Optibay / HDcaddy for macbook pro
This week I ordered an Optibay unit for my MacBook Pro 13′ (2011 model). Since I have a 128Gb SSD, I thought I could use some more storage for my pictures, movies and virtual machines. And because I don’t use CD’s at all, the choice is easy.
On the macrumors forums I first read about the optibay, so I started looking for one available in the Netherlands. Well, via optibay.nl I finally found something. Not the original optibay, but a product named HDcaddy, basically the same. (except it’s a bit cheaper 🙂 ). It took only one day for them to deliver it, and the installation is easy as pie. Combined it with a samsung 640Gb 2,5′ drive.
The only problem was: it didn’t work… So I tried a few other things, like my original drive in the optibay (didn’t work), new hard drive in my other PC (which worked), Superdrive back in the macbook (which worked)… so the problem wasn’t with the new hard drive and not with my mainboard or connectors, but with the optibay. That was a bummer of course… but I ordered another one and could send back the defective one and get my cash back. The new one was there the next day (very quick), I installed it and voila! it worked. So now I have a 128Gb SSD as my boot drive and a 640Gb HDD as data storage. No problems so far…
Installation: Very easy I must say. Screw open your macbook (take care to keep the three longer screws apart, or remember where they came from), touch a metal surface for any discharge, disconnect all three of the cables next to the superdrive, unscrew the sound dock at the back of the enclosure, unscrew the superdrive and it’s out. The optibay has only one screw, instead of three in the superdrive. But this doesn’t look like a problem because it all fits snug in the enclosure. The optibay has the same form-factor as the superdrive, so it fits right in. Be sure to use the cable and mounting support from the superdrive on your new bay. Fasten all the screw in reverse order and you should be done. Format the drive in OSX and it’s ready to use.