A Creative Live Drive or similar might be an option .

I have saved drive bay covers for all the cases I have had to throw away, so I usually find something that fits.

Baoran wrote:

I have saved drive bay covers for all the cases I have had to throw away, so I usually find something that fits.

Either that or I'd go on the internet and see if someone has some 5,25" drive bay covers for sale, if you don't have the parts lying around. 😀

Even if none of them clip into the drive bay on their own, I'd at least try to find covers that fit loosely (to prevent bowing/warping of the cover or damage to the bay opening) but won't go all the way through the opening, and then tape them from the inside. That's just my thought, as I've not yet actually encountered this particular situation (the one time I was missing a bay cover, a spare one I had from a different case worked "good enough" to not require additional securing).

Sometimes 5.25" to 3.5" bay adapters come with a built in cover.

Buy plasticard, cut to shape, paint, glue with hot silicon.

I have that very case, i might be able to take high quality photo's of my bay cover and send to you if you want to make something in 3d for printing

Removable drive trays, fan units, multimedia card readers or sound boards with 5,25" units are other options to close these openings.
I started storing the blanks inside the case they originate from, together with the board manuals, driver CDs, so everything belonging to the machine is there if I need it.
eisapc

eisapc wrote:

I started storing the blanks inside the case they originate from, together with the board manuals, driver CDs, so everything belonging to the machine is there if I need it.
eisapc

I love that idea; never thought of that myself! I will definitely give that a try if I were to encounter a missing drive day! 😊

I once found a pretty ideal solution for this, but sadly the part is not that common. There once existed a hard drive kit for 3.5" to 5.25" conversion that included a vented front face plate with an LED which looked similar to old Seagate MFM harddrives. They came in beige, grey and black. The nice thing about these is that they will mount any 5.25" bay well regardless of minor variations in the height and width.

Ohhh.. that reminds me. Lian Li makes/made 3-bay 5.25" to 3.5" have a fan and filter in them as well.

AND if you get a Lian Li 5.25" bay cover, you should be able to just use screws to hold it in because the ears extend quite far back. They should work without screws, but they don't stay in place very well because aluminum has a lot less stiffness when compared to hard plastic.

I fill the bays with extra items, such as an LS-120 SuperDrive, PCMCIA card bus, CD-ROM drive, hard drive (5.25" to 3.5" adapter), and a bay cover from another system. I wonder if you can 3D print a bay cover for a desktop?

I would venture to guess that, if you want to put a cover in there, most local computer stores in your area probably have a huge box of these things in the back room. Particularly If that was a custom build from a local PC place, it might not hurt to ask around.

For bay covers that don't fit properly, I use a small amount of thermoplastic to mount them. I love that stuff. Put some of the beads in really hot water, let them melt, then you I mold it around the bay covers edge and push them in until I like the fit. Just let it sit there for 1-2 minutes and the thermoplastic will harden.

I even use thermoplastic for making drive rails.

bjwil1991 wrote:

I fill the bays with extra items, such as an LS-120 SuperDrive, PCMCIA card bus, CD-ROM drive, hard drive (5.25" to 3.5" adapter), and a bay cover from another system. I wonder if you can 3D print a bay cover for a desktop?

Same here. I generally either use/source a spare drive bay cover or use a spare drive of some sort (in my case, I used a spare broken 8x IDE CD-ROM drive to fill an empty 5.25" bay in my Dell Dimension 4600).

I remember finding 5.25" drive bay fillers that functioned as some sort of tray, but they're mostly specific to a certain case as the one I had didn't seem to work on any case I've tried it on. You can also get creative and use a 5.25" drive bay drawer (I used one in my Athlon 64 rig).

eisapc wrote:

Removable drive trays, fan units, multimedia card readers or sound boards with 5,25" units are other options to close these openings.
I started storing the blanks inside the case they originate from, together with the board manuals, driver CDs, so everything belonging to the machine is there if I need it.
eisapc

I do both these things as well, well just the cover, CD's and manuals get put somewhere safe.