Solved!
Go to Solutionthere isn't one on Dell's website.
you must be thinking of the 3rd party parts being sold on eBay http://www.ebay.com/itm/SATA-2nd-Hard-Drive-HDD-SSD-Caddy-For-Dell-Precision-M4800-M6800-9-5mm-Caddy-/221302140920?pt=US_Drive_Bay_Caddies&hash=item3386a2aff8
That is my thinking, but why is DELL actually touting that as a "feature" of the M4800 in their descriptions without offering one? Strange times indeed at DELL.
"DVD-ROM; Slot load DVD+/-RW; Blu-ray Disc™ writer; Optical bay caddy for additional hard drive or solid state drive" out of DELL's description for the M4800.
Totally agree with you. I just bought the M4800 with the expectation that I could install a second SDD.
I already got fooled by the 500 GB Hybrid SSD which I thought was a pure SSD drive, but now I realize I can't even install a second SSD and the Dell M4800 doesn't even provide the part that allows this. Shame on Dell for providing misguided information!
alexhawker
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Posted February 5th, 2014 16:00
newmodeus makes a great caddy - http://www.newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_3&products_id=543
It just means the optical drive bay is supported on the SATA controller and will accomodate a 2nd HDD. Some models' (particularly older ones) optic bays are supported on the USB contoller and cannot handle the transfer rates of a SATA drive. So I can see both sides of the "why is this a feature?" question. Both are serial devices, but the data transfer rates are significantly different.
Josef Barta
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Posted February 7th, 2014 09:00
Actually, I was chatting with a Dell representative and I was told that the caddy is going to be available, but there is no information about specific date of availability as of now. The thing that surprises me though is that the old adaptor is incompatible, since the M4800 looks exactly the same as M4700. I was quite surprised after getting this info...
alexhawker
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Posted February 7th, 2014 14:00
I don't see any advantage in waiting for the Dell one. I don't think they ever offered one for the 4700, so I would be surprised if they do for the newer model.
Josef Barta
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Posted February 8th, 2014 08:00
they actually offer one for M4700, I had it ordered, but then they told me it's incompatible with my machine...
alexhawker
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Posted February 8th, 2014 10:00
Sounds like classic Dell BS to me. I would guess if you called again, you'd get another answer from someone else. A lot of the time, they don't really know what they're talking about.
gbgreen
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Posted December 22nd, 2013 11:00
Yep, I spent more than 15 minutes on the phone with a (very polite) Dell Support rep ("James") before he verified that it was not available and agreed that it seemed odd that it would be mentioned in product info but not offered. I asked him to forward my comments back up the line, and he said he would.
Now, to the helpful info. I did some research, and came up with a solution. A company called NewModeUS (http://www.newmodeus.com/) makes hard drive caddys for all manner of laptops. I ordered one for my M4800 (http://www.newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_3&products_id=543). I cloned the hard drive (512GB) that came with the machine to a 256GB Samsung 840 Pro, verified that it booted and worked OK, and then put the OEM hard drive in the NewModeUs caddy. Worked like a champ. Now I can boot either from the SSD (in the hard drive bay), or the OEM hard drive (in the caddy in the optical bay). More expensive ($42) than the stuff on eBay, but less of a *** shoot. Anyways, give it a try.
Regards,
Gerry Green