The optical format, first in the form of CD-ROM and later in the form of DVD-ROM, has become totally obsolete. Its biggest bottleneck? Giving access speeds of only a few tens of megabits per second in a world where not hundreds, but even gigabits of transfer speed are needed, so these formats have become obsolete.
It is true that in video game consoles they are still used, but not directly and they require dumps on their hard drives, because they do not offer enough speed to be used directly. Additionally, the increased bandwidth of internet connections made installation faster from a download than from the player.
In addition, little by little, PC software makers have made the transition to digital distribution and no longer release their new software in physical format. This led to new computers no longer being sold with optical disc drives.
Why replace my drive with a SATA SSD?
In addition to the reasons we explained to you in the introduction, we must add the fact that it has become a dead piece that does not add anything. If you have a desktop computer, you will just need to remove the drive from the bay and place the disk drive in, but if you have a laptop, things change.
In a laptop, space is important and once the CD, DVD or Blue-Ray drive becomes a dead weight it is time to take it out, however, it would be a waste not to take advantage of this free space. we have available and the best option is to place a SATA SSD drive which increases the storage capacity of your laptop.
Having more storage is always a good option and it can even help you avoid having to carry an extra unit in the event that you have just enough hard drive space because it’s better than done, no. not missing.
First step: buy the Caddy and the SATA SSD
The shape and dimensions of the space occupied by the DVD drive in our laptop is designed for this, so we cannot directly insert an SSD drive. So you will need the use of a Caddy, in which you will place the SATA SSD to replace the reading unit.
One of the things that you need to look at is the height of the drive because depending on which you will need to buy one type of Caddy or another. Standard height measurements are 9.5mm or 12.7mm and you can easily buy one for little money.
Once you have the bay you will just have to place the 2.5 inch SATA drive inside, the choice is up to your taste, because you know better than anyone what your budget and needs are. storage.
Step two: open the laptop
The first thing you will need to do is disconnect all cables from the laptop and remove the battery from it, because for safety reasons we don’t want anything other than electric current in some way. ‘another one.
After you have disconnected everything, you need to open the laptop, to do this, fold the screen and lay it face down on the table. Moreover, we recommend that you use a clean towel so that it does not collect dust from the table and especially that it is not damp.
This done, unscrew the screws of the case to access its interior. You may not be able to do this as they use special screws, don’t worry as there are repair kits that will allow you to do this and from there we recommend that you always have for any contingency. Moreover, we also recommend that you take the opportunity to clean the inside of the laptop using compressed air to remove the dust that has accumulated inside, as well as other operations. such as cleaning and renewing the thermal paste of certain components.
Step three: replace the drive with the SATA SSD
We need to remove the reader block, for this you will need an additional tool in the form of a credit card or a plastic knife, do not use metal to replace the reader for safety. You will need to completely disconnect the drive from the SATA port, as well as remove power cables of the same type. Our advice? Leave the cable plugged into the side of the motherboard in case you need to reconnect it. In some laptops, their industrial engineers have built in an easy eject mechanism to remove the reader unit, if you touch any of them, it will be much easier to perform the operation.
One thing you will need to do to prevent dust from entering your laptop is to recycle the bezel, which means you will need to remove it from the drive to place it in the Caddy. The operation is very simple and while you may find that some include their own facades, the aesthetic difference might squeak you a bit.
The installation of the bay with the SATA SSD is done by performing the reverse steps that you did to remove the drive in order to mount the unit. Once everything is done, all you have to do is reassemble the laptop, plug everything in and enjoy your extra storage space on your laptop.
Can I use a hard drive instead of an SSD?
Of course, as long as the Caddy is designed to place 2.5 inch drives, if you have a hard drive of this size, you can use it instead of a SATA SSD to replace your drive, to which case the tutorial will be done exactly the same way as we told you.
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