Expanding my laptops HDD capacity
cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/66988984
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.
81 replies
this is cursed and i love it
Excellent hack.
In case you're a masochist like me and want a lot more work on your hands, then you could remove the whole laptop mobo and make its own case and make it more compact in the process.
I've done this recently to make a standalone machine out of a busted laptop. This can give you a single, more compact unit with all the parts inside. You can improve the cooling and noise too (by using desktop fans). You'll maintain your laptop resale value too by not destroying the case and being able to put the mobo back in place in the future. Infact, with today's ram prices, the reason I went down this route is because you can get broken laptops with soldered in DDR5 ram.
I've been pondering doing this to a broken iMac I've got.
It got donated to me by someone who needed to thin out his studio a bit, so it didn't cost me a penny. But I took the screen off to give it a clean out and repaste, apparently didn't tape it in place securely enough as a temporary measure, so the screen fell off. And smashed.
I did some swearing.
However, it's still a surprisingly handy spec. 3.5ghz i5, 24gb RAM and a Radeon GPU. So I've been wondering about pulling the guts and turning it into a desktop, then making it my home server to replace the 2014 Mac mini I currently use.
ponderings intensify
Watch this guy's video. He DIY restores a smashed iMac screen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FStfdGjAwc
I still have my black Core 2 duo Black Macbook, it's cut to a 4th of its size, a magnet is stuck near the lid sensor and it outputs video from the port on the side.
I mean it used to output, I haven't tried turning it on in like a decade
what if i want a multiplex, larger unit with several parts outside? can this help me accomplish that too?
Since this is DIY, you can fuck it up as badly as you want. The possibilities are endless!
@cRazi_man @selfhosted My kind of retirement project. The only problem is that time is not endless and they won’t tell me the deadline.
I've gone this route! Anything with a busted screen is fair game to me, though I haven't picked up any recently, mostly just tiny/mini/micros (and heavy on the lenovo tiny).
But a custom hacked up laptop can be a great option especially with tight space to work with
Edit: I'm surprised I missed your original post! I did the same, though what I reused was first a lenovo tiny, more recently updated with a digital signage player I picked up that I swapped parts out on - way more fun than a standard console imo!
I've literally been considering exactly this for a media center. I already have a server built put of an old tower, but it's got limited specs and I don't want to bog down the other stuff running a gui and all that.
I thought about replacing the entire bottom part of the laptop, but then I looked at the screw layout and thought this is way too much effort for not much benefit. I am not lacking in rack space so I am okay with it being bulky.
This post is cursed.
Not because of the insane jank, of course. That's on brand for self host and I love it.
It is cursed because it has awakened something in me, and I can feel every old laptop in my vicinity trembling in fear.
Don't deny them that last chance to live a life of purpose.
The fact that there exists an m.2 x6 port SATA adapter is the wildest part to me.
There’s a NINE PORT ONE! That’s bonkers!
I was also very happy to find out they exist, otherwise this whole thing would've been a no-starter.
There is an adapter for everthing
I used one for my server. I'm quite happy with it
This is the type of stuff I love to see the most when it comes to PCs. This to me is far more impressive then someone with a standard case, with standard RGB fans, standard AIO RGB cooler...
This reminds me of stuff I did in college.
I would love to watch a short documentary following you trying to take this on a plane
waves hard drives with loose cables around
It's just a hard drive! What's the problem?!
gets shot
Next step is to free the acer from it's physical bonds and screw the motherboard to the 3D printed stand.
One could frame it and put it on the wall
if you wire up some blinky LEDs to the power supply, then yes. I NEEDS THEM BLINKYS
This has awakened sonething in me
It's handy having the service screen though.
It’s beautiful.
That's janky as hell, I love it.
❌ Fat Client
✅ Fattest Client
ClientServerI'm more irritated than I'd like to admit by the fact that there is no 12V to 6x SATA power converter going with that M.2 to 6x SATA adapter.
Also slightly bugging me, but I didn't find 6x SATA power. And my plan always was to use 4 drives.
Well, I just used a similar adapter in my tower to get more sata ports. M.2 is not just for laptops. Even my ancient mobo had a slot.
so what kind of looks did you get when you booted that up in the public library? how long before either (a) the cool librarian asked you how you did it or (b) the jerk librarian asked you not to burn down the library
That's scary looking but also really awesome.
