Expanding my laptops HDD capacity

a month ago by BarHocker to c/diy

What I have

I have an old Acer Aspire A515-51G and I also have a desire to have a home server. In combination this creates a need for the laptop to carry more HDDs than it can from factory. Usually it can take one M.2 SSD and one 2.5" SATA drive.

What I want

I want to make the laptop able to run at least 4 HDDs in RAID 5 for storage and have one SSD as boot drive.

What I did

The buying phase

4 HDDs
M.2 to SATA adapter
12V/5V SATA power converter
12V 10A power supply

The designing phase

I needed space to hold the HDDs, so I designed a 3D printed a cage to attach to the bottom of my laptop. Two 80mm fans can be attach to it. You can see it on printables. Also I remixed a tray (here is the original) so the HDDs can slide in and out of the cage.

.

The assembly phase

A cutout at the bottom of the laptop was needed to give access to the SATA ports of the adapter.

I put a 2.5" SSD into the already present place for it in the laptop.

Then the cage was attached to the laptop, the HDDs were put in their trays, the trays inside the cage and the cables attached to the adapter and HDDs.

DaPorkchop_ 44 points a month ago

this is horrific, i love it so much and want to build one myself now

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BarHocker 28 points a month ago

I have so much joy looking at my abomination.

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Daxter101 35 points a month ago

Ah yes. A DIWhy project. Love it.

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HerbGrower 27 points a month ago

Isn't "DIWhy" used to suggest its a pointless or stupid end result? This thing is awesome.

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Daxter101 15 points a month ago

Eh. I'm my mind, it's more about the insanity of it, not pointlessness.

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czardestructo 16 points a month ago

I did something similar awhile back. Since you already cut open the bottom of your laptop I would suggest you cutting another window over the CPU and adding a large plate of aluminum as a shelf between the laptop and you hard drives. Then add a shim so the CPU cooler and plate touch, then you will have a passively cool laptop server with an internal UPS battery.

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BarHocker 5 points a month ago

I am not worried about cooling. The system will be in a cool place, the HDDs are cooled by the 80mm fans and the laptop has its own cooling system that I just de-dusted.

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czardestructo 7 points a month ago

Its more that laptop fans are not designed for 24/7 usage, it will wear out quickly. Plus I hated hearing it.

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BarHocker 4 points a month ago

Fair, however, I have run this laptop in a different 24/7 setup for years and it was fine. Also the laptop lives in a place where noone needs to hear it.

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L7HM77 2 points a month ago

Any issues with the M.2 to SATA adapter? I've heard rumors to stay away from them, as the SATA controllers tend to overheat. Just wondering how the M.2 card behaves under load while trapped beneath the laptop.

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BarHocker 15 points a month ago

Somewhat off-topic: How could I crosspost to more communities, like DIY on beehaw or 3D printing communities? Would I need to create a completely new post on them? Or just post the link to this post?

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mote 12 points a month ago

At the top of the Lemmy UI underneath your title is a row of option icons; the icon to the left of the last icon with the three vertical dots - looks like maybe the Copy icon, sorta - is the Crosspost option. Click it and follow your nose, the new community dropdown is at the bottom of that next screen.

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BarHocker 5 points a month ago

Thanks, found it.

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CameronDev 12 points a month ago

Do you use the laptop as a laptop? Or is it now just a laptop shaped NAS?

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BarHocker 11 points a month ago

Just as a NAS.

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CameronDev 5 points a month ago

Thats a relief, I was worried you were completely deranged. :D

What NAS software? Does the nvme to sata thing properly pass through the disk serial numbers? Truenas gets very pissy if the disk serial numbers aren't passed in properly.

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BarHocker 6 points a month ago

I am running fedora server, and yes. Serialnumbers, SMART data, all seems well. Am a bit surprised by that as well.

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WhyJiffie 1 point a month ago

what made you choose that distro?

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SpatchyIsOnline 9 points a month ago

I actually have a similar setup that started out just as janky!

This is an HP mini PC I found on Ebay, with an m.2 to 6x sata adapter, hole dremmeled through the top of the case with a custom printed I/o shield to stop the cables or my fingers getting sliced on the metal.

After about 2 years of it sitting in my cupboard (like the first pic), I decided to print myself a LabRax case for everything and make it cleaner, still the same setup inside though!

Before:

After:

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BarHocker 4 points a month ago

That looks very clean. Though I wouls describe my setup as middle ground between your first and second pricture. I have a defines place for everything, just a few open cables.

What do you use to provide power to your drives?

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SpatchyIsOnline 2 points a month ago

I found some usb to sata power cables on Aliexpress. They can be a bit difficult to come across because there a so many usb to combined sata data/power connectors out there. I like your solution better, I was planning on buying a powered usb hub when I got more drives

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exdor 9 points a month ago

My only worry really is the m.2 to multi sata adapters reliability.

But it doesnt seem like there are sata-usb adapters with data only, that allow a single power source like yours 🤔

I might do something very similar with a mini PC

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poVoq 8 points a month ago

These m2 adapters are known to overheat, but otherwise they are much more reliable than usb to sata adapters.

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dai 5 points a month ago

I've had a 5x version (op has the 6x) in my fileserver for easily 12+ months. Never given me an issue, just chugs along attached to an itx motherboard. I'll probably need to get another one at some stage to keep up with the collection of content.

Using a pcie to 4x nvme riser, luckily this motherboard supports bifurcation so its single 16x pcie could become 24 sata drives if I ever required.

