Issues with drive in optibay

Question

Level 1

8 points

Issues with drive in optibay

Hi All,

since a couple of weeks I'm experiencing problems with the drive I've been using for 1 year inside the optibay (replacing the optical drive in my MacBook Pro mid 2012).

First I began having problems in mounting one of the two partitions in it, then I wasn't able anymore to write on those partitions, and Disk Utility fails in erasing the partitions or creating new partition schema.

I thought it was due to an hardware failure on the disk so I replaced it with a new one (even if the surface scan of the drive told me there were 0 fail blocks), but the situation was exactly the same of before. So I thought it was a failure on the optibay caddy .. so I took a new one, and situation was still unchanged.

Then I took a Linux USB Live (ubuntu), and everything with GParted went good, drive was mounting, I was able to write on it, to format the partition, to create new partition schema and so on.. so it must be a software problem... so I downloaded latest Mountain Lion from app store (10.8.5) and mad a bootable SD, and installed it onto an USB drive, then booted from there ... and the drive in the optibay was still unwritable/paritionable/anthingable.

How can I solve this problem? Does anyb

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

Posted on Sep 27, 2013 12:37 AM

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Answer 1

Sep 27, 2013 1:30 AM in response to andkappa

Bad SATA cable on your optibay drive

Those optibay upgrades have notoriously unreliable SATA cables

Replace it

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Answer 2

andkappa Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 27, 2013 2:19 AM in response to PlotinusVeritas

I thought that too, but this does not explains why with a live ubuntu I can operate on the disk without any issue,

then the connector between the optibay and the motherboard is the superdrive's original one.. and the only i found is an used replacement part.. at 40$ + shipping (and I come from italy)

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Answer 3

Sep 27, 2013 2:26 AM in response to andkappa

I dont know where youre seeing that order point, but the sata cable for same is $11 last I looked.

Run Ubuntu for how longly continuously? The "lovely" part about a SATA cable failure is it will aggravatingly work for a while .....then die.......then rise again.

Wait a min......youre not using the Optibay drive as an alternate boot drive are you?

Its a known issue as reported by many that the Macbook pro never boots reliably from the optibay drive when directing same as primary boot.

Evidence #1 --"First I began having problems in mounting one of the two partitions in it, then I wasn't able anymore to write on those partitions, and Disk Utility fails in erasing the partitions or creating new partition schema."

(the Optibay HD isnt a western digital is it?)

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Answer 4

andkappa Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 27, 2013 2:37 AM in response to PlotinusVeritas

My setup (since oct 2012) is:

- Samsung 830 SSD 256GB in the main Disk Bay

- Apple (HITACHI) 500 GB HDD in the optibay

And everything worked for one year (it's my work mac, and I'm a developer, so I used it ~15hours a day within this year). Now it stopped.

About the time that was running with ubuntu, just enough to transfer 293Gb to an external drive (and I tried to move the mac, to see if the cable was causing problems when moving).

Then , the "good" thing is: i resumed a 10.8.2 DVD I did one year ago, installed on the other disk and VOILA!! The disk in optibay now is working OK O_O so it was 10.8.5 to break my setup?

The bay I'm using is this one:

http://www.amazon.it/Adattatore-MacBook-custodia-argento-SuperDrive/dp/B00A2VNUK 4/ref=sr_1_2/275-6816139-7416110?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1380274309&sr=1-2&key words=Flancrest

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Answer 5

Sep 27, 2013 2:46 AM in response to andkappa

I assumed your optibay drive was one of the others nearly everyone else is using.

As to 10.8.5 causing a continuity issue in HD via the optibay sata interface,....there hasnt been enough time passed since the update to have seen any such issue be raised (unless youre the first here on same).

Deducing elimination points, ...youve swapped out the best HD (hitachi) for another, same results.

However again.

A: booting from optibay ok Ubuntu ...not ok OSX or Win?

B: now after 10.8.5......boot from same changed any way?

C: OR, using optibay as storage point only?

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Answer 6

LowLuster

Level 6

12,105 points

Sep 27, 2013 3:22 AM in response to andkappa

I doubt the cable, the original DVD drive cable, is the cause of your problem. I would first try a different optical bay caddy. Some are poorly made with bad solder joints between the HDD connector inside the caddy to the connector you plug the original cable into.

If you got your caddy off of eBay try a better brand.

As to it working with Ubuntu that could be because the Ubuntu distro you are using doesn't have the proper drivers for the chipset and the drive is running at a lower data transfer rate (Not a slower spindle speed).

This is a fairly common problem for people that try to put a SSD in the optical bay. Although it is rated the same as the main bay transfer speed, SATA 3, it can't handle faster drives like a SSD or hybrid HDD with Flash storage area like the Seagate XT series.

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Answer 7

andkappa Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 27, 2013 5:58 AM in response to PlotinusVeritas

Well, after some initial joy, even in 10.8.2 installation, after few time the drive stopped allowing to write/partition/format and so on, so maybe the hardware failure is still probable.

By now I ordered this replacement cablehttp://www.powerbookmedic.com/Optical-Drive-Superdrive-Cable-for-MacBook-Pro-15 -Unibody-p-17269.html

maybe the current one is defected, and it may cause the problem to the hdd.

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Answer 8

andkappa Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 27, 2013 6:03 AM in response to LowLuster

I doubt the cable, the original DVD drive cable, is the cause of your problem. I would first try a different optical bay caddy. Some are poorly made with bad solder joints between the HDD connector inside the caddy to the connector you plug the original cable into.

I had used mine for one year, then i replaced to and identical one and problems are the same.

The connector part seems to be well built (i can't tell the same thing about the holes for the fixing screws.

As to it working with Ubuntu that could be because the Ubuntu distro you are using doesn't have the proper drivers for the chipset and the drive is running at a lower data transfer rate (Not a slower spindle speed).

While it was working, transfer rate was around 45 Mb/s (for a 5400rpm hdd it's accetable),

This is a fairly common problem for people that try to put a SSD in the optical bay. Although it is rated the same as the main bay transfer speed, SATA 3, it can't handle faster drives like a SSD or hybrid HDD with Flash storage area like the Seagate XT series.

I have the SSD in the main bay, seen with 6Gbps link, while the hitachi(apple) HDD inside the bay is linked @3gbps.

Then .. I happily used this setup for 1 year, so something mus have been happen to hardware and/or software

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Answer 9

iGOMAB

Level 1

4 points

Nov 10, 2013 6:35 AM in response to andkappa

@andkappa I am having similar problems to where my MBP is seeing ridiculously slow Read/Write speeds every since I updated to Mavericks though, but I doubt it's the software. I have a similar setup to yours, but with bigger drives and 16GB of DDR3 Ram. I did an AJAX test on my HDD and my Read/Write speeds were under 10mb/s.

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