Hi,
 My Toshiba P500 ST5807 laptop has a 2nd bay for a hard drive but I have never found any official Toshiba info listing a 2nd hard drive as a feature. I've looked but have never seen a mention of an additional hard drive as an option.


 I'd like to pop a 1TB drive in there but I don't know if the bay is anything more than a hole in the assembly.

 
 Toshiba seems to offer external drives for this model and never seems to mention the additional drive bay.


 What, do you think, are the chances that this bay is sitting there ready to go? How can I check before I go buy a drive?

 In Device Manager, under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers I have

- ATA Channel 0
- ATA Channel 1
- ATA Channel 4
- ATA Channel 5
- Intel(R) 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset Family 4 Port SATA AHCI Controller - 3B29


My system hard drive is on Channel 0
My DVD drive is on Channel 4


Thanks for any info.


best regards,
mike




fixed

I just got off the phone with Toshiba support.

I tried to explain, over and over again that my laptop has a open drive bay and what appears to be a sata connector but that I don't see any mention of it in the detailed specs so I wanted to confirm if a 2nd drive is possible.

The Toshiba reps kept reading the very same info I have read and suggested that they don't see any mention in the specs about the open drive bay.

I'm trying to figure out if the connector is actually connected to the mother board and if the system has the power capacity for the extra drive. It'd be nice to know if there is a size limit too.


Here are he specs I've had for the 2 years I've owned the laptop... it's the same specs the Toshiba rep just read.

http://cdgenp01.csd.toshiba.com/content/product/pdf_files/detailed_specs/satellite_P500-ST5807.pdf

It was so difficult to explain that I hoped to buy and install another hard drive in the existing extra bay. He kept mentioning USB and memory stick options... and I kept explaining that I wanted another internal drive.

The official answer is that no one seems to know.

I may or may not get a follow up call from a "level 2" rep.




I don't know what else to do except buy a drive and try it... any suggestions?

Thanks.


best regards,
mike

mike_mccue




I'd like to pop a 1GB drive in there but I don't know if the bay is anything more than a hole in the assembly.

Why don't you just a USB drive, for 1GB?

My solution to such quandaries is take it apart and have a look, but that's me. Alternatively stick your current drive in there and see if you can boot it from there although you may need to change the BIOS boot order.

This website is a great resource for laptops and Toshiba's in particular. It has allowed me to fix numerous niggles such as broken webcams etc.

"Alternatively stick your current drive in there and see if you can boot it from there although you may need to change the BIOS boot order."



The 2nd level Toshiba rep called back this afternoon and that's what he suggested as well.

i had a dell that was like this and i did end up pulling it apart(customers)

it was a power wire directly to the power supply.
and a sata connector lined to the mobo.

the problem wasnt the expansion bay so i didnt even bother but just examine it.
 
doesnt surprise me about toshibas tech support.
they were the same ones that told me that the security hole(where you can cable lock the laptop down to a surface,was a firewire port.

I used to disassemble my previous laptop and clean the dust out.

I even replaced the LCD screen once.


Lots-oh-fun... just something more to add to the to-do list.



I think I'll order a fresh drive and if it doesn't work out I'll just use it in a portable enclosure as one of too may externals that I have.



best regards,
mike

The repair manual available here (look for the get manual hyperlink under the document preview) shows instructions for removing and replacing the second hard drive (4-18 ff). That sure looks like the designers intended it as an option.

Wow!


There it is right in section 4.6.

It took me about 10 minutes to explain to the phone reps that I was looking at a real life slot in my chassis... they explained that I didn't have one... yet here it is clearly documented.

I had hoped that they would have had easier access to this sort of documentation than I.



Thanks so much for the link and the great find.

I had felt sort of foolish for asking about this here but this reminds me why. This forum is about the best cross roads for info that I have ever found on the internet.

Thanks again.



best regards,
mike

We generally expect too much from the people tech companies pay to answer the phones. Typically there is a hierarchy of help, with the people at the bottom of the pyramid knowing very little about the product and working mainly off scripts. The scripts and the "help" system are as often as not designed to repel the caller, giving him as little useful information as possible except when the company stands to make money from the answer, or the product is still under warranty, and a simple test or fix will save the cost of actually dealing with a return for service. If you are persistent, you can sometimes get a call back from someone who really does have product knowledge, or at least ready access to in depth documentation--he is often on another continent from basic help call center. Eventually you can sometimes get help from someone with engineering training, but every effort will be made to avoid that. Telephone help or live chat is the last resource I expect to be helpful. Email is somewhat easier to forward to the guy who knows something, and a problem report collects the basic information in advance, and lets someone triage your problem much better.

I am sincerely happy that the link I provided was useful, and I really do not intend this to be a RTFM type of supercilious remark. But before you give anyone credit for more knowledge or skill than than they actually possess look at this:

http://www.google.com/search?q=Satellite+P500+repair+manual&aq=f&oq=Satellite+P500+repair+manual&sugexp=chrome,mod=0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8