Optical bay adapter killed my hard drive?

[ewerx]

Hey all,

I got a new MBP 2 weeks ago and I swapped the original hard drive (Toshiba 750GB) into the optical bay, and put an SSD in the main bay. I used a Nimitz Optical Bay Caddy, it's similar to the MCE Optibay. I did this the day after I got the computer, so I hardly ever used the HDD in its normal configuration.

Everything was ok for a week or so, then the system started stalling (beachball) at random times when I tried to access something on the HDD. It was happening more and more often, so I ran SMART Utility and it said the drive is "FAILING" and has some bad sectors. I powered off and on and now the volume/partition on that drive is completely gone and I can't access it.

So I guess the drive is hosed. Is there any way to know what caused the failure?

I want to try and restore everything to original configuration and take it back to Apple to see if I can get a replacement hard drive.

But my concern is that the optibay caused this drive to fail, and it would do the same to any new drive I put in there. Is there any way to know this?

It could have just been a bad drive, I only had it for 2 weeks. I don't think I caused any damage during the swap, it went smoothly -- but I guess that's also a possibility.

Any suggestions on what I should do?

 

[Jazojas12]

Seeing as how lots of people have a HDD in the OD location without any issues..it's probably the drive. Put it back to stock configuration and take it to Apple. Could be a bad drive or it could be something else. First step is make sure you have another drive in there. If that dies then it might be the location. As far as I know there is no SMS (sudden motion sensor) where the OD goes so it might get damaged when the drive would normally turn off momentarily to save itself.

Just because someone might ask..you might want to post your machine's specifications.

 

[alphaod]

Your new drive failed on its own. Those optical bay adapters are no more than just a connector on two ends and trace to connect the two ends.

 

[dusk007]

Exactly you got a bad drive it would have failed anyway no matter where you used it. Or you damaged it during the swap. An SATA connector cannot kill a drive.
It is like plugging in a TV that gets damaged by a lightning and complaining that it is the power cables fault. It is the lightning and the TV connected to a power network that doesn't have proper failsaves not the cable.

 

[Satnam1989]

Seeing as how lots of people have a HDD in the OD location without any issues..it's probably the drive. Put it back to stock configuration and take it to Apple. Could be a bad drive or it could be something else. First step is make sure you have another drive in there. If that dies then it might be the location. As far as I know there is no SMS (sudden motion sensor) where the OD goes so it might get damaged when the drive would normally turn off momentarily to save itself.

Just because someone might ask..you might want to post your machine's specifications.

OD bay has SMS....confirmed been running the setup for almost 2 months now you can test it your self as long as you don't disable it, you can test it in action....but I'm sure its just a bad drive. I bought a Hitachi 7200RPM 750GB and WD Scorpio Black both died within a week so I ended up sticking to my 500GB that came with my laptop which is also a toshiba branded but it happens at random times that the drive that you buy or comes in ur pc/mac is bound to die sooner then later.

 

[thundersteele]

OD bay has SMS....confirmed been running the setup for almost 2 months now you can test it your self as long as you don't disable it, you can test it in action....

Is the sensor on the macbook side or is it part of the optibay that provides space for the second HD? The OP mentions a "Nimitz Optical Bay Caddy", which as least is not advertised as having a SMS.

 

[Satnam1989]

Is the sensor on the macbook side or is it part of the optibay that provides space for the second HD? The OP mentions a "Nimitz Optical Bay Caddy", which as least is not advertised as having a SMS.

Mine is a Fenvi branded which was all over eBay before it got replaced by Nimitz brand.....im not sure why sellers stopped selling it....anyway the optical bay enclosure/caddy will /does/ not have SMS built into it, its on the macbook pro's side as long as you don't turn it off like most other people....at least my 2011 Early 15" MBP that i bought brand new in October has it, I can't speak for people that bought it before October....or have the older models.

You can test it by leaving/turning/ on SMS and slightly shaking your laptop(be careful don't go crazy!) you will hear SMS kick in and best way to see it in action is play a video file from the HDD while putting it in free fall like motion, you will see video pause for a quick second and continue and also hear the click like sound of the head moving off the HDD.

 

[lomax4388]

like others have said, just got a bad luck getting a faulty drive. Same thing happened to me when i got my MBP. 6 days into ownership and the HDD failed, took to a apple store and they gave me a new MPB, i guess they were to lazy to change out the drive. I was in the store for less than 15 min.

 

[ewerx]

Thanks all for the info. Apple store replaced the hard drive, and I've now put it back in the optical bay. So far no problems...