I was thinking recently, I don’t ever use the A: drive on my laptop anymore. I could completely do without. But I could always use another hard drive, more battery, etc. Are these slide-in port thingamajigs versatile or are they for specific things?* The slot itself looks (from the outside) exactly like the one where my battery is, so could I put another battery in there?
*I have a Dell Inspiron 8200.
It depends on the laptop. Some have CD-ROM drives that fit precisely into the A: drive slot.
Usually, you’ll see a button on the bottom. If you slide it, the drive will pop out. Other modular elements (from Dell) can then be put into the slot.
I don’t think a battery would work; you can’t hook it up.
When you say A: drive, I’m assuming you mean you’ve got a 3.5" floppy drive in there with a laptop form factor. I’d be worried about the interface–if it’s got the specialized floppy interface in there instead of the PATA interface, I’m not sure you’d be able to get anything else to work in that slot.
You can get a CD, DVD, burner, combo drive, battery, or second hard drive to go in that bay.
Oops, sorry, that link is for the main battery. I appear to be mistaken (a first!).
Ok, I was mistaken when I thought I was mistaken, so I guess it still counts. A main battery will go into the removable drive bay as a secondary battery, they are identical.
Thanks, yoyodyne. Glad to see this post wasn’t a w.a.s.t.e. of my time.
(was that going to far?)
I have an Inspiron 8200, and I have done exactly that. My floppy drive is in a box somewhere, and I have two new and identical batteries in the laptop. I have 5 hours of battery life now (instead of the 30 minutes I had with a single aged battery), and the thing weighs a ton now (although it weighed half a ton before.)