Lets imagine you own a laptop and have a need for a large amount of fast storage space for video editing or something like that. You need it to be as portable and as fast as possible so an external drive is out of the question (I know with eSATA speed isn't really a problem anymore.)

How about some kind of bracket that allows you to replace the laptop's internal optical drive (who uses those anymore?) with another hard drive. If you really needed an optical drive then you could use an external one. I personally barely use mine so practicality isn't a huge issue and they're not that quick so the speed limitations of USB isn't a huge issue either.

So, I propose some kind of bracket/caddy/enclosure that will hold an additional 2.5" SATA drive and convert the data and power connectors to that of an optical drive. I can see one problem with this. Most laptops (at least the one's I've used) use IDE to interface the optical drive which means conversion circuitry is needed which saps speed which makes this whole thing poitless. It wouldn't be a problem with newer laptops that use SATA to interface the optical drive (as far ans I can see.)

Thoughts? Should I be making a trip to the patent office? Does this already exist? Am I crazy?