Vortex 3 - Adding a second HDD OR SSD

[cheshirecat765]

I've currently got a 750GB Seagate Momentus installed in my Vortex 3 but i wish for a second hard drive installed...should i go for a hdd or ssd?

 

[tom_gr7]

i think it depends what you wnt to do with the extra drive?

 

[cheshirecat765]

Storage of games, movies, music etc

 

[dlatimer]

I'd personally buy an SSD and load OS & Apps on it, and use your existing disk as the storage for music, movies etc.

 

[DeadOrAlive]

Hi Guys,

I'm happy someone already started this thread.

I have an old 15 inch laptop that is running Windows Vista Ultimate. I was wondering if I could go about using that old sata hard drive and installing it into my 2012 Vortex III as a secondary boot drive so I can switch between windows 7 and my Vista drive that I find very useful for work.

Do you think it would it run ok, or would I experience a BSD?

If it will work, how do I go about installing a second hard drive in a vortex III. Currently I have a disc writer installed. I imagine I would have to purchase a hard drive caddy from PCS and replace the disc writer with the caddy.. Is that correct?

 

[vanthus]

You can set up the laptop to use both Vista and windows7.Installing the second hard drive depends if you have the 17.3" Vortex III which has two hard drive bays plus the optical drive or the 15.6" Vortex III which only has one hard drive bay,if it's the 15.6" you will need the caddy for the optical bay.

 

[DeadOrAlive]

You can set up the laptop to use both Vista and windows7.Installing the second hard drive depends if you have the 17.3" Vortex III which has two hard drive bays plus the optical drive or the 15.6" Vortex III which only has one hard drive bay,if it's the 15.6" you will need the caddy for the optical bay.

Hi Vanthus,

Thanks for you reply.

-In order to use my old Vista HDD on my Vortex III, is it a case of plug and play? Or will it require me to reinstall the OS again once I've connected it to my Vortex III to function properly?

 

[vanthus]

It wont be plug and play,there are ways of transferring the old OS intact but would probably meet with a few problems,easier to do a clean install of vista,your only problem then would be installing the necessary drivers.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/5166-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-vista.html

 

[DeadOrAlive]

Having the old Vista OS intact and just being able to move the hard drive across without having to do a reinstall would be ideal. I just hope it's possible.

I'm going to contact PCS now and ask about the caddy. I've got the 15.6" vortex III.

 

[vanthus]

You could try uninstalling the drivers from the vista OS before moving the hard drive over,if you can then manage to boot into vista it should be possible to find and install the necessary drivers.Alternatively transferring the Vista OS would involve storing a system image on an external hard drive using windows vista backup utility (which isn't very reliable) or using a third party app like Acronis or norton ghost.Even then,there will likely be problems because of incompatible drivers on the vista system with the the new machine,so it would probably be easier to do a clean install then sort out the drivers,but no harm in giving it a try if you want.

 

[DeadOrAlive]

Yeah that's what I thought. In the past with old XP machines it was the chipset that caused the BSOD I seem to remember. When I upgraded a machine, and wanted to just keep my current hard drive as it was, just expecting it to work on the latest motherboard.

So a reinstall was inevitable. I just was kind of hoping that MS did away with that BS in the versions of OS after XP.

Still I just ordered a caddy and I am willing to give it a try at least.

Cheers for the help Vanthus.