Optical Drive Replacement: Hard Drive & Fan Issues

[jlspaldi]

Originally, I got a mid-2010 Macbook Pro with a Apple 128 GB SSD. However, I needed a lot more storage space than that for media files, so I installed a second HDD (WDC 500 GB 7200 rpm, here is the complete product info) by replacing my optical drive using a combination of the following instructions (iFixit and lifehacker). Everything worked out fine, and it's working great now. I have my original Apple SSD (which is actually made by Toshiba) in the original HD SATA slot, and my HDD is in the second SATA slot where the optical drive used to be.

However, I have a slight problem with the laptop's fan. It now runs at an audible level, while before my laptop was completely silent unless the graphics CPU was running. I'm pretty sure it doesn't have much to do with temperature, because if I eject the internal HDD using this Terminal script

#!/bin/sh
hdiutil eject /dev/disk1s2
hdiutil eject /dev/disk1s3
killall Terminal

the fan immediately turns off. I am sure that the temperature doesn't go down the moment I run this script, so maybe it's a built-in OS mechanism to turn the fan on when that SATA slot was being used (ostensibly because a spinning optical drive would make some heat). Is there any way to turn this off? I'm pretty sure it wouldn't make my computer hotter on average than it was before I replaced the optical drive, and it would make the macbook a lot quieter, which is what I am looking for. To clarify, I am just looking to stop my laptop's fan from running unnecessarily (according to my postulation) when the second HD is mounted.

 

[dusk007]

Unbelievable another one.
It is a common mistake but amazing still amazing how difficult it seems for some people to locate noise your just use common reasoning to find a solution.
I had a debate almost a page long with a guy once who refused to believe the facts.

Fact is that is not your fans turning any faster. It is the HDD idle spinning noise. If you have good hearing or a spectrometer you should be able to recognize that this noise is actually a bit higher pitched than the fan noise at the same dB level.
To validate it all you have to do is install SMCFancontrol or istat to read out the fan rpms. Launch SpindownHD in Spotlight and you will see where the fans are and when the HDD is active or sleeping and hear the difference.

With the skill of some people to connect cause & effect it is no wonder so many people still believe in a creator. Sorry I don't mean to offend but really there was a guy before you who simply refused to see the light and I feel like people shouldn't go so much to discos and stuff if the hearing is really that bad already.

 

[jlspaldi]

Thank you for that incredibly rude but incredibly accurate response.

 

[Ant.honey]

Thank you for that incredibly rude but incredibly accurate response.

LOL. True. Dick.

 

[GermanyChris]

Originally, I got a mid-2010 Macbook Pro with a Apple 128 GB SSD. However, I needed a lot more storage space than that for media files, so I installed a second HDD (WDC 500 GB 7200 rpm, here is the complete product info) by replacing my optical drive using a combination of the following instructions (iFixit and lifehacker). Everything worked out fine, and it's working great now. I have my original Apple SSD (which is actually made by Toshiba) in the original HD SATA slot, and my HDD is in the second SATA slot where the optical drive used to be.

However, I have a slight problem with the laptop's fan. It now runs at an audible level, while before my laptop was completely silent unless the graphics CPU was running. I'm pretty sure it doesn't have much to do with temperature, because if I eject the internal HDD using this Terminal script

the fan immediately turns off. I am sure that the temperature doesn't go down the moment I run this script, so maybe it's a built-in OS mechanism to turn the fan on when that SATA slot was being used (ostensibly because a spinning optical drive would make some heat). Is there any way to turn this off? I'm pretty sure it wouldn't make my computer hotter on average than it was before I replaced the optical drive, and it would make the macbook a lot quieter, which is what I am looking for. To clarify, I am just looking to stop my laptop's fan from running unnecessarily (according to my postulation) when the second HD is mounted.

Why is the platter in the ODD slot without the vibration deepening etc?