Will Linux need a driver to use an optical bay 2nd hard drive in a laptop?

General · 03-10-2015, 01:19 AM

I want to add a second HDD to my laptop computer, using a drive caddy, such as that shown here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004XIUQYA/...linkCode%3Dasn, used in a RAID1. The laptop manufacturer's Web site says the computer can use this type of caddy.

Will Linux be able to detect this drive during an installation just as if it were another HDD or would I need to install some special driver for the caddy? Would this likely run just as fast as a HDD installed to the regular place or would this be slower, as it is in the optical drive?

veerain · 03-10-2015, 01:34 AM

That depends on the interface your cdrom was using. Check the output of command 'dmesg' and see what your current hdd and cdrom are using. If it is SATA then both may be using it just that cdrom uses lower 1.5 Gbps and hdd using 3Gbps or 6Gbps interface. Ensure both are using the same chipset ports or atleast needed interface.

General · 03-10-2015, 08:47 AM

I checked dmesg, but do not know the meaning. Here are the lines that I assume are important:

Code:

$ dmesg | grep CD

[    1.248516] ata2.00: ATAPI: MATSHITACD-RW  CW-8124, DZ13, max UDMA/33
[    1.293812] scsi 1:0:0:0: CD-ROM            MATSHITA CD-RW  CW-8124   DZ13 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[    6.438288] cdrom: Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
[    6.438654] sr 1:0:0:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0
[    6.904789] [drm]     LCD1: INTERNAL_LVDS

$ dmesg | grep SATA

[    1.086149] ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x1f0 ctl 0x3f6 bmdma 0xffa0 irq 14

$ dmesg | grep sda

[    1.468909] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk

Does any of this say anything about how the computer is using the HDD and optical drives?

rokytnji · 03-10-2015, 09:34 AM

Quote:

Will Linux be able to detect this drive during an installation just as if it were another HDD

Yes. Just go into bios and look at it. Set the preferred Hard drive order in bios.
Bios is where everything is started. If bios sees it. You are OK.

Quote:

would I need to install some special driver for the caddy?

I doubt it and don't think so, but anything is possible in this universe.

jefro · 03-10-2015, 05:50 PM

In a weird twist, sometimes bios doesn't need to have the device listed but if someone set it to a hard drive in some manual setting there would be a problem. I'll agree to start at bios.

Also you may need to double check any jumpers if the cable or tray doesn't set the ide channel.

Is this still installed? "MATSHITACD-RW "

General · 03-10-2015, 05:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jefro

Is this still installed? "MATSHITACD-RW "

I thought running dmesg without the CD drive installed wouldn't provide any meaningful message, so the output above is with the HDD installed in the regular place and a CD drive installed. I wanted to make sure this has a high likelyhood of working before investing in the extra caddy and 2nd hard drive.

veerain · 03-10-2015, 09:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by General

I checked dmesg, but do not know the meaning. Here are the lines that I assume are important:

Code:

$ dmesg | grep CD

[    1.248516] ata2.00: ATAPI: MATSHITACD-RW  CW-8124, DZ13, max UDMA/33
[    1.293812] scsi 1:0:0:0: CD-ROM            MATSHITA CD-RW  CW-8124   DZ13 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[    6.438288] cdrom: Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
[    6.438654] sr 1:0:0:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0
[    6.904789] [drm]     LCD1: INTERNAL_LVDS

$ dmesg | grep SATA

[    1.086149] ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x1f0 ctl 0x3f6 bmdma 0xffa0 irq 14

$ dmesg | grep sda

[    1.468909] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk

Does any of this say anything about how the computer is using the HDD and optical drives?

It is not enough to interpret. The first column is showing kernel time. Around this 1.086149 time sata drivers and it's devices are getting enabled. If you can post all messages around would help. Using grep to find single lines doesn't helps.

jefro · 03-10-2015, 09:13 PM

I think it is almost 100% chance to work. Almost all of those laptops had a way for an extra drive. See the owners manual for sure.

General · 03-11-2015, 12:46 AM

The CD drive is this CW-8124-B (http://www.netcomdirect.com/pamamacw12sl.html). I found the connector on the back of the DVD drive does not look like the SATA connection on a hard drive. That link says "Interface IDE/ATAPI". Does that mean that is not for placing a SATA device?

veerain · 03-11-2015, 02:29 AM

Then it is the old EIDE interface which was used before switch to SATA interface. IDE is PATA (Parallel ATA) while SATA is (Serial ATA). You then have to search for PATA Hard Drive. May be the laptop has spare SATA port.

jefro · 03-11-2015, 03:06 PM

Sure it is an ide. Eide actually. max UDMA/133

General · 03-11-2015, 09:23 PM

So if one drive is a SATA and another is a SATA but plugged into a SATA-->IDE converting caddy, will this still work as a RAID1?

jefro · 03-11-2015, 10:20 PM

Software raid is very forgiving usually in it's ability to mix speeds of drives.

At one time hardware raid had to use special matched drives.

Find the owners manual on this to be sure of your hardware.