OptiBay Local Supplier

[StuntmanMike]

Hi

Does anyone know of a local OptiBay supplier?

[MrMocs]

I think yr best bet is to look for one on Ebay or Amazon

[noxibox]

Look on eBay for 2nd HDD SDD hard drive caddy Apple MacBook Pro Unibody. Sold by nimitz**. I've seen them recommended a lot on Mac forums.

[koffiejunkie]

For which version MaBook are you buying? I just got one of Amazon for my late 2011 - didn't work. Can't boot off the drive in it, and once booted off the regular drive, the OS sees the drive in the optibay but can't write to it.

[StuntmanMike]

Thanks for the replies guys.

@koffiejunkie I have an early 2011 MBP. Did you buy the OptiBay second hand or was MCE Technologies the seller on Amazon?

[koffiejunkie]

Neither, I got this one. I should probably have been more careful. This one didn't even fit properly in the bay - The metal is folded at the end, making it slightly deeper than the optical drive. I had to peel off the top plate and break out some of the plastic to get it fit in. It also doesn't have all the screws to tie it down properly.

All of that doesn't matter so much to me, but it didn't work properly. As far as I can see, the circuit board just passes the connection straight through - there is no electronics involved - so I can only assume that there is another reason why it didn't work. Maybe the connector for the optical drive doesn't supply enough power?

[StuntmanMike]

That was exactly the one I was going to go for, but the fact that it did not have mounting screws changed my mind a bit. I think I am rather going to bite the bullet and get the proper thing.

[bwana]

I'm going to give this one a shot. http://www.ebay.com/itm/2nd-HDD-SDD-...-/280707167107

[koffiejunkie]

Let us know how it works out.

[MrMocs]

I will wait for one of these to come my way http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/22/l...al-hdd-review/

[bwana]

Let us know how it works out.

Will do. I think it's the only way I'm going to be able to resurrect my old MBP without replacing the logic board.

[koffiejunkie]

Will do. I think it's the only way I'm going to be able to resurrect my old MBP without replacing the logic board.

If your old MBP is the one I'm thinking of (i.e. older than mine) you're out of luck. They didn't have SATA for the optical bay.

[bwana]

If your old MBP is the one I'm thinking of (i.e. older than mine) you're out of luck. They didn't have SATA for the optical bay.

This one does - only with a different connector than the HDD (otherwise I'd have just swapped the cable).

[koffiejunkie]

Aah, so you have a newer one then.

[bwana]

Aah, so you have a newer one then.

Mine is a A1278 with a 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo. Got it back in 2010 iirc. I've checked on iFixIt and it's definitely a SATA superdrive.

I hope this fixes it. It would be nice to be able to give it to the missus instead of her old (metal) unibody MacBook.