DVD drive dying in unibody, what to do?

[Potatochobit]

hello
I have a late 2008 macbook pro unibody 15"
the super drive thing doesnt read half the CD/DVDs I put in it
keeps going whirr whirr whirr and hard to force eject them

So... I am thinking about upgrading the computer
I am thinking about installing an OCZ SSD as the main drive

but I heard about people moving a 2nd hard drive to the DVD drive bay
is this a good idea? How much are these adapter things?
and if I did this would I be able to add a cheap external DVD drive that works with the macbook pro for when I need to install programs off a CD?

 

[MrXiro]

hello
I have a late 2008 macbook pro unibody 15"
the super drive thing doesnt read half the CD/DVDs I put in it
keeps going whirr whirr whirr and hard to force eject them

So... I am thinking about upgrading the computer
I am thinking about installing an OCZ SSD as the main drive

but I heard about people moving a 2nd hard drive to the DVD drive bay
is this a good idea? How much are these adapter things?
and if I did this would I be able to add a cheap external DVD drive that works with the macbook pro for when I need to install programs off a CD?

I had the same problem with mine so I took it out and put in an optical bay hdd replacement like you are thinking about. Works great! It's not too difficult... I suggest googling owc's replacing mbp optical drive video that is on YouTube. You only disconnect 2 cables and 5 screws more than if you were swapping out your RAM. I have the 2008 uMBP as well.

The optical bay piece is about 100 bucks from optibay. I picked up a cheaper one from another online retailer but forgot who they are. I found a link to them in the optibay thread here on macrumors. I would suggest against getting the one from amazon... It costs 15 bucks but seems iffy and lacking a few holes to screw the mount in I believe.

 

[MrXiro]

Oh and yes you can use any USB DVD drive on macs.

 

[cptrios]

I had the exact same problem with the exact same computer. I wound up doing the Optibay thing myself (I went with one of these ridiculously cheap ones. It was super easy to install and I haven't had a problem yet, knock on wood). I just popped my original 320gb HD into the main slot and put my replacement 500gb HD into the new one. The whole thing works like a charm. For my rare disc needs, I bought a cheap, tiny, Rosewill USB external superdrive.

Honestly I'm much happier this way than I was with the optical drive still working!

 

[Potatochobit]

thanx alot for the replies
for 9$ I cant pass that up even if it doesnt work I can just replace it

Apple has no bluray support and no plans in the works right?
I guess I can go with a cheap DVD burner as well, it doesnt need an external power plug which is great

now all I have left to do is order a new SSD but I heard there are some sleep issues with OCZ so I may have to read up some more

 

[MrXiro]

thanx alot for the replies
for 9$ I cant pass that up even if it doesnt work I can just replace it

Apple has no bluray support and no plans in the works right?
I guess I can go with a cheap DVD burner as well, it doesnt need an external power plug which is great

now all I have left to do is order a new SSD but I heard there are some sleep issues with OCZ so I may have to read up some more

I found a reseller on Amazon who is selling 256gb Crucial C300s for 400 bucks. They are the only SATA3 SSDs available at the moment which means they are future proof if you get a new MBP you'll be getting 6Gbps speed via sATA as opposed to the 3Gbps you get currently. All the SnB MBPs are SATA3.