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Optibay worth it for 17" macbook pro?

J

jjahshik32

macrumors 603
Original poster
Sep 4, 2006
5,366
52
Anyone here use the optibay on their 17" unibody macbook pro?

Is it worth it? Do you guys know if it'll support a 1tb scorpion blue hdd?

I'll be keeping my ssd drive in the original hdd bay and add the conventional hdd in the optibay.

Do you guys notice any decrease in battery life?
 
Do you guys know if you can install windows via bootcamp into the drive in the optibay?
 
I have on in my new 17" and it works great. No problems at all.

too be honest, I don't really know about the battery life because I only had the MBP for a week before the Optidrive went in to it.

I am pretty sure you can install Windows to the second drive, I think I read that here. I haven't messed with bootcamp because I have another Laptop with Windows installed on it.
 
MartyF81 said:
I have on in my new 17" and it works great. No problems at all.

too be honest, I don't really know about the battery life because I only had the MBP for a week before the Optidrive went in to it.

I am pretty sure you can install Windows to the second drive, I think I read that here. I haven't messed with bootcamp because I have another Laptop with Windows installed on it.
Click to expand...

I'd be willing to bet my 15" uMBP boots faster then your 17" because of your optibay.

never notice random slow downs? or unbelievably reduced drive-to-drive transfer rates....

IMO skip the optibay solution, find something else, or use an external.
 
alust2013 said:
Can't do a 1TB drive, as those are all 12.5mm at the moment. Biggest you can fit in there is a 750GB 9.5mm drive.
Click to expand...

Not True. I have a 1TB installed in the Optibay along with a 500GB Hybrid Drive in the Stock bay on my Pre-Unibody 17" MacBook Pro

jjahshik32 said:
Do you guys know if you can install windows via bootcamp into the drive in the optibay?
Click to expand...

Yes. You can install Windows on the second drive. You cannot partition the second drive using Boot Camp though.

x0r-lord said:
I'd be willing to bet my 15" uMBP boots faster then your 17" because of your optibay.

never notice random slow downs? or unbelievably reduced drive-to-drive transfer rates....

IMO skip the optibay solution, find something else, or use an external.
Click to expand...

Not true. If it's both SATA, it'll run at SATA. There's no difference here.
 
ayeying said:
Not true. If it's both SATA, it'll run at SATA. There's no difference here.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's true.it has nothing to do with a SATA interface, It's something with the Optibay (I don't own one, so haven't been able to thoroughly test it),
and apple doesn't use SATA connections for the super-drive, they use Apple Proprietary SATA, which is why you need the Optibay in the first place.

I've helped people deal with beach balling problems before, and removal of the MCE Optibay instantly solved the problem.
heres an example on this forum (recently):
Beachballing


and for the record, you could install any compatible OS you want onto the Optibay drive. and as long as the EFI handles it properly, you can boot off it. you can also boot off a USB hard-drive... (I haven't tried FW).
 
x0r-lord said:
Yeah, it's true.it has nothing to do with a SATA interface, It's something with the Optibay (I don't own one, so haven't been able to thoroughly test it),
and apple doesn't use SATA connections for the super-drive, they use Apple Proprietary SATA, which is why you need the Optibay in the first place.

I've helped people deal with beach balling problems before, and removal of the MCE Optibay instantly solved the problem.
heres an example on this forum (recently):
Beachballing
Click to expand...

Then make your own ghetto version of it.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/680228/

I never got any beachballs from the Optibay on the MacBook Pro or on the iMac.

Edit: You shouldn't use a boot drive in the Optibay. The Optibay is for secondary storage, not primary. This is user error here.
 
ayeying said:
Not True. I have a 1TB installed in the Optibay along with a 500GB Hybrid Drive in the Stock bay on my Pre-Unibody 17" MacBook Pro



Yes. You can install Windows on the second drive. You cannot partition the second drive using Boot Camp though.



Not true. If it's both SATA, it'll run at SATA. There's no difference here.
Click to expand...

can you link me to your terabyte drive pls? how much was it? thanks...
 
You can put the 1TB WD hard drive in the regular bay, it will fit, and put your old one in the optibay?
 
ayeying said:
Not True. I have a 1TB installed in the Optibay along with a 500GB Hybrid Drive in the Stock bay on my Pre-Unibody 17" MacBook Pro



Yes. You can install Windows on the second drive. You cannot partition the second drive using Boot Camp though.



Not true. If it's both SATA, it'll run at SATA. There's no difference here.
Click to expand...

I am trying to install windows 7 64bit on my ssd, which is on my optibay dvd slot. The SSD has OS X on it also. Is this possible with an external superdrive and bootcamp?
 
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