Late 2011 MBP 17" won't boot off of optibay SSD

[dulino]

Guys - I was so looking forward to my optibay with 256 g sandisk SSD arriving. I installed it as per instructions and used carbon copier to clone my hdd onto it. But it just won't boot from it no matter what I do!

I set it as a default - upon boot the crossed circle shows up for a few seconds and then it boots off of HDD.

I held option key and selected it - it shows up but boots off the hdd anyway. The option key trick half the time doesn't show the drive as bootable at all.

I reset PRAM - no luck.

So far as I can tell, this MBP has SATA 3 on both optical and main drive ports. I do have FileVault enabled on the main HDD.

I just want it to frigging boot off of the SSD!

Any thoughts ?

 

[yjchua95]

Guys - I was so looking forward to my optibay with 256 g sandisk SSD arriving. I installed it as per instructions and used carbon copier to clone my hdd onto it. But it just won't boot from it no matter what I do!

I set it as a default - upon boot the crossed circle shows up for a few seconds and then it boots off of HDD.

I held option key and selected it - it shows up but boots off the hdd anyway. The option key trick half the time doesn't show the drive as bootable at all.

I reset PRAM - no luck.

So far as I can tell, this MBP has SATA 3 on both optical and main drive ports. I do have FileVault enabled on the main HDD.

I just want it to frigging boot off of the SSD!

Any thoughts ?

AFAIK you cannot boot off a drive in the Optibay.

Your only solution is to install the SSD in the SATA3 slot instead and the HDD in the Optibay.

 

[dulino]

Is there an article about that and reasons why it doesn't work somewhere ? I just keep seeing mixed reports. I wanted to research this before I open up my computer and dig in again.

----------

One more note - system reports shows negotiated 6gb speed with the drive in optibay...

 

[bobcan]

IF you are trying to Transfer something between Drives, you can boot off a USB (Mavericks) and then do what you need to between the two.. but if you are intending to KEEP the Main Drive (SSD) in the OptiBay, I think you are mistaken.. I am fairly certain that the Main Bay needs to contain your Bootable SSD for future endeavours!! Good Luck with your Quest

 

[dulino]

Ok will perform surgery and report back

 

[niteflyr]

Yes 2011 MBPs have known issues with SATA III drives in optibay. Moving the SSD to main bay and original HDD to optibay should resolve the issue.

 

[mbpjedi]

Yes 2011 MBPs have known issues with SATA III drives in optibay. Moving the SSD to main bay and original HDD to optibay should resolve the issue.

It looks like MCE may have solved this SATA III issue with the 2011 MBPs with something they're calling an OptiBay Extreme?

http://store.mcetech.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=OBSXGB-XTRM

Anyone tried this thing yet? any luck?

 

[saturnotaku]

It looks like MCE may have solved this SATA III issue with the 2011 MBPs with something they're calling an OptiBay Extreme?

http://store.mcetech.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=OBSXGB-XTRM

Anyone tried this thing yet? any luck?

Please create a new thread rather than spamming old threads with the same content.

 

[mbpjedi]

AFAIK you cannot boot off a drive in the Optibay.

Your only solution is to install the SSD in the SATA3 slot instead and the HDD in the Optibay.

FYI you can definitely boot from an OptiBay drive. I have one version of the Mac OS on my main drive and another Mac OS on my OptiBay drive and can boot from either one whenever I like. I just hold down the option key at bootup and the screen lists all the bootable volumes it finds and then I select which one to boot from. (Also, if you think about it, the optical drive that was there could boot the machine so the MBP has no problem booting from a device connected to that SATA port as long as it has a proper system on it.)