2011 13" MBP Data Doubler Install

[jdsegra]

Hey all. Just got my MBP today. Was going to remove the optical drive in order to install the Data Doubler, but GOOD GRIEF. I couldn't find all the screws. I called OWC and they weren't much help. They didn't have a video for the 2011 yet and didn't have anything they could email me.

Has anyone out there removed the optical drive yet? Any resource you can point me to that shows the locations of the screws?

 

[axu539]

Hey all. Just got my MBP today. Was going to remove the optical drive in order to install the Data Doubler, but GOOD GRIEF. I couldn't find all the screws. I called OWC and they weren't much help. They didn't have a video for the 2011 yet and didn't have anything they could email me.

Has anyone out there removed the optical drive yet? Any resource you can point me to that shows the locations of the screws?

I did this on my 17" 2011 MBP. The optical drive should be fairly similar, but I'm not 100% sure. There were 2 screws holding the antenna (sits on top of the ODD) in place. The ODD itself has 3 screws holding it in: 1 right by the logic board, and 2 hidden to the right, near the edge of the machine.

 

[jdsegra]

I did this on my 17" 2011 MBP. The optical drive should be fairly similar, but I'm not 100% sure. There were 2 screws holding the antenna (sits on top of the ODD) in place. The ODD itself has 3 screws holding it in: 1 right by the logic board, and 2 hidden to the right, near the edge of the machine.

Thank you for the info! I'll take a look at that tomorrow.

Anyone have any experience with the 13?

 

[dime21]

Hey all. Just got my MBP today. Was going to remove the optical drive in order to install the Data Doubler, but GOOD GRIEF. I couldn't find all the screws. I called OWC and they weren't much help. They didn't have a video for the 2011 yet and didn't have anything they could email me.

Has anyone out there removed the optical drive yet? Any resource you can point me to that shows the locations of the screws?

Sounds like you would have been better served by having a professional installation. I hope you can complete this without breaking anything, since you've already voided your Apple warranty by going this far.

 

[axu539]

Thank you for the info! I'll take a look at that tomorrow.

I don't mean to advertise my own blog (in my sig) or anything, but I put up some pics of my Optibay installation. It doesn't have pics of all the screw locations, but it may/may not be helpful.

 

[aznguyen316]

Sounds like you would have been better served by having a professional installation. I hope you can complete this without breaking anything, since you've already voided your Apple warranty by going this far.

It's easy. Hard to break anything doing this lol and as long as you put back the SuperDrive when you need AppleCare, warranty is still intact.

I did it on the 2011 13" no problems. Three screws hold down the SuperDrive also want to remove the the black speaker. I'm on iPad right now but if you look through my posts I uploaded a picture showing screw locations. And what cables to pop off.

 

[jdsegra]

GOT IT! There's a very hard to reach screw that's under where the wireless adapter is located. It was a PAIN to get to, but once it was out, the rest was a breeze. Thank you everyone for your help!

 

[tasslehawf]

The bracket comes with a manual. As far as I'm concerned the design of the unibody hasn't changed. You could use any unibody 13" to locate the screws.

 

[jdsegra]

The bracket comes with a manual. As far as I'm concerned the design of the unibody hasn't changed. You could use any unibody 13" to locate the screws.

Just FYI, I managed to get the optical drive out last night. The screws are in different locations from the mid 2010 model.

The last screw was buried under the speaker. WAS NOT FUN TO GET TO.

All in all, an evening of frustration was worth it. The SSD is fast, fast, fast, and I still have a HDD with 750GB of storage. Very nice.

Thank you all for your help!

 

[brom]

I'm about to try my data doubler install too...

I've been hesitating about my data doubler install as I am a bit freaked out about the process! Any thoughts before I dive in? I am debating returning my 256gb mercury extreme pro and going with the newly price-reduced 480GB version ($500+ price drop last week). Right now I have a 500GB drive in there and have it almost full. I have been dreading splitting things up between 2 drives but this may be a good chance for some spring cleaning. I am considering a clean install from scratch, I bet that I can get rid of lots of unnecessary clutter.
Does anyone miss their optical drive? Do you think that 256 is plenty for a boot drive along with data doubler, or should I go for the 480 SSD and forget the data doubler? Thanks for this great technical discussion.