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General discussion

HP upgrade question

Mar 31, 2005 9:40AM PST

Hi,

I'm interested in adding a second hard drive to my HP Pavilion a700n desktop. I looked inside the case and there is no place or cage to attach it. I contacted HP support and was told I needed to buy a hardware kit from HP ($12.95), separate from any hard drive I would purchase. Does anyone know if this is really necessary, or can I just use the parts that come with a hard drive kit? I guess what is missing is a cage to hold the drive, and that's what comes with the HP kit.

The reason I'm asking here is because I don't completely trust HP tech support, since the first person I talked to said I flat out couldn't add a second hard drive.

Thanks for any advice.

Mark

Discussion is locked

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RE
Mar 31, 2005 9:53AM PST

Y dont u just purchase an external hard drive? It would cost u more though. $150+ depending on the maker.

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Quick look see...
Apr 2, 2005 10:40AM PST

I checked the specs for your system and "believe" what they're trying to sell you is a 5.25->3.5 kit in order to install the HD in an empty bay. If this is the case, maybe a local shop has that far cheaper, maybe $5-10, or shop online. You have 2->5.25 bays one probably occupied by a CD drive, if you have 2 CD drives then bets are off. If you do have such an empty, that the fix for you, plus *may* need a longer HD cable in order to reach both HDs when installed, plus access to a free power plug. Also, in a wild guess, they may sell a special HP bracket that mounts the HD sideways due to spacing, or yet another cage attachement/bracket to the current cage, so its not entirely hopeless.

tada -----Willy Happy