USB is far more unreliable compared to these M.2 to data adaptors from my experience.

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exdor 2 points a month ago

Oh crazy, good to know! In that case I should have probably gone with that...

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mote 8 points a month ago

I would probably add rubber/etc feet on the cage to keep it from vibrating around as they spin, and maybe a handle for carrying! It's a mobile laptop after all... :) What if someone tries to snatch-and-grab a HDD while you're getting a coffee, do we have an alarm system? Lo-jack?

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FrowingFostek 9 points a month ago

This reminds me of the homeless guy I saw walk away from his shopping cart, spin 180 while clicking his imaginary FOB, then mouthing "Boop Boop".

Needless to say I lost it, core memory.

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BarHocker 3 points a month ago

I do not want to carry it around. I will put it in a corner as a stationary NAS.

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mote 1 point a month ago

...it... it was a joke. but OK thanks for letting us know.

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dismay3915 7 points a month ago

Dude this is so sick

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Blue_Morpho 7 points a month ago

That's one nudge away from a disaster. I'd 3d print a shroud for the sata ports/connectors that uses the laptop base screws to hold it in place. That way the laptop could slide off the drive cage without every sata port snapping off.

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BarHocker 11 points a month ago

Cage and laptop are screwed to each other.

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zebidiah 5 points a month ago

That looks hot!

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SapphironZA 5 points a month ago

It probably uses less power than a NAS, while having more CPU power and RAM

Plus nothing beats and upgrade using what you already have.

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Zachariah 4 points a month ago

Is the battery still in the laptop?

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dudesss 5 points a month ago

Take the battery out and run it only with the power cord

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BarHocker 4 points a month ago

No, it is not. I took it out.

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AngryCommieKender 4 points a month ago

Do you have more photos of the actual connection process? Like before and after installing the adapter?

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BarHocker 5 points a month ago

No, but installing the adapter itself is exactly the same as installing an M.2 SSD. Afterwards you treat it the same as regular SATA ports in a PC. You connect the SATA data cables to the HDDs and the adapter, and provide power to the HDDs. Power is not handled by the adapter, this is what the DC 12V/5V converter is for.

Does this help you?

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AngryCommieKender 2 points a month ago

It's a good explanation. I don't have a spare laptop to attempt such engineering madness, lol.

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yuman 3 points a month ago

very cool. wanted to do exactly that something similar with a Lenovo Ideapad I found. except, I don't want to buy the adapter board, I just wanna utilise the existing two SATA ports in the laptop; one HDD, one DVD. haven't figured a zerospend way to do that, as the SATA ports on the MB are female, as are the cables.

second, don't wanna use an external PSU, there's gotta be a way to get 12 V off the board somehow or use a step-down module from, say, backlight?

does acer have a power-on on AC setting in the setup or do you have to power it on manually?

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haverholm 3 points a month ago

there's gotta be a way to get 12 V off the board somehow

If you remove the battery (to avoid swelling), you'll have a vacant port. But connecting that in any way that won't fry your drives is another question I haven't solved...

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BarHocker 2 points a month ago

I power the laptop with its external PSU and removed the battery. Not sure that answers your question.

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yuman 2 points a month ago

when you connect the PSU, does the laptop power on or do you have to press the power button? mine doesn't power on on its own, with or without battery.

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BarHocker 2 points a month ago

I have to press the power button.

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haverholm 3 points a month ago

Very cool looking project. I've been stripping motherboards from my busted old laptops recently, and am setting one up as a HiFi-ish HDD player at the moment. Next step would be some sort of NAS/homelab.

Since you're already 3D printing parts, is there any reason you didn't just pull the mobo, connect the drives and made a neat headless case for it all? Not that I don't appreciate that weird lapdozer you made! 😂

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BarHocker 6 points a month ago

This way I have keyboard and screen attached in case I want to use it, and designing around the motherboard seemed more work for not much benefit. I do have enough rack space to not need to care about bulk, the server will not be in a place anyone can hear it and noone will regularly look at it as well, so it does not need to be pretty.

I opted for easy maintainance and tried to not overengineer it, so that it can get used sooner.

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haverholm 3 points a month ago

Fair, I thought that might be your reasoning 🙂 Either way, I've added a few of your purchases to my own wish list for future projects. Thanks for the inspo!

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db_null 3 points a month ago

Madness!! Great work

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LastYearsIrritant 3 points a month ago

I've considered this a few times, but having two separate power bricks seems like a bad idea to me.

Like, logically it should be perfectly fine, but it feels like it's creating a problem.

What happens if the laptop powers down, don't the hard drives keep running? Is that an issue?

What about sleep or just low power? It just feels like there's situations where you want the power supplies to be off.

I get that NAS devices are on 24/7, but still... Makes me hesitate.

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lightnsfw 3 points a month ago

I've done similar things and not had an issue. If nothing is taking to the drive it just idles.

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Landless2029 1 point a month ago

I think the physical setup (this is a hanky JBOD) and a battery backup would help here.

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whotookkarl 3 points a month ago

movie poster/cover for the raid redemption

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MonkderVierte 1 point a month ago

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BarHocker 3 points a month ago

I didn't get a case, I printed one. I am not sure what you mean by "just screm em on".

Also, if you look carefully at the post, there are two 80mm fans.

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charles 1 point a month ago

This is an incredible project, I love it! Very well done OP.

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