My G75VW has 2 internal HDDs in it that I just recently installed, but I am now finding that this isn't enough space. For most people 2 TB would be enough, but not for me, I'm a space hog. I currently have Win8, WinServer 2012, and Linux Mint installed on the primary drive, in addition to a data partition, a recovery partition for reinstalling any of the 3 OSes from the HDD instead of disc/USB, some NTFS-junctioned partitions for storing C:\Users\ProgramData\Program Files\Program Files (x86), another partition for the page files, another for Linux's swap space, and various others. The 2nd drive contains no OSes, it is mainly for static data storage and game installations, as well as partial backups of the partitions. In addition to that some of the partitions are encrypted (including Windows and Linux) and must be backed-up with specialized software and methods to keep the encryption intact (like dd, Rsync, DAR, etc).

I have recently been looking for ways to upgrade my laptop as much as possible, and am considering installing 32 gigs RAM so that I can run numerous VMs, do lots of media conversion tasks, and run demanding professional-level software like 3ds Max, etc. I've now decided that the internal BluRay drive has to go, since I rarely play movies from discs or do any ripping tasks. It just seems like a useless piece of hardware that is hardly used and I think that space could be put to better use.

I'm not sure exactly what the technical name for optical drive caddies is, nor have I used one in the past. I mainly need it for full system backups and data storage. And it would be useful to have all my recovery images and bootable utils stored on a bootable HDD partition as opposed to disc/USB, since I could do everything I need without constantly swapping drives or preparing external media.

The size of the drive that goes in the caddy absolutely must be 1.5 TB since I need more than enough space for storage of the backups and data. But I haven't been able to find a internal drive of that size that's under 12.5mm, they are all either 12.5mm or 15mm. So whatever caddy I buy will need to be able to hold either/both of those 2 sizes. I know that most conventional drive caddies cant accomodate drives of that size, neither can the G75's drive bays.

So the questions I need to ask are, what is the technical name of these devices? Will they hold the size drives I need? Will it need to have an external power source (USB?) or will it be internally powered? And most importantly, will these caddies affect the maximum data throughput in terms of speed (both data coming in and going out), will the drives be able to perform at their max possible speeds or will they be bottlenecked by limitations of the caddy? Speed isn't particularly important, and a 5200 RPM drive will suffice for what I plan to use it for. But it must be able to consistently perform at its' rated speed while in one of these caddies, since data will be coming in and out all the time (which is the way I'm setting things up). Perhaps someone can also recommend a good caddy and drive for my purposes which is reasonably priced and 100% G75-compatible.

And even though I rarely use optical drives, I still plan to buy an external drive for the occasional ripping/playback of BluRay/etc discs. Can anyone reccomend something that is able to rip BD/DVD at a reasonable rate, as well as burn at a good rate?Or perhaps even something that can convert my exist optical drive into a USB-powered external drive, without having to buy an entirely new drive? It must also be able to read dual-layer discs. Not sure if I'm missing anything else important. It doesnt have to be the best, but not a cheapo product either, it just has to be durable and good enough for my needs.

Thanks for any advice!