Grumpy@Oldman.com wrote:
> I have a DELL OPTIPLEX GX620 Ultra Compact, and the SATA hard drive
> and its caddy had been removed. I have tried to get another caddy,
> and bought a metal one at
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI...:X:AAQ:US:1123
>
> but alas I could not make it fit. I have googled the subject, but
> have not found a caddy that seems would work.
>
> Does anyone happen to have this model desktop? Do you know what
> caddy- model # I should seek?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Grumpy
Says here, it ships with either a CD/DVD drive in the hole, or
an "Airbay", which would be some kind of blank that prevents
cooling air from coming out the wrong hole.
http://support.dell.com/support/edoc....htm#wp1136008
My guess would be, if an adapter was for sale, it would have the
same outer dimensions as the optical drive. That's my guess,
just looking at the size of the hole in a picture on Ebay.
You could look in the bay, and see if a standard sized
15 pin SATA power + 7 pin SATA data connector is in there.
The SATA connector was designed for storage backplanes, where
you "slide" a drive into the connector hot (system powered).
That was the SATA committee's intent when they designed it.
In other word, the connector was designed for slide entry,
making it easier to "home brew" a solution.
You could even look into running an extension cable out
of the box, and resting a laptop drive on the desktop surface.
The SATA cabling shouldn't be too long though.
http://www.miniinthebox.com/15-7-pin...m_p177683.html
So if you look in the hole, and that's the connector type, you
might be able to align a 2.5" laptop drive to fit the connector.
Then the remaining problem, is making a piece of sheet metal
strong enough to properly support it. At my hardware store,
I can get 22 ga steel for auto body work, that might be suitable
for making your own adapter. (It's hard to cut. Sometimes, I
saw it, for a clean edge. Other times, I can get enough strength
into my shears.) But this idea is only feasible, if the connector
situation is something you can solve. Using aluminum would
be nicer, but I can't get the right gauge of metal for that.
And if you can gain access to the bay area, from inside the USFF,
then all the better while securing the drive.
Some drive mountings like that, there is an intermediary
adapter, something with "blades", that fits between a drive
standard connector, and the connector inside the computer.
Based on the appearance of such schemes, it looks like they
wanted to allow some mechanical "float", in case something
gets flexed. If the drive connector was allowed to
connect directly, the drive connector would break if it was
bent. And so some kind of strain relief connector, fits
in between. If it's something like that, then you'll need
the "real mccoy" adapter, to get it all to work.
*******
Also, if you're not the original owner of this machine, and
you recently acquired it from Ebay, you should review the
failure statistics for your computer. Some Dells have had
up to 90% failure rate, due to leaking capacitors. And in
a quick check, I see "power supply" mentioned with respect
to that model. But perhaps just one particular batch of
power supplies, rather than all of them. Before buying
"attractively priced" Dells, there's a reason the price
is so low. In some cases, the failure situation is so bad,
you can't even trust "originally boxed replacement motherboards"
because they're all bad too. For the ones with a 90%
motherboard failure rate, only the "re-capped" ones would
be safe to own for any period of time. I would check
that out first, before becoming too attached to
the machine if it's a used one.
*******
If money is no object, you can purchase an SSD drive (as a
type of hard drive), and some people suspend those inside
a computer using nylon ties. They're shock resistant, and
lightweight enough that nylon ties will do the job. Then
run SATA cabling from the SSD to the motherboard, for
power and data. Entry level SSD drives, start at around $100
(they don't have enough capacity though, except as boot drives).
If you need a lot of bulk storage, SSDs are too expensive for
that sort of thing.
Just a guess,
Paul
DELL OPTIPLEX GX620 Ultra Compact Hard Drive Caddy 
Linear Mode
