My new case has a slot in the front for a 2.5" device. I have no idea what this is. Is that for an SSD? My manual tells me nothing about what this is!
I'm sure this is just another stupid question but there it is.

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merle - vote yes for freedom of speech

My new case has a slot in the front for a 2.5" device. I have no idea what this is. Is that for an SSD? My manual tells me nothing about what this is!
I'm sure this is just another stupid question but there it is.

You mean like a drive dock?

What is the make & model of the case? Perhaps their manufacture website has some info, or we can at least see what this slot is.

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Yes it's some kind of drive dock looks almost like the old floppy's but a little larger. It's a cooler master cm storm trooper (full tower). I think I looked on the web site which I'm starting to get in the habit of but I didn't see anything. Thanks Hal.

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merle - vote yes for freedom of speech

If you mean the slot shown here. Then it is just a 2.5" drive dock. You would only need to connect your SATA data & power cables to it if you wanted to use it. The dock itself may be optional & the hole would be there in the event you purchased it.

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Well I don't know about 2.5" external hdd/sata drives. I understand I would have to pin it myself to the MB, but I never heard of those kind of drives. I will have to read up on what exactly they are. I have external hdd on my old equipment but they are internal drives inside of an enclosure 5.25" and I've heard of and almost bought a 3.5" (I think) SSD internal drive but this here is new to me. I'll have to read up on it. Thanks

Well I don't know about 2.5" external hdd/sata drives. I understand I would have to pin it myself to the MB, but I never heard of those kind of drives. I will have to read up on what exactly they are. I have external hdd on my old equipment but they are internal drives inside of an enclosure 5.25" and I've heard of and almost bought a 3.5" (I think) SSD internal drive but this here is new to me. I'll have to read up on it. Thanks

The 2.5" form factor has been standard in notebooks for years, perhaps decades. A drive dock is to be used with a drive that is not in an enclosure. Most SSD's are 2.5" and the form factor is becoming more common for desktops. I only use 2.5" drives in my HTPC for lower power consumption.
With SATA being hot plug by design you can take a bare 2.5" SATA drive & stick it into the dock without having to put it in a external enclosure. The advantages are the full speed of SATA & high portability.
It would be good if you had two machines in different locations & were working on something with lots of data. Then you wouldn't have to mess with synchronizing the data between them. Another possibility is backing up important information and having quick access to remove it for safe keeping.

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I never had a notebook. You mean you just take a plain old internal 2.5" sata drive and just stick it in and it works?

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merle - vote yes for freedom of speech

I never had a notebook. You mean you just take a plain old internal 2.5" sata drive and just stick it in and it works?

Yep. That is the purpose of a drive dock. You can get an external drive dock for any computer if you want. They come in IDE or SATA. Some connect via USB or using eSATA.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=drive+dock&N=-1&isNodeId=1
Sometimes a case manufacture will incorporate them into the design. Like the case you have.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007583&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&ActiveSearchResult=True&SrchInDesc=dock&Page=1&PageSize=20

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Just as Hal stated, docks can be better than enclosures. Here's mine (rig on the right)



Also got a dual 2.5 on another system.

Nice,
I thought I was pretty slick about six months ago when I bought a plug-in to a usb 2.0 that had a simple sata data and power connector on it where I could connect it to any internal 5 1/4" drive and all along they had these things that I didn't even know about. I'm aging fast. :-)

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merle - vote yes for freedom of speech

Nice,
I thought I was pretty slick about six months ago when I bought a plug-in to a usb 2.0 that had a simple sata data and power connector on it where I could connect it to any internal 5 1/4" drive and all along they had these things that I didn't even know about. I'm aging fast. :-)

Your rate of aging remains constant. Technology on the other hands tends to advance a bit faster.

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Nice,
I thought I was pretty slick about six months ago when I bought a plug-in to a usb 2.0 that had a simple sata data and power connector on it where I could connect it to any internal 5 1/4" drive and all along they had these things that I didn't even know about. I'm aging fast. :-)

It's not a question of aging, but technology moving at a fast pace :-)

As you can see on that rig, I have a spare 5.25 bay. I'm going remove that dock which is a 3-in-2 & replace it with a 5-in-3 as I need the storage (39tb so far & running out fast).

Heh. The other day I was looking for enclosure for ide cd/dvd drive (5.25"). Could not find one on newegg.

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That's amazing.

Another question: On the machine I was referring to there is not an eject button. Do you just push on it and it pops out or are you stuck with it for all eternity. A silly question if you already know the answer, I admit. Well, you know me. I am trying to imagine what kind of spring loaded gizmo you would need in order to pull out a sata connector. Must be some kind of modified connector.

--edit
Oh yes, my common sense tells me that you don't push it all the way in. Then you have to pull hard to get it out. Then the question becomes how long does this connector last. 1,000 pushs and pulls?

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merle - vote yes for freedom of speech

Heh. The other day I was looking for enclosure for ide cd/dvd drive (5.25"). Could not find one on newegg.

If you have a empty bay in your case you could get a ide to sata converter. Just plugs into the back of the drive.

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Heh. The other day I was looking for enclosure for ide cd/dvd drive (5.25"). Could not find one on newegg.

If you have a empty bay in your case you could get a ide to sata converter. Just plugs into the back of the drive.

NewEgg sells the IDE to Sata converters. I had to get one when my IDE hard drive failed on my old P4 XP machine. I think it was $30.00 US.
Worked great.

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[/quote]

Old James

Note that on some motherboards, the port must be configured in the BIOS to be "hot swap" to avoid data loss.

Edit: IIRC, if the port is IDE, it is NOT "hot swap". It must be AHCI and set to "hot swap".

Edit 2: Here is a "How to" change from IDE to/from AHCI without reinstalling Windows: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php/698531-Change-IDE-to-ACHI-(easily!)-without-reinstalling-Windows

That's amazing.

Another question: On the machine I was referring to there is not an eject button. Do you just push on it and it pops out or are you stuck with it for all eternity. A silly question if you already know the answer, I admit. Well, you know me. I am trying to imagine what kind of spring loaded gizmo you would need in order to pull out a sata connector. Must be some kind of modified connector.

--edit
Oh yes, my common sense tells me that you don't push it all the way in. Then you have to pull hard to get it out. Then the question becomes how long does this connector last. 1,000 pushs and pulls?

It works the same way as an external USB hard drive. In that you tell the OS to "eject" so it spins the drive down. Then you would just yank it out like you would a USB cable. It should not require much force to insert or remove the drive & I expect it would probably not be as robust as a USB port, but should last quite some time.

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Thanks everybody for all the info.

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merle - vote yes for freedom of speech

Yes it's some kind of drive dock looks almost like the old floppy's but a little larger. It's a cooler master cm storm trooper (full tower). I think I looked on the web site which I'm starting to get in the habit of but I didn't see anything. Thanks Hal.

I looked on youtube and found the video on the case. Sweeeet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3UJdeIbtKk