hdd upgrade cable and some screws what it is for

roosterroorooster1

i just go a predator helios 300 for christmas and it came with a hdd upgrade cable and some screwes

with it and im wondering if i have to put it in and also what it is for

 [Edited the thread to add issue detail]

Jack22

@roosterroorooster1

This laptop comes with a SATA-3 2.5″ Drive bay. So, you can either install a 2.5″ SATA SSD or a 2.5″ SATA HDD as well. Thats is why they have given the Hdd upgrade cables with some screws.

StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/677588/computer

Just in addition to the above, as I've had lots of troubles with this 2.5" motherboard plug on a brand-new Nitro 5 connecting a 2.5" HDD to it. Be very careful when you plug this 2.5" drive flat cable into the motherboard SATA plug, as the motherboard SATA plugs locking mechanism is very sensitive and it gets damaged very easily if you don't plug the flat cable properly, as and if you do and it does not make a full 100% connection, it will stop your laptop from booting and you will get a black screen, when booting the laptop. Make sure that you screw the 2.5" drive into the bracket first, then the bracket to the laptop base and then be very careful when you plug the flat cable into the SATA motherboard plug, as you have very limited space to secure the flat cable and to lock the plugs top plastic locking clip part to secure the cable.

optimus2861

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1172792#Comment_1172792

Do you know if this same caveat applies to a Nitro AN517-54? Sure feels like it. I tried installing a 2.5" SSD into this laptop (new just before Christmas) and get exactly the symptom you describe: black screen, no boot. I tried it with two separate drives, same result each time. I know the drives are good because I have a SATA/USB interface and the drives work A-OK when connected that way.

Going to reach out to support & see if I can get another cable first. Hope the darn connector isn't damaged.

StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1175760#Comment_1175760

Yes that is the case as It's the SATA motherboard plug that is at fault as its cheap and does not work unfortunately, it gets damaged very easily as its a very small plug and its top locking plastic flap that locks the flat HDD/SSD 2.5" SATA cable into the plug is very sensitive and gets damaged after about 3-6 attempts it will not lock, and will cause the end pins to not make 100% contact with the plug and then the laptop will not boot. As the only cable that works is the oem flat cable that Acer supplies for you, as that is a special thin SATA flat cable and any replacement of the same flat SATA cables are thicker and will not fit and will not work.

I damaged my flat cable trying to connect this HDD as I damaged the end pins of the cable, I bought the same part number and replacement cable from eBay and its a thicker cables that doesn't let the SATA motherboard locking top flap to lock the SATA cable into the plug and it doesn't work, so be careful not to damage and/or force the oem supplied flat SATA cable into this plug, as the end cable pins get damaged easily and the SATA mobo plugs top locking flap also gets damaged as its made of very soft plastic, then this top flap doesn't lock the cable in and it will not work, see caption below of this plug and its locking flap.

Anyway, having a 2.5" drive fitted inside the laptop adds more weight to the laptop and these SATA drives will be obsolete soon with the new malty M.2 drives that laptops come with. I'm using my new 2.5" 2TB Seagate Barracuda mechanical drive as an external drive with a SATA-3 case to USB 3 cable and it works perfectly, as my AN515-56 has 2x M.2 PCIe 3 x4 slots and I bought a new 2TB WD SN770 PCIe 3 x4 boot drive and cloned the OS onto that, and I'm using the laptops oem 512GB WD SN530 PCIe 3 x4 as a slave drive in slot #2 SSD m.2, so it's the same and works perfectly and its all the storage I need, also, the new WD SN770 black is 10x faster than a SATA-3 SSD drive speeds as tested on CrystalDiskMark below and the differences are tremendous:

CrystalDiskMark for the 2TB WD SN770 Black

CrystalDiskMark for the 2TB Samsung EVO 870 SATA-3 SSD

optimus2861

How big a job is it to swap out the boot drive then? I hadn't previously considered that but I see the price of a 2 TB NVMe drive is not unreasonable these days. I could always slap a case on the 1 TB I just bought and use that as an external.

StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1178016#Comment_1178016

To clone your existing boot drive is not a big job, especially if you have a laptop with 2x M.2 slots (which most of the new Nitro and Predator and Aspire laptops have) if you don't then buy an M.2 to USB 3.2 adaptor and clone the new M.2 drive with that, then you either insert the bigger capacity M.2 drive into the 2nd M.2 drive (which is allot quicker to clone) as with an M.2 to USB 3.2 adaptor its allot slower, then use the appropriate cloning software to clone your boot drive onto that new M.2 drive. For example, the Samsung M.2 drives use their exclusive Samsung Data Migration software or WD uses the Acronis True Image (which can be downloaded from the WD site) which all of these software's are an easy way to clone your exiting boot drive and work 100%. Btw, I've just done that with an WD SN750 PCIe 3x 4 M.2 1TB drive and swapped the oem Acer supplied 512GB WD SN530 M.2 boot drive that was allot slower as I've shown above and the new WD SN750 M.2 PCIe 3 x4 works like a rocket compared to the WD SN530 M.2 drive with twice the capacity as you can even get a 2TB SN750 M.2 drive or some even have 8TB M.2 drives.