Real Danger Having Stock HD in the Optical Bay?

[fouramphonecall]

I’ve seen many people on here debating the actual real-world danger of having a stock Apple hard drive (one without built-in drop protection) in the optical bay of a MacBook Pro. Obviously there is a theoretical danger that sudden movement could jerk the disk while it’s in motion and cause damage. But I’d like to see if anyone with significant real-world tech experience actually considers this a major issue. What are the necessary conditions for a scenario where the drive could get damaged? How severe does the movement need to be? Is there only a danger when the drive is spinning or all the time?

Right now I have my SSD in my optical bay and my HD in the HD bay, but I would like to switch that around if it’s really not a significant concern. But, as a college student, I move my computer around quite a bit every day, so I need to take that into account.

 

[mulo]

I read somewhere that the new MBP's have SMS in the optibay.

 

[BeachChair]

Good questions.

I'm no expert, but it's my impression there is a real risk. I've destroyed an external hard drive by yanking it while in operation and crashed my Xbox once adjusting it's position while it was doing something on the HDD.

 

[fouramphonecall]

I read somewhere that the new MBP's have SMS in the optibay.

Do you have a source on that?

 

[mulo]

Do you have a source on that?

look at the bottom two posts in this thread, thats a bit of extra info to consider.
I myself have a seagate drive, so i have it in the optibay.

 

[fouramphonecall]

look at the bottom two posts in this thread, thats a bit of extra info to consider.
I myself have a seagate drive, so i have it in the optibay.

By "this thread" do you actually mean THIS thread, or did you mean to link to an external thread?

 

[mac8867]

I have ** Real World ** experience here... it is a BIG deal.

I am a consultant and am constantly picking up my laptop and moving into meeting rooms etc etc.

My first OptiBay hard drive, without SMS, failed after a few months. (Western Digital Blue 500 GB)

I put a WD Black model with SMS in the optibay a year ago, and absolutely no issues.

 

[altecXP]

I have ** Real World ** experience here... it is a BIG deal.

I am a consultant and am constantly picking up my laptop and moving into meeting rooms etc etc.

My first OptiBay hard drive, without SMS, failed after a few months. (Western Digital Blue 500 GB)

I put a WD Black model with SMS in the optibay a year ago, and absolutely no issues.

That could also be a coincidence.

 

[mac8867]

That could also be a coincidence.

LOL --- sure, sure... but I am not going to go out and buy a non-SMS drive, install it, and risk my data, to prove it either way...

 

[fouramphonecall]

I have ** Real World ** experience here... it is a BIG deal.

I am a consultant and am constantly picking up my laptop and moving into meeting rooms etc etc.

My first OptiBay hard drive, without SMS, failed after a few months. (Western Digital Blue 500 GB)

I put a WD Black model with SMS in the optibay a year ago, and absolutely no issues.

That's an interesting personal account, even if the cause and effect aren't necessarily certain.

Anyone else have a similar experience with a non sms drive?

 

[VTMac]

That's an interesting personal account, even if the cause and effect aren't necessarily certain.

Anyone else have a similar experience with a non sms drive?

For a good decade or so every laptop made did NOT have sms because it didn't exist. None of this had failures from everyday movement while the hard drive was running. For the OP it was no doubt completely coincidental. SMS adds a additional small margin for error, primarily related to non-normal movement - for example dropping your machine. Even with SMS, if I drop my machine from by backpack to a sidewalk, it's still a crapshoot. (My buddy did this last month with his 2009 MBP with sms drive and drive was trashed.)

So while there is a bit more risk in using a non-sms drive, that risk is really only comes into play if you drop the thing. Not during normal use.

 

[fouramphonecall]

For a good decade or so every laptop made did NOT have sms because it didn't exist. None of this had failures from everyday movement while the hard drive was running. For the OP it was no doubt completely coincidental. SMS adds a additional small margin for error, primarily related to non-normal movement - for example dropping your machine. Even with SMS, if I drop my machine from by backpack to a sidewalk, it's still a crapshoot. (My buddy did this last month with his 2009 MBP with sms drive and drive was trashed.)

So while there is a bit more risk in using a non-sms drive, that risk is really only comes into play if you drop the thing. Not during normal use.

Wow, yeah. I can't believe I hadn't thought about that.