Optical drive to hard drive upgrade in London?

[Benbikeman]

I have a mid-2009 MacBook Pro 17 and want to replace the optical drive with a second hard drive.

I know it's supposed to be straightforward, but I have the DIY skills of a puppy. I can strip a thread at 100 feet just by glancing in its general direction.

Anyone know of a company in London that could do the upgrade?

 

[yusukeaoki]

Not sure in London but here in the US, Ive heard lots.

If you google it, there is a lot of results on how people were successful.

So it IS possible. But most people do it on their own so Im not sure of a store...

Search OptiBay kit.
This should help you.

 

[Benbikeman]

Yep, the OptiBay kit looks like the way to go, but I'd just end up breaking a connector or something if I were let loose with a screwdriver ...

 

[bb426]

Yep, the OptiBay kit looks like the way to go, but I'd just end up breaking a connector or something if I were let loose with a screwdriver ...

It's really not that hard.... you just need to find a good guide on it and be careful! Have confidence in yourself, you can do anything if you try hard. Just make sure you have the tools to do so... and if you must, have someone else do it. I doubt there's any company that would do it for you... if there is, well, I doubt they're prevalent.

 

[tobe82]

Try LondonMac based in Clerkenwell. They were very helpful and clued-up when I needed help bringing my old MacBook Pro back from the dead (eventually helping me get a free repair from Apple!) and I'd certainly recommend them for anything else.

 

[Benbikeman]

Thanks, Tobe, I'll give them a call.

 

[Benbikeman]

Just to follow-up on this, they were indeed very helpful.

There's a new WD 9.5mm 1Tb drive just out, so we're waiting for stocks of this, and I'm going to upgrade the existing 500Gb drive to a 1Tb at the same time, so I'll have 2Tb total - should keep me going for a while! Their price for cloning and replacing the main drive and fitting the second drive is £90 inc VAT, which I think is reasonable given the chances of me breaking something if I attempt it with my two left hands.

Oh, and yes I know many would go for an SSD+hard drive combo, but I'm perfectly happy with the speed of the machine, so maximum storage capacity is my priority.)

Thanks again for the recommendation.

 

[dusk007]

I would simply ask someone who does have better DIY skills. Almost any friend or relative would do it for free, when you invite him/her on sunday to dinner or cake&coffee.
Cloning is at least something that takes time but a piece of cake with the right software and it is free software too.

For maximum storage I would set up some NAS hdd array. SSD is also so nice and quite.BTW the Samsung M8 is cheaper than the WD, faster in quite a few workloads and it sucks less power. The WD is quite power hungry for no apparent reason. I would/will get the M8.

 

[Benbikeman]

I have a NAS setup as well, but travel a lot so want as much as possible on-board.

Thanks for the pointer to the Spinpoint M8 - will check that out.

 

[Benbikeman]

Try LondonMac based in Clerkenwell.

Thanks again for this recommendation. it took a while for the 9.5 mm drives to become available, so the work was done today.

Fast, efficient and friendly service. I'll definitely be using them again for any future work I need.

 

[snaky69]

I have a mid-2009 MacBook Pro 17 and want to replace the optical drive with a second hard drive.

I know it's supposed to be straightforward, but I have the DIY skills of a puppy. I can strip a thread at 100 feet just by glancing in its general direction.

Anyone know of a company in London that could do the upgrade?

You need basic motor skills such as knowing which way to turn a screw driver, and that's about it.

If you are able to type out your question, you are able to do it.

 

[Benbikeman]

You need basic motor skills such as knowing which way to turn a screw driver, and that's about it.

You underestimate my ability to break things. You're talking to a man who once snapped a locknut while attempting to adjust the chain on a motorcycle ...