only take a 2.5" drive.
+Saathwik Chandan For a 3.5 drive you will need a Caddy of the size of a book lol
is it Akasa? what´s the model? is it AKAO2SSABK ?
The one I have hasn't got a model number on it.
Hi..I have a similar Dell Inspiron like yours but it is Dell Inspiron 14R SE 7420 I'm having the same bottleneck issue too due to that darn 1 TB HDD.(coz mine is 3rd Gen i7 with 8GB Ram). Both our laptops look exactly similar. I was wondering what's the size of the caddy you are using? I heard that there are different sizes like 12.7mm and 9.6mm.
Nicholas Chong Hey Nicholas - It's a 12.7mm caddy that I used on the Dell. I'm now using a Inspiron 7537 which didn't come with an optical drive, I miss having that bay as currently I only have a 240GB SSD installed relying on an external USB 3.0 drive for many things.
Chris Bryson Hi, thanks for tips. It's great you have a new laptop now. Laptops that come in without an optical drives are more common nowadays. Even my laptop in office (Latitiude 3340) doesn't come with an optical drive too.
Hello sir, I was wondering what's the size of the caddy you are using? My laptop is Asus A550CC. Hope you can help me.
+Ikmal Firdaus Just for the quick google search I made looks like a 9,5mm and I'm surprised because that is a really slim notebook!
Which model caddy you used ? Because I bought does not enter the finish of BluRay , my equipment and even video model
On mines, I removed the door from the optical drive and fitted it onto the caddy. I bought an unbranded model from eBay.
hello Chris, I have the same caddy as you. When I plug it into my Asus N56VZ the led flashes blue and red continuosly. There is also a small switch inside the caddy, with 3 positions....any idea?
I have same Laptop. I try to upgrade it to SSD, when I going to ebay their is two type of size of optical bays. 127mm * 127mm * 12.7mm and 127mm * 127mm * 9.5mm what is the correct one I have to purchase.
The one that is 12.7mm deep.
Before you ask a question, how about to READ PREVIOUS ANSWERS?! Do you expect him to answer a hundred times the same question, because people are lazy?
Bro Same Method For The Dell 5559 ? :)
I have a question about my laptop Dell 7520. I replaced the maid drive with ssd and I add the HDD with caddy in optical drive. It is working but the HDD is spinning all the time even I am not using it and the noise is too much. Any solutions?
Help me alot
Is it possible to move the OS from C to the new drive in the caddy? Is there anything that needs to be done with disk management and/or BIOS?
hi bro, wondering do you have hdd failure sound (the sound when you remove external usb hdd without safe removal), i have this scary sound everytime i tried to restart windows but non on shutdown
Do you consume more energy the caddy with the hard disk in the pc?
Does your laptop battery last less on the basis of caddy consumption?
shinnize I've no idea, I think we are talking incredibly small volumes of power consumption to use the caddy. As you'll be using it to run a second drive, more power will be consumed for sure.
I have a doubt really there is a change in power consumption on your laptop, I mean with the hard drive your hard drive less, if it is the case mentions how long it lasts and when it lasted?
shinnize I don't understand the question?
Sorry for english
How long did your battery last before installing the 2 disks?
How long does it last with 2 disks?
Hi! I have the same laptop. Is it poossible to use 9.5 mm caddy on this laptop ? I mean the difference would only be problems with fitting the original dvd cover?
Ruobytis no
Can u please suggest me best 2TB 2.5" Hdd
+Saathwik Chandan I'd recommend looking on Amazon and picking one from there that has good reviews.
thanks.....!
same situation here ... chris but i want to install OS (win 8.1) on SSD for good performance ...is it possible ? any driver issue on installing windows on SSD ??? plz telll me
I have a UEFI only laptop which can only boot from hard disk or usb there is no way to boot from optical so my question is does it still recognise as a optical drive in bios or does it show as hard disk?
you would need to modify bios to remove secure boot, then change UEFI to legacy, after that you can modify boot oprions.
+Lucas Walker Like a hard disk :)
give link to the product please
I got it on eBay UK. Search for item #320899676142.
Chris Bryson thanks
Chris Bryson Hi, so Dell 15r SE 7520 uses the 12.7cm caddy case?
Eric Chu Hi Eric, It does indeed.
Hey Chris,
I noticed you are having two different RAM sticks, I was planning to upgrade my RAM, will it be compatible with different brands? The one I currently have is SAMSUNG 4 GB 1600 MHz 12800s.
Sajal Shrestha Sure different brand is fine, if you can try and match the specs of them though.
Thanks for the prompt reply.
No problem. If you use a slower memory module as the second one, it'll still work but all memory will operate at the slower speed.
Thanks from india....
good thing.
So mine is installed but I can't seem to find or access the drive.. do I need a driver or something??
Cheepo Decheepo Has the drive been initialised, partitions created?
How do I do that I've installed it. how do I make my laptop recognise it
If changed my 500GB HDD for a 120GB SSD then I put the HDD with an adapter in the DVD bay... All the Games and the Data hungry things should go on the HDD and the System and important Programms on the SSD. The SSD is runnig fine but the HDD isn't detected every time I have to restart the system 5+ times to get it to function... That can't be normal! Do you have an idea what I should do? And is the HDD in the DVD bay slower too in your system than it was befor?
Griffelkiste I didn't have any issues like this, nor did I experience any reduction in speed with the mechanical drive.
Thanks I'll go and get a new adapter!
Boa noite, tenho um notebook da Dell Inspiron 15R SE, com as espicificações abaixo:
3ª Geração do Processador Intel® Core? i7-3632QM (2.2GHz até 3.2GHz com Intel® Turbo Boost 2.0, 8 Threads, 6Mb Cache)
8 GB de SDRAM DDR3 a 1600 MHz
Disco Rígido 1TB SATA (5400 RPM) com 32GB mSATA SSD (para Intel® Smart Response)
Placa de Vídeo AMD Radeon? HD 7730M, 128-bit, 2GB
Eu gostaria de expandir a memória Ram dele, porém eu gostaria de saber se este notebook é compatível com 2x memórias Ram de 16 Gb, segundo o site da intel, este processador suporta até 32 Gb de Ram conforme o link abaixo :
ark.intel.com/pt-br/products/71670/Intel-Core-i7-3632QM-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_20-GHz-BGA
Eu ví algumas memórias DDR3 1600 Mhz de 16 Gb de Ram da marca Crucial e Adamanta, conforme os links abaixo:
www.amazon.com/Crucial-16GBx2-PC3L-12800-SODIMM-CT2KIT204864BF160B/dp/B011ISG132/ref=sr_1_13?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1467933220&sr=1-13&refinements=p_89%3ACrucial%2Cp_n_feature_four_browse-bin%3A2253866011%2Cp_n_feature_five_browse-bin%3A677429011%7C9559990011
www.amazon.com/dp/B01ASESRCA?psc=1
Vocês teriam conhecimento se existe mais alguma marca que as fabrique ou se
funcionaria na minha máquina, e se sim, conhecem alguém que já testou ?
Atenciosamente,
Abner Pereira Dancuart.