MacBook Pro 2011 OptiBay HDD start stop count increasing rapidly

[AAPLGeek]

I have a 2011 13" MBP with a dual drive setup.

Noticed that the optibay drive recently started slowing down on some copy operations.

Checked SMART status and start stop count shows as ~200k. The count is increasing rapidly as I'm using the MBP, almost by 1 unit every 3 minutes.

Even after I disable the "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" option, the start stop count increments at the same speed.

I guess it's time to replace the drive?

Could it be because of a bad caddy? I'm using a generic Chinese one.

 

[Audit13]

Is it possible to put the boot drive into the DVD bay and the mechanical drive in the hard drive bay to test each drive's specs?

 

[ZapNZs]

Do the drive settings on spin down work differently in the optibay than with the main HDD bay? (I've only ever used SSDs with the OWC Data Doubler.)

If the drive in there only is rated for 300,000 start-stop cycles, it may be nearing time to consider replacement. In the case of the WD Black and HGST TravelStar, I believe each are rated for 600,000, so I imagine it will depend on which particular drive you are using.