Maximum jank
As the selfhosting gods intended
How are powering them up.. Do you have a PSU behind the HDDs ?
Edit: never mind just saw the whole post
i know a Bourgeois when i see one
Because they can afford hard disks? Lol
Hows the hdd cooling situation?
If you look carefully at the pictures, there are 80mm fans attached to the cage.
Oh true. And some gap between the disks? Or is it sufficient as is?
Yeah there is a gap between the disks.
and you're eating well?
Mostly beans.
Honestly I ran 8HDD without cooling in a janky tower (panels of) for years and no fan whatsoever. Are still fine in my new build.
This is some proper cyberpunk. Great job.
Lol, cause who wants to use a single USB to interface with the laptop? That's crazy.
Modern problems require modern solutions.
Is the laptop cooling ok with the lid closed? Or do you crack it open when actually in use?
It is ok, the vents are at the back and bottom of the laptop. I have run it in a different 24/7 setup for some time already.
Part of me wonders what chipset is running that adapter, and if you'd get a better one if you went for a miniSAS adapter rather than individual sata ports (enterprise port generally implying a better controller chip)
Then realised there would probably be no use for such an adapter in enterprise so if you did get a different connector it would probably just be the same interface chip as whatever is in this.
Maximum respect!
This is really neat and I love it, but I am a bit worried about the power supply. Are you drawing power directly from the laptop? I'd just assume that spinning all four drives at once might cause spikes that I'm unsure if the built-in PSU is equipped for?
The HDDs have their own 12V 10A PSU.
Nice
Apropos! Has anyone extended their laptops memory by replacing its DVD drive?
My attempt failed when I bought a misgendered micro sata cable..
I ripped out my old MacBook pro’s DVD burner and installed an SSD, now it has a 512GB SSD and a 1TB HDD!
I should install Linux on it…
I like it. The OCD in me is screaming why you didn't use a dremel tool to cut the slot for the USB ports instead of using a rusty, dull, steak knife from the junk drawer, but that's just me. LOL
But it doesn't bother you those are SATA ports?
So I actually have a setup similar to this, but with a mini pc (m.2 to 6x sata adapter, each one connected to a 4tb ssd - well eventually, only 2 are populated currently) and I did use a dremmel to cut through the metal top of the case and it was still a horrible sharp mess, even after I tried sanding it down. I ended up 3d printing a custom i/o shield to stop my cables (or fingers) getting sliced on it and that actually works really well!
Edit: I dropped some pics of my setup in the comments on the original thread!
Hot
This is the kind of post I love
What
:)
😂
Nice work! I'm considering a similar project and this looks like a good way to do it.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:
[Thread #95 for this comm, first seen 3rd Sep 2026, 15:30] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
@BarHocker How are you powering the fans? It almost looks like they're plugged into the 12V/5V sata power converter, but there's no 3/4pin connectors there obviously.
They are 12V fans so I soldered them to the 12V output that also powers the HDDs.
How does one even attach the sata ports to the computer?
Did you read the whole post? I thought I made clear what I did.
Yes and I have almost zero knowledge of hardware. So it might be something obvious but initial buying phase photo suggests you bought a card with 6 sata ports and connected them to the motherboard. Can you just connect sata boards to the mother board just like that without any extra work?
I could, yes. The laptop has an M.2 slot that is intented to be used for M.2 SSDs, maybe you know them, they've gotten very popular. Almost any mordern motherboard has space for them.
But instead of putting an M.2 SSD in that slot, I bought this adapter with SATA ports. And this adapter fits exactly in the same spot as the SSD could have. Then the SATA ports of the adapter can just be used as regular SATA ports as on any motherboard.
nice, thanks
But I do not have a separate NAS. I do have a laptop I want to use as a NAS.
maybe a friend has the 3d printer? also, reduce, reuse, recycle. and finally, it likely consumes less power.
Nas is expensive and old laptop is free
bro doesn't get it. A substantial subset of selfhosting is using old tired stuff to make new sweet stuff. The only new parts on my machines are nvme ssds for the OSes and plugs and wire adapters. Everything else is yanked from an ancient unit or bought from ebay for pennies on the dollar of new. My services are free and my machines were close.
hold on, i'm sure we can find something with two similar sized wheels and MAKE it portable.