Installing 2nd Optical Drive

The machine is a Dell XPS Studio 8100. I want to install a secondary
optical drive. I took off the front bezel, and what do I see where the
second optical drive goes? A rectangular piece of steel covering the slot,
that looks like it's supposed to be punched out, like the round openings on
an electrical box. It's this for real?

TIA

On 11/23/2011 8:11 PM, Boris wrote:
> The machine is a Dell XPS Studio 8100. I want to install a secondary
> optical drive. I took off the front bezel, and what do I see where the
> second optical drive goes? A rectangular piece of steel covering the slot,
> that looks like it's supposed to be punched out, like the round openings on
> an electrical box. It's this for real?
>
> TIA

The Dell service manual is found here:

http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...0/en/index.htm

check out the drives section.

Pen <> wrote in news:jak72o$3v1$:

> http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...0/en/index.htm

I should have mentioned that I've been there, and they only talk about
replacing the existing optical drive, nothing about installing a second
optical drive.

Thanks.

It's simple, really. Just punch out the metal piece in the second bay. It's there only because they don't expect their customers to be self-servicing their computers. These metal pieces will come with most new cases or computers, anyway. Once you have it out, you should be able to put it in. The only thing I have to ask, is it IDE or SATA? If IDE, make sure you have the pins set on one to Master and the other to Slave (or even Cable Select on both drives). Either way (IDE or SATA), you'll more than likely have to go into the BIOS to make sure that the Second Secondary drive (IDE) is set to AUTO, or if SATA make sure that the SATA port it's plugged into is set to ON.

Boris <> wrote in
news:Xns9FA6AEE5FB02Fnospamnospaminvalid@46.4.102. 18:

> I took off the front bezel, and what do I see where the
> second optical drive goes? A rectangular piece of steel covering
> the slot, that looks like it's supposed to be punched out, like
> the round openings on an electrical box. It's this for real?


Yes, that's what you're supposed to do. Don't just hammer it out, though,
as you could bend or deform the steel around the opening. The punchout is
probably attached by three small joints, two on one long side and one on
the opposite side. Use a flat-bladed screwdriver on the one-joint side to
lever the joint apart and swing that side of the punchout inward. Then
with your fingers swing the punchout back and forth until the remaining two
joints break off.

dg1261 <dgREMOVE-> wrote in
news:Xns9FA71E4A92881dgREMOVETHIS1261csco@88.198.2 44.100:

> Boris <> wrote in
> news:Xns9FA6AEE5FB02Fnospamnospaminvalid@46.4.102. 18:
>
>> I took off the front bezel, and what do I see where the
>> second optical drive goes? A rectangular piece of steel covering
>> the slot, that looks like it's supposed to be punched out, like
>> the round openings on an electrical box. It's this for real?
>
>
> Yes, that's what you're supposed to do. Don't just hammer it out,
> though, as you could bend or deform the steel around the opening. The
> punchout is probably attached by three small joints, two on one long
> side and one on the opposite side. Use a flat-bladed screwdriver on
> the one-joint side to lever the joint apart and swing that side of the
> punchout inward. Then with your fingers swing the punchout back and
> forth until the remaining two joints break off.
>
>

A Bosch electric demo hammer worked great. Actuall, 1/2 twist of the
whole plate snapped it right off. It was held on with two 1 mm tabs.
Never seen a case like this.

Thanks.

On 11/24/2011 3:47 PM, Boris wrote:
> dg1261<dgREMOVE-> wrote in
> news:Xns9FA71E4A92881dgREMOVETHIS1261csco@88.198.2 44.100:
>
>> Boris<> wrote in
>> news:Xns9FA6AEE5FB02Fnospamnospaminvalid@46.4.102. 18:
>>
>>> I took off the front bezel, and what do I see where the
>>> second optical drive goes? A rectangular piece of steel covering
>>> the slot, that looks like it's supposed to be punched out, like
>>> the round openings on an electrical box. It's this for real?
>>
>>
>> Yes, that's what you're supposed to do. Don't just hammer it out,
>> though, as you could bend or deform the steel around the opening. The
>> punchout is probably attached by three small joints, two on one long
>> side and one on the opposite side. Use a flat-bladed screwdriver on
>> the one-joint side to lever the joint apart and swing that side of the
>> punchout inward. Then with your fingers swing the punchout back and
>> forth until the remaining two joints break off.
>>
>>
>
> A Bosch electric demo hammer worked great. Actuall, 1/2 twist of the
> whole plate snapped it right off. It was held on with two 1 mm tabs.
> Never seen a case like this.
>
> Thanks.

the blank panel provides stiffness to the case in the absence of a drive
being installed in the slot. it helps keep the case from racking.
removing the panel like you did to make the bay available for use is normal.