Adding a 2nd hard drive to my laptop.

[Death Metal Moe]

I have an HP Pavillion dv9000. It has 2 slots for hard drives but only one of them was filled from the factory when I bought it.

How hard is it going to be for me to put a hard drive in there? Can I get any SATA hard drive and drop it in there, notebook sized of course? Is it a must to match the exact specs of the other one? Does anyone know a website I can check for compatibility?

I looked online and saw something about a possible adapter and "drive caddy" I'd have to put the drive in before I install it, not sure.

Just looking for some advice and experience if anyone has any with notebook upgrades.

Thanks.

[hurlmon]

I think this (http://newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=page&id=1&chapter=0) is what you want no?

Reread your post and you probably already saw the site I linked to.

[Death Metal Moe]

I think this (http://newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=page&id=1&chapter=0) is what you want no?

Reread your post and you probably already saw the site I linked to.

Oh yea, I do try to do a Google search before I ask for help. I've been digging a little deeper and it seems I'm going to have to drop like 50 bucks on a Drive Caddy and Drive Adapter kit just to install the drive.

Kind of lame.

I'd still love any to hear from anyone who has experience installing any hard drives in laptops.

[Brad in Bama]

Oh yea, I do try to do a Google search before I ask for help. I've been digging a little deeper and it seems I'm going to have to drop like 50 bucks on a Drive Caddy and Drive Adapter kit just to install the drive.

Kind of lame.

I'd still love any to hear from anyone who has experience installing any hard drives in laptops.

You running windows? Because my DV7000 accepted my other hard drive, and I use it as a slave drive. It came with 80Gig, and I added the 160Gig. I didn't have to do anything but put it in. Basically in the My Computer tab it showed an additional mass storage device with a drive icon, labeled it E: Drive and that was that. Maybe I got lucky, but it was an identical HP drive except for the size and I opted to leave in the 80 to run the OS while using the 160 for additional storage. I also upgraded ram but that's a cake walk.

However... In saying that, what ever route you have to take, it makes my laptop extremely hot. I really am not crazy about it because my fans run constantly and drains my battery a lot faster. Just another perspective.

If I had to do it all over again I would buy a 500Gig external which is now cheaper than what I payed for the 160Gig.

[Death Metal Moe]

Oh yea, the RAM is cake, had it out before, thinking of putting in 2gig sticks instead of the 1gig sticks that came stock.

From my reading, my model uses a pin adapter to basically just flip the pins 90 degrees so you just push the drive down. And the caddy isn't 100% nessecary but it does help protect it during any possible travel. Also, the caddy is like 4 bucks, the adapter is the expensive part so I would save very little getting the components seperatly. I'd just get the stupid kit if I end up doing it.

[biggestmexi]

should be like just adding a hard drive to any regular puter.

but a 2.5" instead of 3.5"

if your that unsure go external

[boosterp]

HDs are simple in a lappy. The bulk of them are contained in a "caddy" so it is removed as a unit. You then separate the HD from the caddy, swap them out, and install the new one. The only thing you have to worry about is the spec of the interface. Is the drive SATA or EIDE. In my older lappy I swapped the old 4200RPM drive for a larger 5400 RPM drive which made a difference. I was going to go 7200 RPM but the cost versus the age of the lappy was not worth it.

[Death Metal Moe]

OK, so I have an empty hard drive bay. It should be as easy as getting a SATA laptop HD, the adapter kit and putting it in, I know how to format it from there.

I guess now I have to judge if the cost is worth it for me, but I am rapidly running out of space on the 160 gig stock HD.

[MisterSmith]

Yeah the kit is a pain in the butt, however it is kind of a necessary evil in this case - mainly for the adapter.

Search eBay, my man. I did a quick search and you can find plenty of options for between $20-$30 including shipping.

And here is a direct link for the HP service manual (http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c01311536.pdf). It is for the dv9000, so you may need to search HP if you have a dv9000*** model (although there shouldn't be big differences).

[Death Metal Moe]

Yeah the kit is a pain in the butt, however it is kind of a necessary evil in this case - mainly for the adapter.

Search eBay, my man. I did a quick search and you can find plenty of options for between $20-$30 including shipping.

And here is a direct link for the HP service manual (http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c01311536.pdf). It is for the dv9000, so you may need to search HP if you have a dv9000*** model (although there shouldn't be big differences).

Thanks for the link sir. Yea, I did a quick Ebay search but I guess I didn't run into the cheap kits you found. I'll dig deeper. The initial search I did on Google Shopping wasn't that great, with some prices over $70. Very weak, then I found like $40.

The manual may come in handy.

[MisterSmith]

Thanks for the link sir. Yea, I did a quick Ebay search but I guess I didn't run into the cheap kits you found. I'll dig deeper. The initial search I did on Google Shopping wasn't that great, with some prices over $70. Very weak, then I found like $40.

The manual may come in handy.

No problem. I used the search "hp dv9000 hard drive caddy kit" and came up with 11 items. If you use the part number you will come up with all of the expensive ones.

The same caddy kit is used for a number of models - it looks like the various 9000's but it might have been used for others. You will get about 50 results using just "hp hard drive caddy kit" but I don't know if all of them will work for your model - you will need to double check.

[biggestmexi]

I guess now I have to judge if the cost is worth it for me, but I am rapidly running out of space on the 160 gig stock HD.

WOW!

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l200/biggestmexi/HDD.jpg