G20AJ adding SSD

[colerend]

Hi all,

I am in the process of adding an SSD to my G20, and have read in a couple of threads regarding the procedure (http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread...rocedure/page2 and http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread...Overhaul/page5).

I've gotten decent insight on how to do it from these threads, however since I only want to put the SSD in and not upgrade the GPU or the CPU, I am trying to minimize the components I need to remove to get it in.

Right now my biggest problem is that the power-connector for the SSD came unattached, and I have no idea where to attach it. Since I only want to remove what's necessary to get my SSD in,
I would prefer to know in advance where the connector needs to go.

Could anyone provide some insight on this? Where exactly can I find the connector to plug in the (very short) power-coord that I need for my SSD?
My guess is it needs to attach somewhere under the GPU, which I would then have to remove, but for all I know it might be under the CPU-fans / heatsink instead...

Naturally, I would prefer not detaching neither the GPU nor the CPU, but I get the impression that's not gonna be an option...

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

// Cole

[colerend]

Update: I have realized I stated in-error in my previous post that I do not know where the power-coord needs to connect, my ignorance only excuse is that
it was a long time ago since I built a PC myself.

I now realize that the black wide flat connector visible on the pictures is actually the power-cable, and it is actually the SATA-connector I am unsure of where to plug in.

I've managed to remove the GPU which has allowed me to spot what I believe is the SATA-connector on the motherboard I would need to use,
it is marked on the image with a red rectangle, and located below the plate on which I placed the rectangle. (lower picture)

On the other image the SATA-connector is clearly visible, located under the aforementioned dvd-slot. (upper picture)

Right now I'm feeling pretty f*cked, because the DVD-slot is making it hard if-not-impossible to get the SATA-cable in there, and the DVD-slot is bolted to the case as opposed to being screwed, making it impossible to remove.

The only compromise I can think of right now is to detach the SATA(?) connector for the DVD, and use it for my SSD instead. Obviously this would
leave me with a disabled DVD-drive, which I would prefer to avoid.

If anyone has any tips on how to proceed I would be very grateful.

Is there perhaps any other SATA-connector on the motherboard that I have been unable to spot?
Or is there some other way around the DVD-plate-fitting, to get to the SATA-connector underneath it?

EDIT: On a second look, I'm actually not sure that the DVD-casing is bolted to the case, it's hard to tell but the entire case might be "pullable" in the direction of the CPU, if I first get the CPU-fan assembly out of the way. Can anyone confirm this before I give it a try?

// Cole

[realfortin]

That is the SATA connector that you have highlighted.
The way I got to it all is by unscrewing the plate that holds the two fans and lifting it off (the black sticker peels off). Then you will see that there is a screw to back out the dvd drive. You can gently lift up the heat sink assembly a little without disconnecting it. so to Answer your EDIt, that's correct.
The dvd slot does come out and you can wrestle your drive in there along with the cable. I used electronics tweezers to pick and pull at cable when I was reassembling. It's not an easy thing to do.

[realfortin]

The problem I have is with the BIOS and trying to make my SSD my primary drive. I'll post about that soon.

[Ravenholme]

i made the SSD my primary drive after booting the computer with the cloned drive plugged in but the other drive unplugged however i did mess around with the boot procedure too in bios.

also inorder to get the said drive into the bracket it takes a lot of work. pulling out the fan assembly and the brackets along with the SSD bracket and the DVD drive.

it's a hat trick but it can be done. will take hours.

[realfortin]

Ravenholme, thanks for the reply. A couple of quick questions:

1) So in my case where I have already installed the SSD and just set up the system with SSD has another drive, if I want to do it right by having the SSD as the main drive, the easiest way to "start over" and get to unplugging the Hard drive would be to remove the GPU, unplugging HDD, reassembling, change bios, installing OS(via recovery I hope), then disassembling, plugging HDD, reassembling, change bios for HDD?

2) Were you able to reinstall the OS using the recovery disk you made or had onto the SSD?

3) In a round about way to show me what your bios settings are would you be so kind (I understand if you don't want to do it) go to your bios, go to exit, choose load standard config, then press exit and saving (without confirming so you don't lose your config!!), then take a picture of your screen? It will indicate what the differences are between your the standard config and the changes you made.

Edit (add): 4) how was your SSD formatted before you started? GPT MBR not formatted at all?

I'm a little excited considering I "was/am" so close

Thanks again

[Ravenholme]

ok I bought the Samsung 850 Evo samsung has clone software but it only works with their drives. I can't recall but i think i had to format it through the software quickly in Windows first. There could be something similar if you got another brand, anyway, when my drive was cloned it also copied the MBR, two of the same boot record will not work so i unplugged the power (faster way) to the hard drive. the SSD is always plugged in so i didn't mess with that. Boot the computer with the ssd and it just became primary. (see if that works first) if that doesn't work you may have to go into bios and choose it to be primary (after what i mentioned) so no need to remove other things besides the GPU to get access to the cable for the original drive.

As for formatting i only formatted the original drive after i was absolutely sure that the SSD booted up properly. I didn't wipe the recovery portion only the two separate partitions (storage and windows) in the SHDD, then merged them after deleting the content. (in that windows disk tool)

worst case if the thing doesn't work you use the recovery partition to restore windows. (that's why i didn't wipe it).

[realfortin]

Ok thanks, I have the Samsung Evo and cloned it using the software...I guess my problem was that I had both plugged in. I thought turning one off in the Bios would work but it didn't. I will try it again but I'll unplug the Main HDD. Thanks again!