Powered hard disc in optical bay cadd?

[PaulTMA]

Hi there, I have tried to install a 500 GB Toshiba hard disc into my optical bay via a caddy, however it is slow to the point of being unsuable. I realise this is possibly due to the fact this particular HD requires power. Would I still be able to insert this into the mac to use an an extra drive - does it need a special caddy which will power it? I have pictured it next to another drive (which I may use but has lower capacity). Please let me know if possible.

 

[rhett7660]

I have a hard drive in the my optical bay for quite some time, however I did get a power splitter and it does have power and have had no issues with speed.

What is the speed of the caddy the hard drive is being connected to?

 

[Intell]

What Mac is this in?

 

[PaulTMA]

Mid 2009 Macbook running El Captian with 8GB.

BTW I am fully aware that power may be an issue, now that I've inspected the drive, which has been lying round for years... I'm asking if this drive can still be used in an optical bay in any kind of caddy at all, or it the only way to use this particular drive is to power it in a mains-powered caddy. Which isn't what I want, but I thought I'd ask just in case. Inserted the lower capacity drive in an it works fine.

Thanks.

 

[Intell]

Does the slow drive work properly in the primary HDD bay?

 

[PaulTMA]

I have an SSD in there and would prefer not to remove it. The drive in question has passed quality tests, but is obviously distinguished by the aforementioned power port, so I am wondering if there is any hope for using it in an optical bay caddy at all.

 

[hallux]

I don't believe those pins are power. What are the spindle speeds on those 2 drives? 5400 RPM drives can seem SLOW compared to an SSD.

For what it's worth - a 3.5" desktop drive can be powered by just the large edge connector (the lower one in the picture), the small one on top is the actual SATA connection. A 2.5" laptop drive won't need additional power.

Something else to consider - the SuperDrive connection may be a slower SATA speed than the original HDD connection on the board.

 

[Audit13]

One set of pins is for power, other set is for data.

Possible problem with the caddy? What is the negotiated speed of the mechanical drive in system report? Tried booting from the ssd on the caddy?

 

[hallux]

One set of pins is for power, other set is for data.

Possible problem with the caddy? What is the negotiated speed of the mechanical drive in system report? Tried booting from the ssd on the caddy?

As I noted in my reply previous to yours.. The 2 plastic "blocks" or edge connectors toward the bottom of the picture are the data (small plug) and power (large plug). The 4 bare pins are of no value for connection to a computer.

 

[Audit13]

@hallux , I now realise that my post was not clear in that I should have referenced the "L-shaped" connectors as well. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.