Reddit reviews StarTech.com 3.5in Universal Hard Drive Mounting Bracket Adapter for 5.25in Bay - 3.5 to 5.25 HDD Drive Adapter (BRACKET)
We found 15 Reddit comments about StarTech.com 3.5in Universal Hard Drive Mounting Bracket Adapter for 5.25in Bay - 3.5 to 5.25 HDD Drive Adapter (BRACKET). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Durable all metal construction for mounting any type of 3.5in device into a 5.25in bayBacked by a StarTech.com 2-year warranty and free lifetime technical supportAll metal constructionFour (4) mounting screws included
I got 2 of these. You can see good customer submitted pictures of how they mount. I don't love them, but they worked out ok. If you want I can take a closer picture of how they look in my optical bays tonight.
I did something similar a while back, but I settled for single 5.25 to single 3.5, internal non hot swap with a bay cover. There is also a decent internal hot swap for SSD.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0094D8UGU/
https://www.frozencpu.com/products/1299/cpa-02/Lian_Li_35_Black_Bay_Cover.html
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007BGTMFU/
This one looks the exact same, is cheaper, and name brand but I can't vouch for it. I saw a hot swap on the site, but I can't vouch for that either.
https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Universal-Mounting-Bracket-Adapter/dp/B0001UZQWG
https://www.frozencpu.com/products/14289/hdd-ss-03/Silverstone_Stackable_525_to_35_Hot_Swap_Drive_Bay_Adapter_SST-FP57B.html
That shouldn't be too difficult then. You will need to address two major concerns in this process: data and power.
DATA:
If the IDE cable for the DVD only has a single connector on each end, not a 3^rd in the middle, then you will need to acquire a dual device IDE cable., which should be cheap and easy to find.
The one connector should be further from the other two, that one goes into the motherboard, the other two into the drives (hard drive and DVD). In order to get the two devices to play nice with each other you will need to check the jumper settings on both the hard drive (set it to "master") and the DVD-Rom (set it to "slave"). There is another option called "cable select" or CS, but that tend to cause some headaches.
POWER
This should be cheap and easy too. In order to power the hard drive you will need to "steal" power from the DVD drive, the best way to accomplish this is with a molex split cable. Just unplug the power going into the DVD and put the splitter on, then to the two devices.
---
Most likely the power supply will be able to accommodate a little more draw for the new device. Between the power splitter and the short distance between the IDE/ATA (btw, these are sometimes called PATA) connectors the hard drive will need to be positioned close to the DVD drive, which might mean in that area of the case that is too big (DVD drives are 5.5" and HDD's are typically 3.5"), but there are hard drive rails you can use to mount the HDD in the bigger space.
The links are only suggestions to the parts, which you really shouldn't have any issue finding at a local electronics store (Best Buy, RadioShack, MicroCenter, etc).
When you get the all squared away you will need to make sure it shows up in the BIOS. Make sure the boot order is still correct. Save, exit, and boot up Windows.
Depending on if the drive is already formatted or not you should be able to see it in Windows; if not let us know.
Thank you for the kind words!
I hated the look of my last build so I wanted to build something clean this time. All black was the obvious choice (the only choice, really). :)
It's funny how much the non-black parts of this build bother me, haha.
But yeah, here's the 3.5 to 5.25 adapter I used to mount the HDD in the ODD cage. It works perfectly but it isn't black >.>
How did you move the drives to the 5.25 bays? I bought this a while ago, but they wouldn't work with the tool-less bay system.
Are you using the 5.25 bays? If not, you can get a bracket to convert them to 3.5
http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Universal-Mounting-Bracket-BRACKET/dp/B0001UZQWG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1427785399&sr=8-2&keywords=5.25+3.5
I got these cheap adapters.
Thank you so so much, I couldn't find the adapter for the larger slot for the life of me and you've found it instantly!
That mounting bracket isn't available in the UK, would you be able to tell me if this mounting bracket adapter would work just as well?
https://smile.amazon.co.uk/StarTech-com-Universal-Mounting-Bracket-Adapter/dp/B0001UZQWG/
Contacting the manufacturer is probably your best bet. Or get something like this or similar for a few bucks - http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Universal-Mounting-Bracket-BRACKET/dp/B0001UZQWG - for a quick and cheap alternative solution.
Mounts a HDD in a 5.25" drive bay - of which you'll probably have a few spare slots in your tower.
Not sure if your asking for one but heres a universal bracket for a 3.5" drive.
If you post your case make & model someone could probably find one directly for it.
Something as simple as this.
You mean one like these?
Or something more complicated?
Take this
Should work just fine.
Like this one?
You'd probably want something like this: Link