(I’m not sure exactly if this is the right forum, but since I’m seeking advice and guidance, I figured this might be a better fit than FQ, but I’m happy to have the thread moved if the mods should differ.)
So I recently got a new computer to replace my aging, non-Win11-compatible desktop, and had been planning to install the old one’s HDD as additional drive space. Today, I opened up the case and found that the hard drive mounting cage that’s supposed to be in the case just isn’t there. Rather, it seems I’ve got an M.2 format drive directly on the motherboard.
I think this was done for reasons of space utilization: where the drive cage would go, there’s a kind of gizmo that I can’t identify—
From the markings, it’s possibly something related to the (entirely superfluous) LED lighting? (Anybody got a better guess?)
Anyway, that leaves me sort of SOL for adding my old HDD. Is there any feasible option for, I don’t know, adding a different mounting bracket? (One that doesn’t involve too much tinkering on my side?) Should I just connect it and let it dangle? Seems like that might be a bad idea if I jostle the case while it’s operating. Or should I just mount it in an exterior case that connects via USB? (How would that compare speed-wise?) Any other ideas?
Question, why would you want to use the mechanical HDD that sounds like is old and probably due to fail? Do you have another M2 slot available on your motherboard? If so I would recommend getting one and transfer everything you need over. You can do that without mounting your HDD, I’ve done that tons of times.
Where’d you get the PC from that you know what kind of case you have, but can’t just ask them for the missing parts?
I mean, I always thought that sort of thing was what happened when you got some off-the-rack PC from Dell or something, and they didn’t design it for any expansion capability.
I agree with @Saint_Cad though; unless there’s some compelling need to keep that mechanical drive, you’re far better off either just getting another SSD or even just getting a larger SSD to hold all the data you’ve got on that old drive.
I suspect this was a custom build done by someone other than @Half_Man_Half_Wit trusted to put together a good system, but apparently not supervised so installing “entirely superfluous” things in the place of potentially useful stock features.
I absolutely would not allow a drive to just hang off the cables waiting to get flailed into something and causing irreparable physical damage. If you can’t secure the thing, don’t install it.
An external case is a lousy answer to “more space” except in the cases where the portability of the storage is the point. A permanently connected external drive is just waiting to get knocked (or at least be in the way).
If it’s a spinning-rust HDD, it’s pretty much not worth the effort. I completely get the feeling that if you have something, you should find a way to use it, but there are limits to how far you should be willing to go.
I took the cages out of my case since I don’t need them. I suspect HMHW didn’t say he needed a spot for the HDD, but the builder should have asked before taking it out and not assuming he didn’t need it.
How much does to OP need the data? Because the simplest answer is to put the data on a flashdrive to access as needed or transfer to a drive on the new build with a backup in hand.
I was just thinking that if I had paid someone to make me a computer and I knew, or even specified the case I was getting, I’d be super annoyed not to get a bag of all the extra parts that they didn’t use along with the finished computer. I mean I might want to, you know, install something else down the line?
They’re there, the preview just isn’t picking them up (not all of them not always, at least—currently I can see two preview images). Clicking through works, though.
Two reasons, I have it and I have some data on it and thought it was the easiest way to regain access to.
I ordered it online. I can probably ask for the cage, but I hoped there might be a quicker fix, and even if I had it, I’d still need to figure out where to put the gizmo that’s blocking the slot…
Except I can’t install an additional SSD without the cage, either.
Yeah, that’s kinda my thinking, too. But maybe it’s the most viable route for a one-off.
OK, so looks like my best option is to either install it dangling or install it via an external case, and then copy the data and maybe take the HDD as portable storage or forget about it. (By the way, is there something like an external case that can take a DVD drive as well as the HDD? Because the new system doesn’t have any support for optical media, but whenever I have some time I like to copy some music from my now all but obsolete CD collection—which is in fact the bulk of the data still on the old HDD—so if I could use the same case to first mount the HDD and then install the optical drive, that’d be a twofer.)
Not for me. (A little credit, please. Anyone with two functional brain cells would have tried clicking through.)
There are external cases which will mount a standard 5 1/4" optical drive. The interior interface would also connect a hard drive (not simultaneously though), and you’d probably have to come up with adapting hardware to secure a 3.5" HDD in that case.
What about an M2 like I suggested earlier? Also how big is your HDD and how much free space do you have on your new drive?
No! Horrible option. Like I said earlier, absolutely no other options you can still transfer the data to a flashdrive. Is the HDD still in your old computer and is that computer functioning?
Don’t know what to tell you—works fine for me from multiple devices with several browsers.
No, there doesn’t seem any room for another M2. Both the new SSD and the old HDD are 1TB, but really, it’s not like I desperately need the space.
No and no (I suppose I could cobble the old one back together and probably boot it, from a bootable flash drive if need be, but not sure I would want to go through all the effort). But in that case I’d rather copy it to some network storage—only reason I didn’t do that before was connection speed issues (swapping the drive would’ve been much quicker).
Is anyone else seeing these images, either in preview or click through?
What motherboard did you get? The case is large enough to house a Max-ATX mobo, and AFAIK only the tiniest mini-ITX motherboards have a single M.2 slot.
@Half_Man_Half_Wit I had a somewhat similar issue two builds ago. I had 2 previous HDD’s that I needed to transfer the data from, My new build had sata SSDs that I wanted the data copied to. With the case cover off, I used a couple of books to make a platform for the HDD drive beside the tower, connected the power and sata cables to it and transferred the data, then did the same for the second one. If you want to use a sata SSD, it is perfectly fine to leave it hanging inside the case from the cables, just don’t let it interfere with the airflow around the CPU cooler, or touch the motherboard components
I wouldn’t. An SSD is lighter and “softer” than the metal case and chassis of an HDD, but straining cable connections (like the SATA sockets on the motherboard) is a terrible idea for anything other than “open the case, connect the drive, copy off the data, erase the drive, remove the drive”. Even sticking the SSD to the chassis with double-stick tape is a better idea.
Not being able to see the OP’s pictures, it’s hard to know what options he (?) has, but if there’s room to lay a SSD flat on the bottom of the case the strain issue goes away, and the metal case will provide a bit of a heat-sink. While I know that anecdote does not equal data, I had a SSD hang by it’s cable for about 3 months inside the tower case at one point with no problems.
P.P.S. Depending on exactly what you are trying to do, there are M.2 to PCIe adapters, and so on. That case is not so tiny that there is no way to install additional hardware.
It probably works for you on your devices because you’re logged into your account at imgbb on all those devices. None of us are logged into your account at imgbb on our devices.
