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Install A Solid State Drive In Your Notebook

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Installing The Second Hard Disk

The second stage is installing the second hard disk. In a 17" notebook, it’s simple – you open a panel and install it. With other models, installing the hard disk in place of the optical drive is also an option (when the manufacturer offers a bay, as Dell does). Unfortunately, our notebook has neither.

Installing the OptiBay

As we said, we had to get ourselves an adapter, the OptiBay. Here’s how we installed the OptiBay in our test MacBook Pro, in pictures.

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optibay ssd

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In a Standard Notebook PC

In a standard notebook, you either buy a bay into which you can install a hard disk (Lenovo and Dell, for example, offer this option) or you have to use a case like the OptiBay. The model we tested is intended for Macs (which use a trayless slot-in drive), but it can be adapted easily. Note that certain manufacturers, like Sony, offer this option directly. The Vaio TZ (an ultraportable) can accept a 2.5" hard disk in addition to its 1.8" drive (in place of the optical drive).

23 Comments Comment from the forums
  • 18 April 2008 21:09
    Is there something about that lenovo adapter that's special to lenovo laptops? Is it not a standard ata adapter with a standard form factor?
    Reply
  • nukemaster 18 April 2008 21:54
    Good article.
    Reply
  • FHDelux 18 April 2008 22:10
    I dont usually leave comments, but this article has no point. Anyone interested in an SSD, knows how fast it is and how to put one in a laptop. Also, why all of the sudden is this site being mucked up with rediculous MAC stuff. I could care less how fast a MAC boots up, its useless anyway. I come here to read about real computers, not, ooooo its pretty i wanna buy it cause it has a catchy theme song on the commercial computers.
    Reply
  • nukemaster 18 April 2008 22:37
    What ever boost they got on there mac. You would get on your pc as well..

    Hell my photo shop still opens faster(within a second of the SSD times). But Quad + Raid will do that.

    What machine they use does not matter much. I do agree they may as well of just slapped it into one of there windows notebooks first since its not too hard to do and then they could get some benches for that, but the speed boosts should be about the same on either OS.

    Any day they gut hardware for upgrades(Even if its a mac) is fine with me
    Reply
  • palach 19 April 2008 03:07
    I think it's more interesting to show what is the battery time gain by installing the SSD compared to the normal HDD in this or other laptops, since most people will take the laptop to a certified technical support if they want to install a new HDD or SSD.
    Reply
  • TeaCup 19 April 2008 07:21
    In response to FHDelux, I used to be annoyed by everything Apple/Macintosh, until I actually got to use one. Strangely enough; my Macbook Pro is literally the most stable and capable WINDOWS system I've ever owned. I run Windows XP only, and everything works flawlessly. It's practically silent, and has better battery life than any other laptop I've owned. So you're a bit behind the times bashing the apple system they used. Great article btw.
    Reply
  • laxmidd50 20 April 2008 01:13
    I think most people who know what a SSD is are capable of installing one themselves.
    Reply
  • boogman 21 April 2008 11:14
    What's with all this "ATA drives not compatible"???


    SATA is ATA.


    PATA is also ATA.

    Sigh...
    Reply
  • bobloadmire 21 April 2008 14:27
    i find it funny that my Vista desktop launches word and photoshop froma cold bott in about half the time the SSD mac pro does.But yeah ssd's FTW
    Reply
  • bobloadmire 21 April 2008 14:32
    i find it funny that my Vista desktop launches word and photoshop from a cold boot in about half the time the SSD mac pro does. But yeah ssd's FTW
    Reply