Optical Drive HD Caddy replacement problems

[jdreier]

I'm having a few problems replacing my optical drive in my 15in aluminum 2.2ghz macbook pro. My initial plans were to install a seagate 320gb 7200rpm HD in the optical caddy and a Samsung 64gb SSD in the normal HD spot.

I purchased this caddy off ebay. ( I emailed the seller and he said this was the one that would work)

I got the item today and decided to try installing the 320gb HD in the caddy in the optical spot. I used the Ifixit instructions to tear apart my mac... no problems there. The caddy fit fine, and I thought I was ready to go.

I go to start up the computer and I hear the 320gb drive start up, then start to spin REALLY fast. So fast that it starts making a clicking sound. Once my computer starts up (from the original OEM drive) I open disk utility and don't see the 320gb drive in the optical bay. At this point I think I either A. didn't install a cord right, or B I got a bad drive.

I decided to shut the computer down and install the SSD and see if that would start up. Upon restart, disk utility recognizes the SSD. Once I try to reformat the drive to OSX journaled, things stop working. Disk utility hangs about midway though the reformat, never gets passed that. I try it multiple times, restarting my computer each time.

I know I can formatt a SSD to osx journaled. I did so with a mac mini and a SSD.

Now i'm at a loss. Did I somehow fry both my SSD and 320gb HDs? or is the caddy somehow to blame for this?

Right now, i've reinstalled the optical drive (which works fine).

Any help would be much appreciated.


Thanks,

 

[tjb1]

Do either of the drives work if you put them back in the original spot? I have read about problems with some of the cheap ones, but I got mine from ebay seller smk12 I think...I know the first part is smk and I didnt have to do any modifications to it to put it in.

 

[jdreier]

these are both brand new drives. I haven't tried them in any other device yet, or in the other drive spot in my computer (I don't wanna remove that until I back it up, in fear of screwing that drive up)

I do have a usb enclosure coming in the mail which i'll test these two drives out on.

I also sent the ebay seller an email with my problems. Hopefully I get all this worked out soon.

 

[tjb1]

Did you have to break something off to stick it in the optibay?

 

[NickZac]

If the HDD was clicking, that is bad and yes, it is probably toasted. I doubt the hard drive you have was defective initially although there is a minor possibility that this was the case.

Did the seller have any reviews specifically from people using Mac's? I know people with the OWC version of the HD Caddy who all have had no issues, but I don't know a thing about this particular product.

Have you tried not using the caddy at all and putting the SSD in the normal hard drive slot and use the OSX CD that came with your computer to format and install OSX and see what happens.

 

[ripcity]

This may be your problem

I installed a caddy in my MacBook and was having the darnest problem. It seems the SSD in the caddy would work just fine when my keyboard was loose (i.e. macbook disassembled for testing prior to reassembly) and then not register upon reassembly (i.e. all screws installed and tightened). This drove me nuts until I decided to install one screw at a time followed by a reboot to try and see exactly where the problem was.

It turned out that the screw closest to the caddy/pata (in my case) connection was the culprit--when I installed this screw, the drive wouldn't show up and things would get weird. It turns out that there were some metal "fingers" on the bottom of the keyboard panel that appeared to be touching the top of the connector card that interfaced with the caddy. The newmodus caddy that I was using was just a hair lower than the top of the connector card, and it appeared that there were solder lines on the connector card that went clear to the top of the card. In other words, the "fingers" were touching the electrical pathways on the connector card and shorting things out.

I put a small strip of electrical tape on top of the connector card to insulate the card from the "fingers", reassembled, and the problem disappeared--and I felt AWESOME! Given that your drive would disappear upon assembly like mine did I thought I'd pass on my findings. Best of luck.