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SSD trays are your friend
https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Dual-Mounting-Bracket-CSSD-BRKT2/dp/B016498CK0
https://www.amazon.com/ORICO-Adapter-Mounting-Bracket-Interface/dp/B01LZWX6PD
https://www.amazon.com/General-Drive-HDD-Adapter-CADDY/dp/B00F3QFKNS
Buy any 2.5" ssd and install it in any number of 2.5 to 3.5 trays available.
EDIT: And yes, your sata connection will work fine.
And the sata connections will work as if it were 3.5" drives? To power and read data?
Edit: upvoted. I wrote this before your edit.
Edited again and added a corsair cheap option that I personally use on mine. Works with any sata power and data cables.
OOOOOOOHHH!!!!! I like that one. If I'm understanding correctly, it fits 2 drives of 2.5" in the same space that 1 single 3.5" HDD drive would have fit? But It looks like it does also use both ends of the sata cable, to chain them together, master and slave. So even though it does save space, it doesn't allow additional drives to be added with the slave end of the connector.
Is this right?
Exactly. I have 2 x WD Blue 2TB drives in mine that use the same cables as a regular Sata hdd (primary and secondary actually as I also have an m2 drive). Heat isn't an issue and they both work in that corsair caddy perfectly.
Oh, one other question.....and I know this goes against everything I just asked, but I'm just imagining possibilities.
Could I use THIS CABLE from the internal where I normally connect to the hard drive. Instead of connecting directly to the hard drive, I connect to that cable extention. Then, I run the cable extention to the OUTSIDE of my desktop PC, and lay the hard drive on top connected to the extension?
So from my computers perspective, it's not an external hard drive. My PC is trying to boot from the internal hard drive, just as normal.
But if I turn my PC off, I could take easily remove the hard drive, and now connect a DIFFERERNT hard drive, with a different OS on it, and my PC would just be like "Ok, here's that other OS" and then I turn the PC off again, disconnect that drive, and reconnect the first drive, and my PC will be like "Ok, here's that first OS again".
Essentially allowing me to swap SSD's/OS's as long as the power is off first. And yes, I realize that means I would have to install the OS onto the new SSD before I connect it. But once that's installed, then it's just a swapping bananza!
I could even buy a bunch of smaller SSDs for cheap, and just try OS's for the sake of trying them without fear of losing erasing my main daily OS with me being stupid and formatting something I shouldn't have. Because the drive wasn't even connected when I did that, so it CAN'T get erased!
Am I mad scientist here, or is that all possible? And yes, I realize it COMPLETELY invalidates the bracket use you just suggested. Well.....not entirely. I'd still use a storage slave internally.
While possible, the issue is the molex connectors from your power supply as they often have an overlap which would butt up against the data cable and it may not fit snuggly.
You're better off either using esata (most systems have an estata connector) with an external esata caddy, but if you do not then I would actually recommend a sata to usb caddy like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Tool-free-Enclosure-Optimized-EC-UASP/dp/B00OJ3UJ2S
Basically just install any 2.5" SSD into it and plugin into the back of your pc usb port. It's not as fast as esata or direct sata, but great for backup and archive.
I don't think that idea would work, for exactly the reason you said at the end. It's not as fast as sata. I would be leaving it like this as my daily setup, and I recently tried a linux usb persistant drive. It's usb 3, but based on issues I had, everyone said I'd have been better off with usb 3......which it was. But the time to install did not reflect that. To install the persistant usb stick, it took about 5-6 hours. When everyone online says an internal sata hard drive instalation takes 20 minutes.
Basically I have a raspberry pi, and it's not good enough to be a daily pc.....but I DO love the idea that I swap sd cards, and it's a TOTALLY different os. I love that. But Raspberry pi is arm. I want to do it with my full pc using sata.
I feel very mad scientist right now.
I would bypass all that and try to find a removable caddy like this one, they're just not as popular as they used to be:
Ok, so THAT particular seller doesn't ship to USA.
I found THIS which appears to be the same thing. But all the ones I see only support up to Windows 7. Not windows 10/11, and not linux.
Am I missing something, or should those OS's support my linked product just fine?
"No drivers or software required, supports hot swap, plug and play."
Meaning, it's OS irrelevant. The reason it shows "support up to windows 7" is just because it's an older unit, but will be perfect for your older rig.
