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Drive bays are most commonly used to store disk drives, although they can also be used for front-end USB ports, I/O bays, card readers, fans, fan controllers, RAID controllers, tool storage, and other uses. Some computers have a small system monitor LCD mounted in a drive bay.
What goes into drive bays?
Drive bays allow certain peripherals, mostly disk drives, to be plugged into a computer. While disk drives are the most common, it is possible to use other peripherals, including card readers, USB ports, fan controllers and even small LCD monitors.
What can you do with a 5.25 drive bay?
What to Do With Your PC’s Unused Optical Drive Bays Fill It Up With Storage Drives. Add a Hot Swap Storage Bay. Expand Your USB Ports and Card Readers. Add a Fan Controller. Use It as a Watercooling Reservoir. Turn It Into a Literal Storage Drive. Add a Cup Holder.
What are internal 2.5 bays for?
Bays are the area for ssd, hdd and other devices like fan controller, dvd rom, etc. There are different types, the larger are 5.25″ and the smaller are 3.5″ (or 2.5″ for laptop hdd’s or ssd drives).
What are bays in a computer?
Short for drive bay, this refers to a site in a personal computer where a hard or floppy disk drive, CD-ROM drive or tape drive can be installed. For PCs, bays come in two basic sizes: 3.5-inch and 5.25-inch, which represents the bay’s height. In addition, bays are described as either internal or exposed.
What are external 5.25 bays?
Even more specifically, about the 5.25-inch external drive bay—the one that holds a CD DVD Blu-ray removable disc-based media drive.
What are hot swap bays?
A hot swap describes the act of removing components from or plugging them into a computer system while the power remains switched on. This means that parts can be changed without shutting down or rebooting a computer or server.
What is a 3.5 SATA HDD?
SATA hard drive can be found inside desktop computers, laptops, and servers. SATA hard drives intended for desktop computers are typically 4 inches wide, 1.03 inches tall, and 5.79 inches long, and they are usually referred to as 3.5-inch hard drives.
How do I install software without an optical drive?
Insert the USB thumb drive into a USB port on the computer that does not have a CD/DVD drive. If an AutoPlay window appears, click Open folder to view files. If an AutoPlay window does not appear, click Start , click Computer, and then double-click the USB thumb drive.
What are external bays?
External bays are places to put drives that you CAN access from outside the case. Like DVD/floppy drive bays.
Are 2.5 and 3.5 SATA the same?
no they are the same. 2.5 inch drives will often include power with the data cable as one unit, 2.5 inch drives use less power and can be powered by USB. a 3.5 inch drive needs more power and will have a dedicated power cable. the actual data port is the same on both sized drives.
What is the difference between a 2.5 and 3.5 hard drive?
The most obvious difference between 3.5 vs 2.5 HDD is the hard drive size. The 2.5 inch HDD is normally around 3 inches wide, whereas the 3.5 inch HDD is around 4 inches wide in diameter. On the whole, the 2.5 inch HDDs are smaller in length, width and height than the 3.5-inch HDDs.
Do computer cases come with hard drive bays?
Most cases include drive bays on the front of the case; a typical ATX case includes 5.25″, 3.5″ and 2.5″ bays.
How many internal drive bays do most laptops have?
Laptops usually can handle only one internal drive.
What are the 3 most common RAID configurations?
Configurations are typically evaluated based on their level of fault tolerance, their read and write speeds and their storage capacity. There are many RAID levels in use today, several of which are rare. The most common RAID configurations are RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6 and RAID 10.
Can SSD drives be hot swapped?
At OnLogic, we add spacers to our 7mm drives to ensure proper fit in 9.5mm hot-swap bays. Alternatively, you can purchase 9.5mm tall drives, but understanding the differences between hot-swap bays and storage drives will help you avoid this type of frustration.
Can SATA drives be hot swapped?
Reputable. Any SATA or SAS hard drive is inherently hot swappable. The drive isn’t the determining factor at all, it’s the controller, motherboard, OS, etc. that’s what determines whether hotswap will work.
Why do new laptops not have optical drives?
1 – Most music, movies and computer software is being delivered to the consumer over the Internet instead of on discs these days, making optical drives completely unnecessary for younger consumers who don’t own a library of optical media. You can still buy a laptop that does have an internal optical drive.
Can I use an internal DVD drive externally?
The adaptor is the most important component of converting an internal optical drive to an external drive. One side will have a socket suitable for connecting to the slimline drive; flipping it over reveals the USB and power connectors.
What does DVD stand for?
‘ The original acronym came from ‘digital video disc. ‘ The DVD Forum decreed in 1999 that DVD, as an international standard, is simply three letters.
Are 2.5 or 3.5 inch drives faster?
Even in the best case scenario the 2.5 inch drive will be a minimum of 25% slower . That is true the outer sectors of a 3.5inch will be faster, but the middle will be the same. The middle of a 3.5 inch drive would be faster than a 2.5 inch drive .
Which is better SSD or SATA?
SATA vs HDD & HDD vs SSD SATA drives are less expensive and more common than SSDs. However, SATA drives are also slower to boot up and slower in retrieving data than SSDs. If you’re looking for a hard drive with tons of storage space, a SATA drive may be for you, as they commonly hold terabytes of data.
Are 2.5 drives less reliable?
There’s not much difference in reliability. However, 2.5 inch drives are probably more convenient for mobile applications and they may be a tad more drop-resistant due to their lower mass (especially if mounted in one of those ruggedized cases).
