2011 MBP15" SSD/SuperDrive Swap Issue

[jthesssin]

OK, so I searched this forum, and couldn't really find anyone having my issue.
Recently purchased a Superdrive SSD retrofit kit.
Purchased the OCZ-Trion SATAIII 960Gb SSD.
Installed, formatted as Journal, Extended
System recognizes disk, I can read and write to it.
Copy FROM the disk to another location (desktop etc) brings up the Error-36
Running Black Magic Disk Speed Test shows 490Mb Write speeds, but constant "Error reading test file"
About this Mac-More Info shows the main Drive (a 480Gb Intel 500 series) as Disk1 with the single system partition as Disk2 and the SSD in the Superdrive as Disk0 with the single partition of that as Disk0s2
right now, my only plan was to use it for data storage of iTunes for movies music etc, and then store all my .flac files. i copied an iTunes movie file to it, and the video is either choppy, or sound only(curiously the subtitles continue playing)
When using Disk Utility to repair the partition, I get an exit code of 8 and the message that it could not be verified completely.
Any ideas?

 

[JTToft]

The 2011 models are known to not function reliably with SATA III drives on their optical bay connections, which is very likely what's causing the strange behaviour in your case.
Your only option is to install a SATA II drive or forgo the extra drive entirely.

 

[jthesssin]

The 2011 models are known to not function reliably with SATA III drives on their optical bay connections, which is very likely what's causing the strange behaviour in your case.
Your only option is to install a SATA II drive or forgo the extra drive entirely.

2 things, When looking at Sys info, it shows 2 Intel 6 Series Chipsets. Both are 6Gb link speed/negotiated link speeds. Wouldn't that indicate that the bay is capable of 6Gb SATAIII drive handling? that was the only reason I pulled the trigger on that. Secondly, I had read about some MBP having this issue, and that is why I went with OCZ. According to the documentation, it can "down throttle" to SATA II or SATA I link speeds.
I still have the original Apple 1Tb HDD should I go and install the 1TB SSD as main drive, and install the 1TB HDD as storage? how much speed will I lose for streaming iTunes movies from the spinner drive in the superdrive bay?
Thanks for the info so far!!

 

[JTToft]

When looking at Sys info, it shows 2 Intel 6 Series Chipsets. Both are 6Gb link speed/negotiated link speeds. Wouldn't that indicate that the bay is capable of 6Gb SATAIII drive handling?

- Yes, you'd think so, wouldn't you? But it's not that simple. It technically may have a SATA III connection, but it isn't able to utilise it in a stable manner. Were it not for this specific problem, regardless of which link speed it has, it should handle all SATA revision drives without issue as SATA revisions are cross-compatible.

Secondly, I had read about some MBP having this issue, and that is why I went with OCZ. According to the documentation, it can "down throttle" to SATA II or SATA I link speeds.

- All SATA III drives are backwards compatible with SATA II and I in the same way that USB 3.0 devices are with USB 2.0 and 1.0. I doubt very much the OCZ drive has any special adjustment feature (it would require a different firmware to force it to run SATA II, not something that's likely to be possible to implement on the fly). Further, even if it did have such a feature, it would register your machine's SATA III link speed and thus not down throttle to SATA II or I.

I still have the original Apple 1Tb HDD should I go and install the 1TB SSD as main drive, and install the 1TB HDD as storage? how much speed will I lose for streaming iTunes movies from the spinner drive in the superdrive bay?

- You should have whichever SSD you choose in the main drive bay and only use SATA II drives in the optical bay. What you describe is a pretty good option. You probably wouldn't lose much speed as movie playback doesn't require a whole lot of the drive. I previously had a hard drive in the optical bay of my 2011 and got in excess of 100 MB/s which is more than enough for any type of movie playback.

In case it interests you, I am one of the few who's been lucky to have a stable optical bay connection. I have since exchanged the hard drive for a SATA III SSD, and it works perfectly for me - though the link speed in my machine is only SATA II.

 

[jthesssin]

- Yes, you'd think so, wouldn't you? But it's not that simple. It technically may have a SATA III connection, but it isn't able to utilise it in a stable manner. Were it not for this specific problem, regardless of which link speed it has, it should handle all SATA revision drives without issue as SATA revisions are cross-compatible.


- All SATA III drives are backwards compatible with SATA II and I in the same way that USB 3.0 devices are with USB 2.0 and 1.0. I doubt very much the OCZ drive has any special adjustment feature (it would require a different firmware to force it to run SATA II, not something that's likely to be possible to implement on the fly). Further, even if it did have such a feature, it would register your machine's SATA III link speed and thus not down throttle to SATA II or I.


