Problems booting with hard drive in optical bay

No I did the same thing but first I cloned the original drive/OS to the SSD while it was connected by USB. Then I made the switch and it booted right off the SSD first time. I could also use the option key and boot off the original drive in the Optibay. But then I did use a real Optibay from MecTech.

 

Try going into Startup Disk and make sure the SSD is selected as the start up disk.

Have you wiped the original drive? Just a thought.

What OS are you running? Lion or Snow Leopard?

What brand optibay are you using?

 

Yeah I'm on a late 2011 15" and never had any problems. But then I did go with the most expensive Optibay option figuring MECTech had it figured out and they give a DVD drive case and cable with the purchase.

I just removed my SSD and installed a Seagate XT drive in the many bay as I need more space on the main drive. I have 4 OS X versions installed on the main drive. 2 Lion versions, Snow Leopard and Mountain Lion developer. All run fine and all can see and use the drive in the optical bay.

I guess your only option is to try the MEC OptiBay.

 

> System Preferences > Startup Disk > Select the SSD > Restart

 

Here is where I'm at. I have my SSD and HDD. I used my SSD till it got full. Then i cloned my bootcamp partion from my SSD to my HDD and then TIME MACHINED my mac side to it. Used it for a few months and now got a caddy from amazon. Installed my SSD in the main bay, then my HDD in the optical bay. So since they are clones, but my HDD has the newer files, my SSD boots both sides(Mac and windows bootcamp) My HDD tries to boot windows bootcamp, goes the the start up, says loading windows, THEN flashes a blue screen REALLY fast and restarts my computer. I believe it has something to do with the drives labeled the same, so i tried changing the actual name of them. No luck. Something about the boot sequence is off.

To answer your question: Can you boot up the SSD to get to the mac desktop? Run disk utility and see if it shows the other drive. If it shows, no problems with the caddy. If it doesn't, then you need to check your connections. If you can't boot at all, get a lion recovery USB stick. Wait, you do have one correct? No? Start your mac, when you see a white screen hold OPTION key. Then when wait till you see the wifi part. Select your network and try the recovery over the internet. THERE you have disk utility. You may format the drives if they show up.

Another solution if you can boot in the SSD in the main bay, WITH the optical bay installed, not the HDD there, then get a cable(maybe your SSD came with one, mine did) that you can hook up the HDD through USB. When you do this, format it in disk utility(idk what you want out of this drive, mac backup, journaled, fat 32, NTFS, w/e) After it is clean, install it again. Take your time and do it right. When you attempt to boot, hold the option key again. You should see Mac HD or something that you labled. Click it. If it freezes, go to step 3.

Step 3: Install your optical drive bay replacement, WITHOUT the HDD. Try booting. If this works, check your HDD.(even though you said you did)