I hate these. They are convenient when you get the case new, but difficult to source if you get an empty retro case. The case I use for my PII build has the same issue and it limits me to just only one out of three 5.25" drive. I have a bucketful of 5.25" drive bay rails for a different type of case, but they don't work for this one.

I don't have a lot of experience with cases which use drive rails, if only because I've always preferred cases without drive rails if I had the choice between a case with, and without needed drive rails so most of my cases don't use drive rails. And the reason is the obvious one, sourcing new ones will be difficult if your case happens to not come with enough spare sets of drive rails.

If I really need to mount a drive into a drive bay with no spare drive rails left, I'll usually end up kinda monkeypatching a solution to make the drive stay in place using a wide variety of potential solutions, which includes (but is not limited to) tie ribs or other sturdy wires, some kind of solution involving longer screws or bolts, materials squished in between the drive and the bay, etc.

Because in some cases there are PC cases that I like so much, I'll still keep them even though they may have some of their drive rails missing. But most are from cheaper cases I don't case as much about (and space is not limitless). But if I can, I prefer to not end up with a case like this.

Unfortunately this doesn't bring you much closer to a solution, except that you may have to consider trying to do some kind of material hack to make stuff fit and stay in place.
If you find spare ones that fit (and even if on the pic it looks like they might fit, it doesn't guarantee they will) then that's great. But if you don't or can't, then you're gonna need to get creative 😜

Well, upon your suggestion of material creativity, I'm wondering if I could actually fabricate my own rails that would work. They aren't terribly complicated from a mechanical standpoint. One would need to get the measurements just right, though.

delsydebothom wrote on 2023-01-04, 00:11:

Well, upon your suggestion of material creativity, I'm wondering if I could actually fabricate my own rails that would work. They aren't terribly complicated from a mechanical standpoint. One would need to get the measurements just right, though.

ya, if youre not uncomfortable with case mods and are handy with tools than a good material might be one of those plastic crates that milk bottles used to come in that people like to put vinyl records in. Anything like plastic shipping containers that have long strait plastic sides can be cut up and sanded down to fit. you might have to drill a hole in your case to secure the rail from sliding back and forth with a screw. or something else to secure it...

I personally don't like rails either since its not like its coming out again after i install it.

I own tons of different drive rails myself, but neither the ones you need, nor the ones I need for myself.
Looking for the right rails for my DEC Prioris for years allready.
I even dumped nice retro cases due to the total lack of mounting rails.
Best workaround might be 3D printing or otherwise selfmade rails as stated above.

I have 3D-printed rails for few cases. Helps a lot to have a pair of rails to get some measures. Sometimes you just have to improvise... Locking springs like that are dufficult to print. In those cases I would forget the spring and make the rail itself a bit too tight, if possible, so that drive will stay in without any locks.

Yah, they don't have to be made out of special sauce infused, grade A unobtanium or anything. Go to a dollar/pound store, look in the craft aisle at convenient sticks, popsicle sticks etc, go to the garden aisle, look at plant sticks and such, look in the kitchen aisle for skewers and cutting boards you can cut slices off. Or look for any other cheap item you can hack bits off.

Likewise I have a small collection of the damn things that never seem to match up when I need one. However with that clip in type, one thing you can do is just have one clip per drive and one improvised or found non-clip rail, thus doubling up the drives you can fit per set of rails.