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Can you replace optical drive in a non unibody (early 2008) MacBook Pro with a SATA HDD/SDD?

I have been doing LOTS of research on upgrading my Early 2008 MacBook Pro recently and have come to the conclusion that a SSD is the best way to run Mavericks and my commonly used applications smoothly. I have upgraded the RAM to 6GB (I dont want to test 8GB like people say) I just purchased a 1TB HDD and don't want to lose out on the storing ability of such a spacious drive. Is there a way to remove the LEGACY and USELESS optical drive from my computer and replace it with my 1TB HDD? Thanks for reading and I hope to hear from someone about this soon!

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.3)

Posted on May 20, 2014 4:00 PM

25 replies

May 20, 2014 5:05 PM in response to andyBall_uk

How slow could music really be?

May 20, 2014 5:07 PM in response to andyBall_uk

Also Andy, where have you seen one that suits mine? I have literally been searching for a couple days now.

andyBall_uk

Level 7

20,516 points

May 20, 2014 5:21 PM in response to Legacy2008Upgrader

OptiBay® Hard Drive and SSD Drive

for one.

May 20, 2014 5:47 PM in response to Kappy

Kappy and Andy, does this look like what I will need?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-2nd-HDD-SSD-caddy-SuperDrive-for-Macbook-pro-PATA-ID E-early-2008-non-unibody-/300664242498?pt=US_Drive_Bay_Caddies&hash=item4600fc41 42

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

May 20, 2014 5:50 PM in response to Legacy2008Upgrader

I would say, Yes it is.

May 20, 2014 5:55 PM in response to Kappy

So ATA just got renamed Parallel ATA when SATA came out? So PATA is the same connector as the internal ATA100 (66)?

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

May 20, 2014 5:56 PM in response to Legacy2008Upgrader

Sort of.

andyBall_uk

Level 7

20,516 points

May 21, 2014 12:40 AM in response to Legacy2008Upgrader

EXTREMELY slow read speeds - Optibay HDD

but for $10, have a punt.

Mar 31, 2015 4:31 PM in response to Legacy2008Upgrader

I know I'm late to this party...I purchased and installed the mcetech optibay in my early 2008 15" Macbook Pro last fall and have not been having any issues with read or write performance. I don't know whether it is performing at ATA/100 or ATA/66 but transfer speeds seem decent (comparable to Firewire 800). I have a 1TB Crucial M550 SSD in the main SATA bay and a 500GB 7200 RPM hard drive in the Optibay. My only complaint is that it took a really long time for them to ship (1 month +) and their customer service is poor.

Makis77

Level 1

0 points

Feb 10, 2016 4:57 AM in response to Legacy2008Upgrader

Hi there, I also have the early MBP 2008 NOT unibody 4,1 model (A1175). I was thinking removing my obsolete dvd optical drive with a new SSD.

My questions are:

A)Which SSD should I buy? brand, capacity ,SATA II or III?

B)Should I change my HDD with the SSD and the HDD with a data doubler on the optical drive and why?

C)Which data doubler would do? the ones from E-bay for 10 bucks will work?

Anyone who had actually done it and can give some valuable advice would be really helpful.

Can you replace optical drive in a non unibody (early 2008) MacBook Pro with a SATA HDD/SDD?