Optibay hdd not recognized

[haydarekarrar]

Hi

I bought an ebay optibay and put my hdd in it and replaced the original slot with a brand new SSD. The problem I have is that occasionally the optibay hdd is not being recognized during startup, I can hear it spinning but nothing more than that.

The procedure to get it recognized is usually sleep the computer, wake up and then restart or just restart, it's all pretty random.

I have read somewhere that it might have to do with the fact that the HDD does not spin up fast enough to be recognized (as it is actually booting from my SSD).

Any ideas on this?

Thanks!

 

[simsaladimbamba]

I have the HDD in its original HDD bay and the SSD in the Optibay adapter, and the HDD gets recognised every time. Have you tried that for a change?
I put the HDD in the HDD bay because of the Sudden Motion Sensor.

 

[haydarekarrar]

Forgot to mention that I have a macbook black 2007.

Do you have your system on the SSD? I believe I tried putting the SSD in the optibay but I read and also experienced problems waking up from sleep. However, that was before formatting the HDD i.e. I had two systems basically on my two hard drives that time. Have you had problems with sleep/wake up with your config? I think I'm gonna try switching the hard drives and see if gets any better.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

I have my OS on my Vertex 3 SSD and it is also cloned to a 125 GB partition on the HDD.
Since the optical disk drive (ODD) on that MacBook uses an older P-ATA interface, the SSD in the Optibay would defeat its purpose. The SSD is better put in the HDD bay with its S-ATA 1.5 Gbps interface, which would allow you speeds around 140 MB/s and the HDD should be put in that Optibay adapter.

The problems I had were ones with negotiated link speed, as my S-ATA 6.0 Gbps SSD was only using a S-ATA 1.5 Gbps speed on a S-ATA 3.0 Gbps interface (my 2009 MBP has two S-ATA 3.0 Gbps interfaces, one for the HDD, one for the ODD). A Firmware update from Vertex fixed that issue.

I never had sleep/wake issues.

 

[haydarekarrar]

I just bought a second optibay and same symptoms there. I reformatted the hdd in my linux box and now it's not recognized at all in OSX. The system boots fine, I can hear the HDD spinning but it's still not recognized. Additionally my top case keyboard+trackpad stopped working after all the disassembling. I'm glad the power button works though so I can start the laptop, I'm running with external mouse+keyboard atm.

So in the end it seems that Macs are just as vulnerable as other PCs when it comes to switching hardware - lol!

 

[henrika]

Optibay

Got an Optibay for my 2007 MBP. Installed intel 160mb SSD in HD slot, works great. Transferred HDD to optibay after repartitioning via USB cradle. HDD shows up on first boot, on second (and all following) no dice. Thinking disk was damaged, I installed new disk (actually old one, also partitioned via external USB cradle, GUID and MAC OS, worked great), failed to show up on boot after optibay install (but on some boots it shows up, unpartitioned, boasting 563 TB...). Thinking I had dammaged the cable from optibay to motherboard I reinstalled the superdrive, which functioned as always, leading me to blame the optibay itself.

Any suggestions as to software/hardware tweaking will be greatly appreciated.

 

[saggel]

I have the same problem! Did you find a solution?

 

[henrika]

my solution

Yes, I put the optibay in the bin and bought this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290567682294&ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:US:3160

Which I have been running with a 1TB western digital HD for a couple of weeks without any trouble. The item itself seems to be of better quality with thicker metal sheets, fixation for the HD with screws and proper threaded screwholes for attachment of the MBP brackets to the HD bay. The HD even closes down when not in use. In addition it is cheaper than the optibay, highly recomended

 

[saggel]

Yes, I put the optibay in the bin and bought this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290567682294&ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:US:3160

Which I have been running with a 1TB western digital HD for a couple of weeks without any trouble. The item itself seems to be of better quality with thicker metal sheets, fixation for the HD with screws and proper threaded screwholes for attachment of the MBP brackets to the HD bay. The HD even closes down when not in use. In addition it is cheaper than the optibay, highly recomended

Thank you so much!
I've tried two 'optibay' from ebay (both were exactly the same) and both failed. I'll follow your advice and try this one, yet can you verify that this is for the white macbook (early 2008)? Thank you so much!

