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General discussion

HP Pavilion p6210y -- New Hard Drive Installation

by RetiredEngineer1 Mar 7, 2010 3:54AM PST

Hello All.

I need to upgrade my HP Pavilion p6210y with one or more hard drives. The Upgrade & Installation manual has some nice phtos of uninstalling/reinstalling the factory drive. The photos show a "drive cage" which appears to be big enough for a second drive. However, there is no help on where new hard drives should sit, nor specs on the type/number/size of new hard drives supported. In the p6201y specs in HP's website, I found the following availability statements for hard drive bays:

Drive bays
Bay type Quantity
5.25" Two (One available)
3.5" Three (Two available)

Does anyone know where these available installation points are located? From the factory drive uninstall/install photos, it looks like there is room enough in the drive cage for a second drive. However, I can't tell whether the factory drive is 5.25" or 3.5". Also, I can't find room other than the factory drive cage where 2 additional 3.5" drives should be mounted.

Any help in understanding drive bay installation would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
RetiredEngineer1

Discussion is locked

2 Posts

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Drive facts . . .

by Coryphaeus Mar 7, 2010 9:04AM PST

Optical drives are 5.25". Hard drives are 3.5". They both have side mounting screws; optical drives have fine thread, hard drives have standard thread. Some drives, both optical and hard, are mounted with screws underneath. Other drives are screwless using sliding locking bars.

Only you can tell which you have, and this takes eyeballs inside the case.

Now!! And a BIG NOW!!!

Are you going to connect a SATA drive or an IDE drive. The two are not interchangeable. You must look at the connecting cables on the existing drive. Flat and about 40 wires, about two inches wide? Or flat and about a half inch wide. Depending on the mother board available ports, this is important.

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Cabling Difference Between SATA and IDE Internal Drives

by RetiredEngineer1 Mar 8, 2010 4:02AM PST

Coryphaeus:

Thanks for clarifying 5.25" disks for me.

You stated, "You must look at the connecting cables on the existing drive. Flat and about 40 wires, about two inches wide? Or flat and about a half inch wide. Depending on the mother board available ports, this is important."

Which wire type is SATA, and which is IDE?

Thanks.
RegiredEngineer1

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