some work , some dont.
they seem to be incompatible with certain sata optical drives apple is putting into the pro's.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
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MCE Optibay Alternative CHEAP
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some work , some dont.
they seem to be incompatible with certain sata optical drives apple is putting into the pro's.
I am using this, it works fine under macosx and windows7, has problem with booting up windows7 dvd on my macbook pro.
http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...m/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=360259290305
So I tried modding an MBA Superdrive, and it's not reading DVDs. Maybe I should have bought one of these enclosures for mine instead.
I fitted my optibay in yesterday- took 20mins.
The steps i followed:
1. Fitted Intel 160GB SSD (100GB for MACOSX, 60GB for windows7)
2. Installed Mac OS X
3. Ran Mac OS X update
4. Ran boot camp setup
5. Installed Windows 7 on the correct partition during setup ( & pressing ALT key when the windows install reboots-mine required 2 reboots during install)
6. Once installed- I installed the Windows bootcamp drivers.
7. Rebooted back into Mac OSX to make sure everything there was working fine.
8. Switched it off and placed in the optibay with a WD 640GB blue drive.
9. Once installed, I booted into MAC OSX and it automatically ran the disk utility to setup the disk. I partitioned them equally at 320GB to each OS.
10. Booted back into Windows 7 and windows picked up the disk no problem.
Hope this helps people who will try a similair setup as mine.
The steps i followed:
1. Fitted Intel 160GB SSD (100GB for MACOSX, 60GB for windows7)
2. Installed Mac OS X
3. Ran Mac OS X update
4. Ran boot camp setup
5. Installed Windows 7 on the correct partition during setup ( & pressing ALT key when the windows install reboots-mine required 2 reboots during install)
6. Once installed- I installed the Windows bootcamp drivers.
7. Rebooted back into Mac OSX to make sure everything there was working fine.
8. Switched it off and placed in the optibay with a WD 640GB blue drive.
9. Once installed, I booted into MAC OSX and it automatically ran the disk utility to setup the disk. I partitioned them equally at 320GB to each OS.
10. Booted back into Windows 7 and windows picked up the disk no problem.
Hope this helps people who will try a similair setup as mine.
I fitted my optibay in yesterday- took 20mins.
The steps i followed:
1. Fitted Intel 160GB SSD (100GB for MACOSX, 60GB for windows7)
2. Installed Mac OS X
3. Ran Mac OS X update
4. Ran boot camp setup
5. Installed Windows 7 on the correct partition during setup ( & pressing ALT key when the windows install reboots-mine required 2 reboots during install)
6. Once installed- I installed the Windows bootcamp drivers.
7. Rebooted back into Mac OSX to make sure everything there was working fine.
8. Switched it off and placed in the optibay with a WD 640GB blue drive.
9. Once installed, I booted into MAC OSX and it automatically ran the disk utility to setup the disk. I partitioned them equally at 320GB to each OS.
10. Booted back into Windows 7 and windows picked up the disk no problem.
Hope this helps people who will try a similair setup as mine.
swap the hdd into its original bay if you want avoid any problems.
leave the ssd in the optibay.
When I purchased my Optibay alternative from Ayagroup, I did not know that the disk enclosure had a bezel on it. The bezel made the drive not fit in my MBP, so I had to cut the bezel off. It looks kind of ghetto from the inside, but I can live with it.
The extra space is definitely a good thing when I have so little space on my SSD.
Now if only I could install Windows 7 to the HDD...
The extra space is definitely a good thing when I have so little space on my SSD.
Now if only I could install Windows 7 to the HDD...
I've got a 13" 2010 Macbook Pro and I purchased both Ayagroup products that are on the first page, one for the HDD and the other for the superdrive and neither fit correctly. The Ayagroup HDD enclosure as mentioned by the poster above is slightly too big because of the bezel and I can't make it fit without cutting it down(I haven't done this yet). The external optical drive case is too small the front cover won't work with it as far as I can tell. Sort of frustrated at this point and wondering if anyone can direct me to an enclosure for the HDD that they know for sure will work in a 13" 2010 Macbook pro without having to mod the case itself, thanks. Would be nice if the first post could be updated as well.
17" and 15" unibody MBP
Thanks so much for all the great information in this thread!
I am planning on installing 2nd harddrives on both my 17" MBP as well as my wife's 15" MBP.
We only need 1 external DVD drive to share.
Can someone send me the links to the correct parts to buy from newmodeus? (seems like that is the best place to get it from, right)
thanks in advance!
Thanks so much for all the great information in this thread!
I am planning on installing 2nd harddrives on both my 17" MBP as well as my wife's 15" MBP.
We only need 1 external DVD drive to share.
Can someone send me the links to the correct parts to buy from newmodeus? (seems like that is the best place to get it from, right)
thanks in advance!
Also, any recommendations for a 750 or 1 TB GB drive that will fit in my 17" MBP? I'm thinking about keeping my regular 320gb drive in the HD compartment for now and then putting in an SSD drive in a few months when the price point gets better.
For the dvd drive area, I'll put in the large HD (750gb or 1 TB)
Anyone else have any good recommendations for an external case for the superdrive?
So is there like an official guide to do this? I just purchased a cheap bay from ebay that is meant to work.
I already have an SSD installed; so i'm guessing that by simply taking out the superdrive, replacing it with the bay/hdd and then booting up, will work?
