Adding a Second HDD to Optiplex 7040 MT

CaseyJones

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Seems like there's a few people running the Optiplex 7040 (Mini Tower) for their BI setup. The board on the 7040 Mini Tower has 4 SATA ports and the tower has 2 extra 3.5" bays that would be used for optical drives. Can you add an additional HDD drive using the extra SATA? according to one post I saw SATA Ports 0 and 1 are both 6Gbps. It seems possible but the part I'm hung up on is power. I can't find anything detailing how to power the additional drive. Anyone have experience with this and able to help me out and tell me if it's possible with the factory PSU and what I would need (Y splitter power cable?) to power the additional HDD?

Thanks!
 

TonyR

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If it'll power 2 HHD's it should additionally power at least a SSD for the O/S, as they consume so very little power, IIRC.

Yes, you may need a Y-splitter for SATA power. I think I bought one a loooong time ago with 1 female SATA power (or P/S side) to 2 males (or drive side).

Something like this, although that wasn't the brand or vendor.
 
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Rakin

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I have an optiplex 7040 mt and I can only fit 1 3.5” and 1 2.5”. I’m interested in how you can put 2 3.5” hdd in it.


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Jessie.slimer

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I have an optiplex 7040 mt and I can only fit 1 3.5” and 1 2.5”. I’m interested in how you can put 2 3.5” hdd in it.


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Did you ever figure this out? Maybe there is an optional tray to fit both 3.5 hard drives in that area once the optical drive is removed? Or just lay them in there?

I'm trying to get a 2nd hard drive in mine right now.
 

Jbiff

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Did you ever figure this out? Maybe there is an optional tray to fit both 3.5 hard drives in that area once the optical drive is removed? Or just lay them in there?

I'm trying to get a 2nd hard drive in mine right now.
Has anyone figured out how to add a 2nd 3.5" HDD. I bought a 7040 tower from ebay thinking of course you can add a second HDD. Now I don't know.
 

Jbiff

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Mike A.

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There's not a full bay there to use an insert like that. The optical drive is a little slimline thing with a larger panel next to it that takes up most of the remaining space and isn't really removable. Guess you could if you don't care what it looks like and want to move the USB ports and still not sure anything would fit there to clear the CPU fan.

There are a few other places inside the case where there's physical space to stick a 3.5" drive but no place made to mount one.
 
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Flintstone61

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Eight-Pin Western Digital SATA Drives

1
Locate the jumper block on the back of the hard drive. There are eight pins arranged in two rows on the right side, directly beside the power connector. Pins are numbered right to left, with odd numbers on the top row and even numbers on the bottom row.

2
Place the jumper on pins 1 and 2 to disable the drive's spread spectrum clocking feature. These are the top and bottom pins on the right side of the block.

3
Place the jumper on pins 5 and 6 to to limit data transfer speed to 150 MB/s. These are the top and bottom pins, second from the left.

4
Place the jumper on pins 3 and 4 to enable PM2 mode on Western Digital SATA drives that support PM2. These are the top and bottom pins, second from the right. PM2 mode enables you to power up the drive while in standby mode using the ATA standard control signup command on a multi-drive server or workstation.

5 Place the jumper on the pins sideways to make the magic smoke come out.
 
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TonyR

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There's not a full bay there to use an insert like that. The optical drive is a little slimline thing with a larger panel next to it that takes up most of the remaining space and isn't really removable. Guess you could if you don't care what it looks like and want to move the USB ports and still not sure anything would fit there to clear the CPU fan.

There are a few other places inside the case where there's physical space to stick a 3.5" drive but no place made to mount one.
Wow...then those specs that Looney posted in #4 are way off....and it's Dell's error. :idk:
 

TonyR

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Jbiff

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Well, the drive is installed, initialized, and is formatted. I removed the DVD drive. I removed the original 2.5" HDD and its caddy. I removed the 2.5" drive from the caddy and placed it loose where the DVD drive was and reconnected the original power and data cables. I installed the new 6TB where the caddy had been. The caddy is a 3.5" form factor so the 6TB fit right in. I connected the DVD data cable to the 6TB drive and the other end to the unused MoBo SATA connector. I connected one of the unused power connectors to the 6TB drive for power. Gotta make sure none of the rerouted cables interfere with the CPU fan. Installed the 1Gb Dual NIC card. BI is installed on the 6TB drive and seems to execute ok. Next is to connect the 8-port PoE switch and make a test cat6 cable for my new camera. Getting close. :)Edit: I moved BI to the boot drive and the 6TB is dedicated to just data.
 

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TonyR

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BI is installed on the 6TB drive and seems to execute ok. . :)
Is that 6TB running BI and BI's video clips? If so, not optimum.
Ideally Windows, BI program and BI's "db" folder is on the C drive which is a SSD; BI's video clips should go to a surveillance-rated HDD, like a WD Purple.
 
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