What is OBHD Caddy & How to Add Second Hard Drive to Laptop?

It is very difficult to upgrade Laptops components as they have size restrictions and virtually no room for expansion. You can upgrade the RAM to higher capacity or upgrade the hard disk with higher storage capacity, but this will require you to remove the old components and then fit in the newer components. Some laptops do come with extra RAM slot where we can increase the RAM by adding another RAM module one. But how to add another hard disk to your Laptop? Well the solution to this problem is by using OBHD. Let us learn what it is and how to use it to add another hard drive or SSD to your laptop.

What is OBHD or HDD Caddy?

OBHD or Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy is a small device that allows you to add second hard disk to your laptop. It is also known as HDD Caddy or Laptop Hard Drive Caddy. Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy (OBHD) is a hard drive case with required connector and is used to attach secondary hard disk to a laptop with optical drive. The types of connectors in OBHD include SATA or PATA connector. SATA is more common because all the latest or modern day laptop motherboards come with SATA ports only.

Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy is basically a hack to add second hard disk to your laptop. Officially the laptop manufactures do not approve this but it works and proves very cost effective for expanding your laptop storage capacity. You can add either a traditional mechanical laptop hard drive or a SSD (Solid Sate Drive) hard drive using OBHD.

Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy comes in different sizes and you should be very careful when buying them otherwise it will not fit in your laptop. In the next part I will tell you on how to select the proper OBHD or hard drive caddy for your laptop model.

Note: Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy (OBHD) can only be used with laptops with optical drive (CD/DVD). They are compatible with almost all laptops that include Dell, Lenovo, Fujitsu, HP, Toshiba, Samsung, Asus etc.

How to Choose Right Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy for your Laptop?

Here are the things that you must take care of when buying an optical hard drive caddy (OBHD) for your laptop.

Form Factor – Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy (OBHD) comes in two sizes which are 9.5 mm and 12.7 mm in height. The 9.5 mm OBHD can use 9.5mm laptop hard disk and the 12.7 mm can accommodate 12.5 mm hard disk. So you have to measure the height of your optical drive using a ruler and figure out which OBHD will fit in your laptop. If you make a wrong decision then the OBHD will be practically useless and you will not be able to use it in your laptop. So choose the OBHD drive and 2.5-inch hard drive carefully otherwise you may end up wasting your money.

Interface (PATA or SATA) – There are mainly two types of interfaces by which your hard disk connects to the motherboard. They are PATA and SATA. PATA is parallel interface which is mostly outdated and SATA (Seral ATA) is the newer Interface and you can find it in 99% of the laptops. So before buying a OBHD or hard drive caddy you have to make sure that through which interface your optical drive is connected to your laptop. You can also use some good system information tools like Astra32 to find out this. After this buy the hard drive bay accordingly.

OBHD Brand – These OBHD Hard drive bays are made by smaller companies and most of them are china based. Even then there are some good brands of OBHD that includes Storite, iConnect etc.

Checkout: Best 2.5 inch Laptop Hard Disks in India

How to Install Hard Drive Caddy on your Laptop?

Follow the below mentioned steps to install the OBHD or hard drive caddy on your laptop.

1. First of all buy the correct sized Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy (OBHD) and corresponding 2.5-in laptop hard disk (9.5mm or 12.5mm thickness).

2. Install the hard disk in the OBHD tray.

3. Turn Off the Laptop, remove its battery and then carefully remove the optical drive (CD/DVD) of your laptop by unscrewing it.

4. Now install the Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy (OBHD) by sliding it in the vacant place of the optical drive and tighten it with screws provided with it.

5. Insert the laptop battery and turn ON the laptop power. Now you will see your new hard drive partitions in the operating system.

Buy Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy (OBHD) for Laptop.

OBHD Advantages & Disadvantages

Here are the various advantages and disadvantages of using a Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy (OBHD) for expanding your laptop storage.

Pros

• Adds second hard disk & expands laptop storage capacity
• Add either SSD or mechanical HDD based on your choice
• Relatively Cost Effective

Cons

• Not easy to use for novice users
• May face compatibility issues on some laptop models

Have Queries? Then Ask me

I have explained in detailed about the Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy (OBHD) and how to install it for your laptop. If you have any queries or confusion regarding laptop hard drive caddy then you can ask me by leaving a comment below.

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