Replacing my CD drive with a hard drive/SSD

I just picked up a 2.5'' HDD/SSD enclosure.

Now I’m looking to swap my SSD into my laptop, but I'm honestly a bit stuck on the logistics.

My initial thought was to pop the SSD into that external enclosure, clone my current hard drive (specifically the OS partition), and then set the system to boot from the SSD.

The thing is, if I do that, the old HDD would still be sitting there being cooled by the internal fan, while the SSD wouldn't get any airflow at all. I'm wondering: is the data transfer speed and throughput going to be compromised, and will the lack of active cooling actually cause issues for the SSD?

Alternatively, if I were to put the SSD in the main internal slot and move the old HDD into the external enclosure, would that cause the hard drive to overheat?

I think I've laid out my dilemmas clearly enough—I'd really appreciate some advice here.

iPhone 8 and Reddit

I think you might be overthinking the cooling situation a bit—honestly, it’s not that big of a deal. An SSD doesn't have any moving parts like a traditional hard drive does since it just relies on flash memory. That basically means you can tuck it away pretty much anywhere. My suggestion? Just leave the hard drive right where it's been sitting this whole time, and then pop the SSD into the slot where the CD drive used to be. That should do the trick perfectly.

Yeah, that’s pretty much what I was thinking, but does putting an SSD in an external enclosure actually let you take advantage of its speed, or is it basically all the same regardless?

iPhone 8 and Reddit

I just couldn't get my main SSD to seat properly in the primary drive bay, so I ended up shoving it into the old HDD slot instead. Now, the damn thing is basically "cooking" inside the casing... So much for my grand designs and technical ambitions; everything just devolved into this one possible, messy workaround. 😉 🙂

iPhone 8 and Reddit