Can anyone from the UK link me to a superdrive enclosure?
Thanks
I already have an SSD installed; so i'm guessing that by simply taking out the superdrive, replacing it with the bay/hdd and then booting up, will work?
Can anyone from the UK link me to a superdrive enclosure?
Thanks
1. It seems that SSD is safer in optibay than HDD, since SSD doesn't have any moving parts.
2. Same question from me.
I don't think so. Those are the same connectors which go to the motherboard. The only difference is how the disk is physically attached.
ebay optical bay enclosure works, sabrent superdrive enclosure doesn't
I bought the ebay optical bay caddy. Works great. Only issue was the exact one mentioned by other posters. Two screw holes on the outside facing part of the macbook case do not have a matching hole on the caddy. So the caddy is held in place by one screw on the innermost side. (on edit: the screw hole that DOES exist on the caddy is actually not part of the caddy at all. You remove a little bracket from the superdrive and use the 2 screws it was secured with to attach it to the caddy in the same position).
It seemed pretty wobbly to me so I just took 3 pieces of electrical tape, folded each one on top of itself once, and stuffed them into the spaces where the caddy had wiggle room between the other components and parts of the case. Problem solved... the enclosure doesn't move one bit inside the case. I think it might even dampen the noise a bit since it keeps the metal from contacting other metal bits.
Today I picked up the sabrent EC-BSAT enclosure at Fry's. Same issue as a previous poster. The drive spins up when connected and sounds like it's going to work but my Macbook Pro (mid 2010 2.66 model) never recognizes that the drive is there. I'm assuming this is the same issue as where a previous poster mentioned that some of the newer superdrives are not compatible with the enclosure. I know that my MBP can interface with an external drive because I hooked up an old ide 5.25 in drive to it using a Rosewill SATA/IDE to USB adapter and it works just fine (it has a JMicron SATA/IDE to USB bridge chip in it).
Luckily, I had a feeling I might have problems with the Sabrent enclosure, so I also picked up an adapter for the sata/mini sata power port on the back of the superdrive while I was at Fry's. It basically connects to the port on the superdrive and converts the power port to molex. That way I can hook it up to my Rosewill adapter as a bare drive and see if that works.
I also have another slimline SATA drive from an HP laptop I'm going to try with the Sabrent. If it doesn't work then it's more likely the problem is with the enclosure controller itself and not the drive that is inserted to it. I'll post back with results from both.
I bought the ebay optical bay caddy. Works great. Only issue was the exact one mentioned by other posters. Two screw holes on the outside facing part of the macbook case do not have a matching hole on the caddy. So the caddy is held in place by one screw on the innermost side. (on edit: the screw hole that DOES exist on the caddy is actually not part of the caddy at all. You remove a little bracket from the superdrive and use the 2 screws it was secured with to attach it to the caddy in the same position).
It seemed pretty wobbly to me so I just took 3 pieces of electrical tape, folded each one on top of itself once, and stuffed them into the spaces where the caddy had wiggle room between the other components and parts of the case. Problem solved... the enclosure doesn't move one bit inside the case. I think it might even dampen the noise a bit since it keeps the metal from contacting other metal bits.
Today I picked up the sabrent EC-BSAT enclosure at Fry's. Same issue as a previous poster. The drive spins up when connected and sounds like it's going to work but my Macbook Pro (mid 2010 2.66 model) never recognizes that the drive is there. I'm assuming this is the same issue as where a previous poster mentioned that some of the newer superdrives are not compatible with the enclosure. I know that my MBP can interface with an external drive because I hooked up an old ide 5.25 in drive to it using a Rosewill SATA/IDE to USB adapter and it works just fine (it has a JMicron SATA/IDE to USB bridge chip in it).
Luckily, I had a feeling I might have problems with the Sabrent enclosure, so I also picked up an adapter for the sata/mini sata power port on the back of the superdrive while I was at Fry's. It basically connects to the port on the superdrive and converts the power port to molex. That way I can hook it up to my Rosewill adapter as a bare drive and see if that works.
I also have another slimline SATA drive from an HP laptop I'm going to try with the Sabrent. If it doesn't work then it's more likely the problem is with the enclosure controller itself and not the drive that is inserted to it. I'll post back with results from both.
So I can confirm that:
So yes, there must be something crappy about the SATA to USB bridge controller in the Sabrent enclosure that keeps it from working with the new MBP superdrive. Here's the info on the controller according to OS X:
- the 2010 MBP superdrive works just fine when hooked to the Rosewill adapter
- the Sabrent enclosure works just fine with a Dell DU-8A2S slimline DVDRW drive
So yes, there must be something crappy about the SATA to USB bridge controller in the Sabrent enclosure that keeps it from working with the new MBP superdrive. Here's the info on the controller according to OS X:
Wow, did not know that specific optibay wasn't perfect on the core i7 models. Glad you posted this, I'm waiting for mine to come in which is the same as yours. Thanks.
You think this drive : Samsung Spinpoint MT2, 1TB, will fit in ebay optical bay caddy. in my macbook pro 13inch , 2010.
Its a little bit higher then a normal 2.5 inch hd.
Thx
Its a little bit higher then a normal 2.5 inch hd.
Thx
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i thought this was meant to be easy! i opened up my macbook pro, took a look at what had to be taken off but i couldn't go through with it, it seemed too fragile! is there a dedicated guide to this?