New Macbook Pro 15" - Remove Optical Bay + A Few Questions

[philipt42]

I just got a new MBP on eBay ($650 off!) with a 128GB solid state drive. I have about 100 gigs free on my Power Mac right now (which I will sell soon), so I'd like to put in another 1TB hard drive in place of my optical drive.

1. Has anyone here done the optical drive upgrade with a non SSD hard drive?

2. Does Snow Leopard play nicely with solid state drives/two different drives, or should I upgrade to Lion (I might just do that anyway...)

3. Ideally, I want to have my media on the large drives, and my applications/system stuff on the SSD. Is that possible/is there anything I should know about that process?

4. Can I do all this upgrading without losing my carefully curated playlists and playcount in iTunes? (Migration Assistant?)

5. Do two drives work with Windows? I'm going to install Windows 7 for gaming. Which drive should I install it on?

Thanks in advance!

 

[GermanyChris]

I just got a new MBP on eBay ($650 off!) with a 128GB solid state drive. I have about 100 gigs free on my Power Mac right now (which I will sell soon), so I'd like to put in another 1TB hard drive in place of my optical drive.

1. Has anyone here done the optical drive upgrade with a non SSD hard drive?

2. Does Snow Leopard play nicely with solid state drives/two different drives, or should I upgrade to Lion (I might just do that anyway...)

3. Ideally, I want to have my media on the large drives, and my applications/system stuff on the SSD. Is that possible/is there anything I should know about that process?

4. Can I do all this upgrading without losing my carefully curated playlists and playcount in iTunes? (Migration Assistant?)

5. Do two drives work with Windows? I'm going to install Windows 7 for gaming. Which drive should I install it on?

Thanks in advance!

1: Platter to the normal HDD spot (rubber mounting) SSD to the optibay
2: Snow Leopard will be fine with the drives
3: nope just do what you said, though when I had I had my home folder on the platter
4: I dunno I don't curate playlists
5: not that you have no optical how were you going to get windows on the computer? There is a threat here where some one talks at length on how they got it to work.

 

[philipt42]

5: not that you have no optical how were you going to get windows on the computer? There is a threat here where some one talks at length on how they got it to work.

Setting aside any disreputable ways to get Windows, I can just use a USB Optical Drive

 

[GermanyChris]

Setting aside any disreputable ways to get Windows, I can just use a USB Optical Drive

I believe it won't boot from it. I believe Apple install disks were the only disks you could boot from on a USB CD...or something like that.

 

[Prodo123]

I just got a new MBP on eBay ($650 off!) with a 128GB solid state drive. I have about 100 gigs free on my Power Mac right now (which I will sell soon), so I'd like to put in another 1TB hard drive in place of my optical drive.

1. Has anyone here done the optical drive upgrade with a non SSD hard drive?

Many people have.

2. Does Snow Leopard play nicely with solid state drives/two different drives, or should I upgrade to Lion (I might just do that anyway...)

If it didn't, then people wouldn't be doing this mod.

3. Ideally, I want to have my media on the large drives, and my applications/system stuff on the SSD. Is that possible/is there anything I should know about that process?

Install Mac OS X on the SSD, but don't wipe the HDD. Use a Boot Camp backup to restore data to the SSD. Now you have all of your apps on the SSD.
To change your home folder to the HDD, Follow this guide.
To set your iTunes library to the HDD, go to iTunes -> Preferences -> Advanced and change it to the desired folder (Usually the iTunes folder in the Music folder in your Home folder). Then consolidate files.
Once all copying of data is done, remove your old home folder from the SSD.

4. Can I do all this upgrading without losing my carefully curated playlists and playcount in iTunes? (Migration Assistant?)

Yes, read above.

5. Do two drives work with Windows? I'm going to install Windows 7 for gaming. Which drive should I install it on?

Yes. Not that it won't matter, but I'd recommend installing it on the HDD.

 

[philipt42]

5. Do two drives work with Windows? I'm going to install Windows 7 for gaming. Which drive should I install it on?

Yes. Not that it won't matter, but I'd recommend installing it on the HDD.

Is there a way to install Windows on a mac without an optical drive? The tutorials I've found are all for installing windows using a computer with windows to prep the USB installation.

 

[Prodo123]

Is there a way to install Windows on a mac without an optical drive? The tutorials I've found are all for installing windows using a computer with windows to prep the USB installation.

Legitimately, no.

 

[philipt42]

So, I basically have to install Windows on the SSD while I still have the Optical Drive? I suppose that might work, but is there a way to transfer the Windows installation after I have the new terabyte drive installed?

 

[ThemacNub]

You can partition the hdd in the optibay from the ssd. Turn off the computer and put the hdd in the ssd's spot and reinstall the optical drive. Boot from the optical drive and install windows onto the correct partition on the hdd.

 

[philipt42]

You can partition the hdd in the optibay from the ssd. Turn off the computer and put the hdd in the ssd's spot and reinstall the optical drive. Boot from the optical drive and install windows onto the correct partition on the hdd.

That's an interesting idea. I guess I could do the same thing with a friend's laptop.

Would it be possible to:

a) install Windows 7 and Lion on the SSD, and keep system files on there, and then
b) keep the rest of my files (games on Windows/everything else on OS X?

Basically, can I separate the OS from the media?

 

[ThemacNub]

Yes you can keep your os' on the ssds and everything else on the hdd. Just partition them how you see fit. Windows 7 os takes alot of space so consider that when you are partitioning as its a pain to have to re-partition everything to allow sufficient space.

 

[philipt42]

Thanks.

If I were to install the SSD in the Optibay, and the normal hard drive in the regular spot, would I be able to use a 12.5mm HD?

Remember, this is a Feb. 2011 15" MBP.

 

[Prodo123]

Thanks.

If I were to install the SSD in the Optibay, and the normal hard drive in the regular spot, would I be able to use a 12.5mm HD?

Remember, this is a Feb. 2011 15" MBP.

Yes.