Edit: Buy it, never look back, enjoy swapping operating systems!
as an alternative, here's one that you just push the drive into and eject out, plus it supports newer sata modes:
https://www.amazon.com/Kingwin-Universal-Tray-Less-Backplane-Enclosure/dp/B00M3WNWB2
or like the one we are discussing
https://www.amazon.com/Kingwin-Universal-Tray-Less-Backplane-Enclosure/dp/B00475DQ6Y
Note the reason these are more rare now a days is because of higher capacity drives. No need for most so now these are usually geared towards system integration and testing beds. Still, it's perfect for dual boot.
I saw one a few days ago where I was looking. It supported SSD and HDD, just like the second one you linked on amazon. But while I was reading, it said the setup had to be 1 SSD and 1 HDD.
The second one you linked on amazon, could I do 2 SSD's? I see nothing about requiring types. Just that it supports both.
For me, it wouldn't even be "dual boot". It would be 1 drive, 1 OS. The second drive would be pure storage. And I'd have multiple drives with different OS's. I'd even have a smaller one just for test purposes. Flash this or that linux os to a small drive, test it for like a day, or a week, and always have my main drives never even touched. I don't trust myself constantly repartitioning to not erase a drive. If it's not even connected, it can't be accidentally formatted.
Now as far actual drives go. I was thinking THIS ONE unless you know of some recognizable brand being sold through their own official amazon or ebay store, and 4TB or higher, while not being absurdly expensive.
Just ignore anything that says it's for one hdd and one ssd as you can use those trays to make a 2.5" ssd appear as a 3.5" hdd any day of the week.
If your intent is just one os and one data drive, get 2 small ssd drives for different OS' if you want and one 4TB drive for data.
As for good cheap drives, there's none better than the Crucial MX500 for 1/2TB
https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-MX500-NAND-SATA-Internal/dp/B078211KBB/
When it comes to quality cheap 4TB, the following brands are best:
edit: Note that the MX is higher quality, but older, which means more reliable at the cost of speed whereas the BX is less reliable but cheap and faster. The team group is pretty much the same as the BX, but has a better cache system and thus a bit more reliable than the BX
Well. I did it! I bought THIS ONE along with a 4TB WD Blue ssd hard drive.
Now I just have to decide if I'm going to reinstall Windows 7 from the backup I made. Install a whole new Windows 7 ISO from scratch, or try that Windows 10 version pirated without all the bloat.
Then in a few months I'll buy a second 4TB and then the next time I see some big sales on 2.5" SSD's for like $20 I'll buy 10 of those. Even if it's just 100GB.
I also have a couple of old laptops in storage people have given me, saying I could try fixing them if I wanted. Maybe one of those has a 2.5" hard drive. Even if it's HDD. Just a little playground to test on.
You'll find that Kingwin to be useful at multiple things, I promise.
I have something like 20,000 Windows 10 keys, send me a private message and I'll set you up with a legit iso and key if needed. Otherwise, have fun nerding out with your new toys!
Are any of them for Windows 10 LTSC? I heard you can get rid of all the bloat.
Oh, also, I bought ram too. Gonna max out at 16GB now. Which doubles it from my current 8GB. I'm told 16GB is the most my motherboard can take.
Windows 10 Enterprise is probably the least bloated version, it's a company version after all and lacks a lot of the crap. Windows 10 debloater is a nice powershell app that does a good job too though.
16GB is easily comfortable and can even game on with zero issues.
Let me know how it goes.
Zero chance. ltsc is a per license subscription cost. no company or person would give those out to anyone for free no different than giving a stranger your Netflix account.
Do you have to screw them in to the caddy every time you change them?
With that caddy, it's press a button and they disconnect from sata.
So you install the caddy inside, and then the hard drive can slide in and out like an old NES cartridge, without the need to open your case, or use tools or screwdrivers. It's just push and slide, turn on PC. Turn off PC. Push and slide out. Push new drive in. Turn on PC, and now it's a different OS.
I even have an unused slot on my PC to do this. I just have to remove a metal plate. So hopefully thats easy.
You have no idea how excited you just made me. It's like a whole new world of possibilities. I could install an OS on my main drive, then install another OS on the secondary drive. Turn off the pc, pull the first, move the second to first, and now I'm trying a new OS.
And if I don't like it, I still have my main, unaffected, on a different hard drive, just a quick swap away.
Plus......I have an excuse to nerd out over 2.5" hard drives now.
Esata (external sata) card:
https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-Port-Express-eSATA-Controller/dp/B00952N2DQ
Using esata, the drive would be using external sata (esata) allowing you to boot from any number of ssd drive caddy's using esata:
https://www.amazon.com/Vantec-SATA-eSATA-Enclosure-NST-266SU3-BK/dp/B014LQOG58
Yes the same cables will fit. There are adapters to help you with physicallly mounting the smaller drive in the bigger space