MacBook Pro 1.1 Replacing the optical drive with HD Caddy?

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Level 1

14 points

MacBook Pro 1.1 Replacing the optical drive with HD Caddy?

Hi all, I have had my macBook pro 1.1 A1150 for a while now and way back I did the firmware update for the Superdrive

UJ 857 and since then it won't read or write DVD's CD's occasionally it will but in nutshell it doesn't work.

Now I decided to upgrade this with the a caddy to go into its place. I believe its a Pata connector?? (is there an exact name for this connector on the Superdrive) and it allows me to put a Sata drive in its place. Once connected without a hard drive it boots without a problem. as soon as I place a Hard drive in all I get is a grey screen (never gets to the apple logo).

Can anyone suggest where I might be going wrong?

What is the name of the connector for the superdrive (is there a cable to give you the regular 40 pin IDE connector to cross check the port is working? Or did anyone ever find a solution in which to revive the superdrive after the firmware update ( i know at the time many had issues with it, since I didn't use it much it didn't bother me, and I now want to sell the laptop.

Hope someone can help

Matt

Posted on Jan 22, 2012 6:58 AM

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Answer 1

eww

Level 9

53,028 points

Jan 22, 2012 7:20 AM in response to MattJayC

If I were you, I'd just put the nonfunctional optical drive back in place and sell the machine "as is". You aren't going to recover the full cost of installing the hard drive caddy and a new drive by selling the machine with those things in place, even if you can get them to work.

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Answer 2

Shootist007

Level 6

16,703 points

Jan 22, 2012 7:28 AM in response to MattJayC

Put the drive back in the caddy. When you turn it on hold down the Option key, you should get a screen that lets you chose which drive to boot from, select the main drive in your system. Computer should boot.

What I think is happening is the boot loader system sees the new drive in the caddy and want to boot from it. Since there is no OS on it the system just hangs.

If you do the above and it still does not boot properly then follow eww advice and sell is for whatever you can get for it.

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Answer 3

MattJayC Author

Level 1

14 points

Jan 22, 2012 8:40 AM in response to Shootist007

Sadly i've already agreed to sell it. And said I would replace the drive. or at least get that side of the machine working. superdrive or HD.

Apparantly it should only recognise the drive as Storage not a boot drive, also I have tried swapping the working 100gb with operating system installed and working into the caddy and I get greeted with the same grey screen.

Matt

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Answer 4

Shootist007

Level 6

16,703 points

Jan 22, 2012 8:45 AM in response to MattJayC

Then it could be the caddy you bought is not compatible with your system in some way. It may be that the caddy is no good. Did you buy it from MECtech? An Optibay? If not then odds are it is a knock off and not very good.

Well Good Luck.

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