 

[flatfoot]

Thank you so much!
I've tried two 'optibay' from ebay (both were exactly the same) and both failed. I'll follow your advice and try this one, yet can you verify that this is for the white macbook (early 2008)? Thank you so much!

It is. Your MacBook has a PATA connection in the optical drive bay. The linked adapter is connected to this, converting from PATA to SATA (or vice versa) so you can equip it with a SATA drive.

I'm sorry to have interrupted but I saw there hadn't been an answer yet.

 

[saggel]

It is. Your MacBook has a PATA connection in the optical drive bay. The linked adapter is connected to this, converting from PATA to SATA (or vice versa) so you can equip it with a SATA drive.

I'm sorry to have interrupted but I saw there hadn't been an answer yet.

Thanx
the other caddies I got were pata-to-sata too
but never worked
let's hope I'm lucky this time...

 

[henrika]

model

Thank you so much!
I've tried two 'optibay' from ebay (both were exactly the same) and both failed. I'll follow your advice and try this one, yet can you verify that this is for the white macbook (early 2008)? Thank you so much!

I run it in a Macbook pro 2008 (santa rosa) aluminum casing. Its a SATA HD with PATA connection (ie the caddy) to motherboard. It has the same shape and size as the optibay (but this one actually worked for me). As long as the optibay could be fitted I'd say you're ok as far as hardware. I did have to remove a small plastic bar at one edge to be able to fit it in my machine, my impression is that this bay was made to be used in several models and therefore you can adjust its size.

The same seller provides a nice external aluminum (?) casing for the DVD player

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAP...21&ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:US:3160#ht_2697wt_838

which I ordered today. I'm quite optimistic about it based on the good functionality of the caddy. I'll post in this thread when I get it. The plastic casing that came with the optibay tends to stall the dvd player demanding a bootup and once even taking the player itself apart to extract the disk (besides a cheepish design).

cheers
henrika

 

[saggel]

I run it in a Macbook pro 2008 (santa rosa) aluminum casing. Its a SATA disk with PATA connection (ie the bay) to motherboard. It has the same shape and size as the optibay (but this one actually worked for me). As long as the optibay could be fitted I'd say you're ok far as hardware goes with this one aswell. I did have to remove a small plastic bar at one edge to be able to fit it in my machine, my impression is that this bay was made to be used in several models and therefore you can adjust its size.

cheers
henrika

Thanx
yes, I saw I should remove the black bezel from the front side, I'm fine with that as long as it'll finally work. I'm giving this a try soon
(probably my last attempt...)

 

[saggel]

Yes, I put the optibay in the bin and bought this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290567682294&ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:US:3160

Which I have been running with a 1TB western digital HD for a couple of weeks without any trouble. The item itself seems to be of better quality with thicker metal sheets, fixation for the HD with screws and proper threaded screwholes for attachment of the MBP brackets to the HD bay. The HD even closes down when not in use. In addition it is cheaper than the optibay, highly recomended

I just wanted to thank you here in public and say that probably this was the solution to the problem! Faulty caddies! I bought the one you suggested, received it yesterday and tried it today on the external enclosure I got for the superdrive and it works! Thank you so much my friend
Now I'll have to find the time again to make the 'surgery' and put it in

 

[henrika]

Nice

Thats good to hear, the 'surgery' went well on my MBP, the patient is out of the hospital and are doing great

See this YOUTUBE video from Powermacmedic for instructions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_toT9fY17U&feature=plcp
following this I had no problems doing it (Powermacmedic is another excellent site for parts to the macs).

I received the new external enclosure mentioned above just two days ago, unfortionately it is for SATA only, my bad, did not read the info carefully enough (but it looks nice, gray plastic lid, black metal bottom, white apple-ish cord and USB plug), thinking of getting new sata superdrive, not decided yet.

henrik

 

[saggel]

I received the new external enclosure mentioned above just two days ago, unfortionately it is for SATA only, my bad, did not read the info carefully enough (but it looks nice, gray plastic lid, black metal bottom, white apple-ish cord and USB plug), thinking of getting new sata superdrive, not decided yet.

henrik

so, it's my turn to help then
I got this one:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/220834184748?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

really good quality and works great!

 

[henrika]

drive

Thank you as you say it looks nice and it is alot cheaper than getting a new sata drive,

thanks
henrika