Should I replace my optical drive or buy an external one?

Discussion in 'MacBook Pro' started by mossme89, May 17, 2013.

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  1. mossme89, May 17, 2013

    mossme89 macrumors 6502

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    The motor on my Late 2008 MacBook Pro unibody's optical drive died, so my optical drive doesn't work. When I enter a disk, it makes a few sounds reminiscent of a dying animal, then spits the disc back out. This is a result of something falling on the upper right part of the computer, damaging my drive.

    So should I buy a replacement optical drive or an external one? I really only use my drive whenever I'm loading an OS, that's literally the only time I use it. So attaching an external drive isn't an issue. Both the replacement drive and the external drive are around the same price on Amazon, but with the replacement drive, I would be worried about breaking something since it involves removing a couple of cables from the logic board, and prying one up.
     
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  2. Mr Kram, May 17, 2013

    Mr Kram macrumors 68000

    Mr Kram

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    since your laptop is relatively old, i wouldn't invest in repairing it. get an external when you need it and you can always use it later since the air and new iMacs have no optical drive.
     
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  3. mossme89, May 17, 2013

    mossme89 thread starter macrumors 6502

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    Makes sense. It still works great for what I need it to though, holds it's own against even current laptops. I can easily get another few years out of it :)
     
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  4. Mr Kram, May 17, 2013

    Mr Kram macrumors 68000

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    i agree. i have a very similar macbook if not the same. it's fine, but i upgraded to an air this year just because. the kids still make good use out of the macbook.
     
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  5. mossme89, May 17, 2013

    mossme89 thread starter macrumors 6502

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    I would upgrade, but I'm a college student and the cash is best spent elsewhere. Probably when I graduate in a few years though.

    Do you think it's worth it to upgrade the RAM though? Right now I have 3GB, upping it to 8GB is like $60 on Amazon, pretty cheap.
     
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  6. Mr Kram, May 17, 2013

    Mr Kram macrumors 68000

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    as cheap as RAM is these days, i would do it. i upgraded both RAM and HDD in mine.
     
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  7. BigBeast, May 17, 2013

    BigBeast macrumors 6502a

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    It depends on what you want to do. Buying a replacement optical drive is relatively cheap and easy to install. You can also remove the damaged drive and use the optical drive's SATA port to install another hard drive. Macsales.com will put you on the right track, and there are a bunch of how to videos on ifixit.com and youtube. If you want to put another hard drive into your machine, the data doubler from macsales.com can be obtained cheaper by going to eBay and getting a cheaper on from a third party.
     
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