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Optical Bay Conversions What do I need to know and what options do I have?

J

jdaniel

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 21, 2009
1,150
15
Lviv, Ukraine
I was thinking of swapping out my stock 250GB HDD which I may do OR I was thinking of converting my Optical bay. I figure I do not really use it much at all.

Any difference between the OWC or MCE ones? the OWC seems a bit bare but cheaper, doesnt come with the dvd drive enclosure tho

What about battery?

I figure it would be a great way to have my time machine in my mac I wont have to bother about transfer speeds, cables and what not.

THANKS
 
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I was thinking about replacing my stock HDD with a momentus xt, but I'm very happy I went with the SSD & optibay instead... Personally I just went with this one from amazon along with a generic enclosure, and both work perfectly fine. Also, on the battery issue I've noticed a slight increase of about 15 min
 
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It's not very wise to keep your time machine inside your Mac. That defeats the point of a backup to some extent, if your laptop is destroyed or stolen, you will lose the backup as well as the primary data.

Use the second drive for additional data if you need it, and back both up to an external storage.
 
I'm getting an optibay next week. I don't think I'll have any problem with the installation, but how do I get the files to save to my optibay drive automatically? I have an ssd in the regular drive to handle the os and apps.
 
I bought something similar locally it looks the same but has a brand named: fenvi on it, some chinese company I would think. I have not gotten around to installing it yet.
 
jdaniel said:
I bought something similar locally it looks the same but has a brand named: fenvi on it, some chinese company I would think. I have not gotten around to installing it yet.
Click to expand...

Those are $10 on eBay and what I recommend, since it's only a simple plug adapter anyway. How much did they charge you?
 
awer25 said:
Those are $10 on eBay and what I recommend, since it's only a simple plug adapter anyway. How much did they charge you?
Click to expand...

have to consider shipping etc. I am in Singapore at the moment and the shop charged me $35 SGD so thats $28 USD. I think thats so so.. not cheap not overcharged considering it has to be shipped if I buy on Ebay. What I am worried about is it doesnt come with instructions but I guess I can figure it out......when the time comes.

oh and btw do u have one?
 
I bought the CD enclosure from eBay and I bought the OWC Data-doubler.

The OWC one is not some flimsy piece of metal. It's solid aluminium and it comes with a very nice instruction booklet for all models. If not, you can find the video on their website.

The shipping was around $8 I think. It's VERY cheap considering that I live in Korea atm :S
 
jdaniel said:
have to consider shipping etc. I am in Singapore at the moment and the shop charged me $35 SGD so thats $28 USD. I think thats so so.. not cheap not overcharged considering it has to be shipped if I buy on Ebay. What I am worried about is it doesnt come with instructions but I guess I can figure it out......when the time comes.

oh and btw do u have one?
Click to expand...

I guess that's not too bad. This one for example is $12 including shipping, but there's some value in buying locally. I do have one, and it works fine.
 
KJmoon117 said:
I bought the CD enclosure from eBay and I bought the OWC Data-doubler.

The OWC one is not some flimsy piece of metal. It's solid aluminium and it comes with a very nice instruction booklet for all models. If not, you can find the video on their website.

The shipping was around $8 I think. It's VERY cheap considering that I live in Korea atm :S
Click to expand...

the frame being solid is good, I dont like the idea of the chip board being exposed... and it looks soooo bare... and 75 bucks yeah..... makes no sense to me anyways. But its good that you like it :)
 
awer25 said:
I guess that's not too bad. This one for example is $12 including shipping, but there's some value in buying locally. I do have one, and it works fine.
Click to expand...

I'll post back when I finally install it... did anyone post anything about installing one of these ones? like pics or reviews?
 
Which Drive Where?

Just learned about this approach recently, and am starting to seriously consider it for the MPB I'll probably get in early fall.

Q: Is it better to have the SSD in the "regular" drive position and the HD in the optical bay, or vice versa?
 
sportykid2332 said:
I'm getting an optibay next week. I don't think I'll have any problem with the installation, but how do I get the files to save to my optibay drive automatically? I have an ssd in the regular drive to handle the os and apps.
Click to expand...

Change the location of your home folder to the drive:

Copy your existing home folder and paste it to the new drive then go into advanced options in your user account and you'll see a map to your home folder click on the search find the new home folder and select that one.

Reboot

Delete old home folder..

google seach it your'll find detailed instructions.

Chris
 
Tensakun said:
Just learned about this approach recently, and am starting to seriously consider it for the MPB I'll probably get in early fall.

Q: Is it better to have the SSD in the "regular" drive position and the HD in the optical bay, or vice versa?
Click to expand...

SSD in the optibay ideally*..vibrations and such dont affect it or you..

The regular HDD spot has nice rubber monunts for vibration and shock

*I have read that some compter will not boot from the optical with an SSD istalled there but this has not been tha case for me my SSD is in the optical*
 
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