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2Turbo

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 18, 2011
360
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I found a quote on here that claims installing a HDD in the optibay is unsafe. Is this really true? What are your thoughts?
Honestly, even though I originally agreed with everyone saying that, so long as you don't jar it, you'll be fine, your data is at risk here. My hitachi is now suffering some major glitches, without even being close to full, and I owe this largely to it being in the optibay, and not having any SMS. Most importantly, when power going to the optibay is cut, it is cut without regard to the electronics needing a spin down, and thus you get the same affect as a hard shutdown whenever you cut power (sleep, software shutdown, etc).
 
i'm curious about this too as i just updated to a ssd and are using the optibay for the regular HD. where did you read this?
 
Modern harddrives will automatically park the heads by using the power generating from the still spinning platters in the event of a power loss.

I would imagine the greater risk is that the drive is hard mounted in the optibay, vs rubber dampers in the normal spot.
 
Well the samsung drive I'm looking at has a g-sensor for freefall protection.
 
I mounted the SSD in the Optibay and the HDD in the HDD bay. Seemed like the most sensible option for a host of reasons
 
On the 2011 MBP the Optibay slot is SATA 2 and the HDD bay is SATA 3.

I wonder how noticeable the real world difference is between having an SSD in a SATA 2 slot instead of one that supports SATA 3. It's good to note that currently there aren't nearly as many SATA 3 SSDs as there are SATA 2 SSDs
 
I wonder how noticeable the real world difference is between having an SSD in a SATA 2 slot instead of one that supports SATA 3. It's good to note that currently there aren't nearly as many SATA 3 SSDs as there are SATA 2 SSDs

We'll be seeing more tests of SATA 3 drives as they come to market. I'm curious to see the difference too.
 
Either there is no solid info out there or my googlefu is in the dumps today...

So - I intend on installing a 750 Gb drive in my optibay. I am going for the 7200 Seagate Drive with their SMS like system

My current system: 2011 15" with a 256Gb SSD preinstalled.
Question:

1. Is there a definitive answer as to whether or not the SMS will work with a drive in that bay? (Apple's SMS - I understand the Seagate has it's own built in)

(Qualifier: As I understand it, SMS is tied to the SATA bus. The SATA bus directly reports to the CPU. With that, would it not matter where the hard drive is installed as long as the OS recognizes the drive is of the spinning platter type?) Sorry if I am not clear.

2. Vibration control. Most rubber grommet mounting styles are that - rubber grommets. For those of you that have stock drives, do those drives have mounting grommets?

My follow on question would be - could not one manufacture rubber grommets to provide a similar vibration absorption system if said system is installed with the stock drive? If no grommets are installed on the stock system then the question is moot.

Thanks.
 
Either there is no solid info out there or my googlefu is in the dumps today...

So - I intend on installing a 750 Gb drive in my optibay. I am going for the 7200 Seagate Drive with their SMS like system

My current system: 2011 15" with a 256Gb SSD preinstalled.
Question:

1. Is there a definitive answer as to whether or not the SMS will work with a drive in that bay? (Apple's SMS - I understand the Seagate has it's own built in)

(Qualifier: As I understand it, SMS is tied to the SATA bus. The SATA bus directly reports to the CPU. With that, would it not matter where the hard drive is installed as long as the OS recognizes the drive is of the spinning platter type?) Sorry if I am not clear.

2. Vibration control. Most rubber grommet mounting styles are that - rubber grommets. For those of you that have stock drives, do those drives have mounting grommets?

My follow on question would be - could not one manufacture rubber grommets to provide a similar vibration absorption system if said system is installed with the stock drive? If no grommets are installed on the stock system then the question is moot.

Thanks.

1. The main reason people put HDDs in the HD bay on MBPs is that the MBP itself has an SMS. If your Seagate drive already has an SMS built in, you'd be better off putting your HDD in the optibay, since the 2 SMS's will conflict with each other and cause problems. The Seagate's SMS will work fine in the Optibay.

2. I'm not sure that most 7200 RPM laptop drives really vibrate all that much. The vibration is likely going to be negligible, and most optibays will simply cover up the sound/vibration anyway.
 
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