Last Updated on November 30, 2018 by Dave Farquhar
A longtime reader asked me recently about putting an SSD into a laptop optical bay. The idea has crossed my mind–the extra storage is increasingly more useful than the optical drive as time wears on. Thinkpad warriors have been doing this for a long time, though IBM’s caddies were a bit pricey.
It’s not an expensive project anymore, and it’s not limited to Thinkpads either.
So-called universal caddies that fit most brands are cheap–well under $10–so it can be a cheap project. Do a dual SSD setup, or put the old hard drive in the caddy for additional storage while the SSD lives inside the main unit.
Then you can put the optical drive in a sub-$10 USB enclosure so you can plug it in on those occasions when you need it.
I used one to put a second SSD in my HP 8440P laptop. I like having the extra storage, and I rarely used the DVD drive. Once I removed the drive, I realized exactly how little I use it.
Based on the reviews, some people who have purchased the caddy found they couldn’t boot from it, or experienced slower-than-expected performance. Since most of the reviews state it works fine, I think the problem is most likely due to certain laptops having limitations on the SATA channel connected to the optical drive. Unfortunately the only way to determine if your particular laptop has that issue is to search Google to see if anyone else has noticed such limitations, or try it yourself.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.