- You should have whichever SSD you choose in the main drive bay and only use SATA II drives in the optical bay. What you describe is a pretty good option. You probably wouldn't lose much speed as movie playback doesn't require a whole lot of the drive. I previously had a hard drive in the optical bay of my 2011 and got in excess of 100 MB/s which is more than enough for any type of movie playback.

In case it interests you, I am one of the few who's been lucky to have a stable optical bay connection. I have since exchanged the hard drive for a SATA III SSD, and it works perfectly for me - though the link speed in my machine is only SATA II.

Thanks for insight.... Just finished a TM backup so ill move the drives tomorrow and see whats what...

 

[jorgk]

2 things, When looking at Sys info, it shows 2 Intel 6 Series Chipsets. Both are 6Gb link speed/negotiated link speeds. Wouldn't that indicate that the bay is capable of 6Gb SATAIII drive handling? that was the only reason I pulled the trigger on that. Secondly, I had read about some MBP having this issue, and that is why I went with OCZ. According to the documentation, it can "down throttle" to SATA II or SATA I link speeds.
I still have the original Apple 1Tb HDD should I go and install the 1TB SSD as main drive, and install the 1TB HDD as storage? how much speed will I lose for streaming iTunes movies from the spinner drive in the superdrive bay?
Thanks for the info so far!!

I guess I have the same/similar machine as yours (MBP 15" late-2011, also showing two SATA slots, each with link speed 6 Gigabit as to 'About this Mac').

By now I use SSDs in both slots, one (the former HDD slot) as main drive, and the other slot (former DVD/CD slot) as backup (a CCC clone). No problems whatsoever.

For this I use one of these special adapters to ensure SATA-III connectivity (I have a Hardwrk SATA III adapter, in the US a similar one from MCE is available). Could be due to this that this setup works.

I considered to use a RAID0 to improve read/write speeds further; that did actually work well (see pict), but to keep administration (backup etc.) easy, in the end I preferred to have a bootable backup-clone right within the MPB (in addition to some external HDD staying at home). Another option would be to use Time Machine towards the second SSD (making it a fast process).
But to tell the truth: A conventional HDD would have sufficed entirely. To have both slots with SSDs will only pay off if you indeed do the RAID0. Otherwise there's no real advantage.

And in any case: Better be reluctant to invest too much on 2011 MBPs (15") - as there is Radeongate.
You may consider that Apple should repair it - but that's only IF THEIR dGPU testing SW assures to them the dGPU is at fault. I got the case that the dGPU makes trouble (frequent Kernel panic upon switching back (!) to iGPU, as to Console: "AGC GPU REGISTER RESTORE FAILED ...") but Apple states that their SW does report no problem.

OK, here's the result of the RAID0:

 

[jthesssin]

I guess I have the same/similar machine as yours (MBP 15" late-2011, also showing two SATA slots, each with link speed 6 Gigabit as to 'About this Mac').

By now I use SSDs in both slots, one (the former HDD slot) as main drive, and the other slot (former DVD/CD slot) as backup (a CCC clone). No problems whatsoever.

For this I use one of these special adapters to ensure SATA-III connectivity (I have a Hardwrk SATA III adapter, in the US a similar one from MCE is available). Could be due to this that this setup works.

I considered to use a RAID0 to improve read/write speeds further; that did actually work well (see pict), but to keep administration (backup etc.) easy, in the end I preferred to have a bootable backup-clone right within the MPB (in addition to some external HDD staying at home). Another option would be to use Time Machine towards the second SSD (making it a fast process).
But to tell the truth: A conventional HDD would have sufficed entirely. To have both slots with SSDs will only pay off if you indeed do the RAID0. Otherwise there's no real advantage.

And in any case: Better be reluctant to invest too much on 2011 MBPs (15") - as there is Radeongate.
You may consider that Apple should repair it - but that's only IF THEIR dGPU testing SW assures to them the dGPU is at fault. I got the case that the dGPU makes trouble (frequent Kernel panic upon switching back (!) to iGPU, as to Console: "AGC GPU REGISTER RESTORE FAILED ...") but Apple states that their SW does report no problem.

OK, here's the result of the RAID0:

View attachment 628768

I bought the MBP on shopgoodwilldotcom for around 220 bucks and then brought it to Apple store for the logic board replacement program. once they completed I placed the SSD and 16Gb memory in her. Recently purchased an awesome set of headphones and decided to take advantage of flac files and learned I needed more space. My original plan didn't work so now I have a 1TB SSD as the system drive, and the 1TB HDD as the storage. Im getting 490/540 Write/Read on the SSD in Blackmagic and 110/110 Write/Read on the HDD which so far, seems to suffice for flac playback (The Definitive Technology Symphony 1 has a built-in DAC so I can bypass the MBP and send digital signal straight to the cans from USB letting them process the audio stream) Its nice opening up "About this Mac" and seeing the below