Stephen Zelley

Q: Replacing my macbook pro's optical drive with a second harddrive, is it write for me?

Hey, I have a macbook pro, 13 inch, late 2011. Well, I ordered a harddrive caddy tray that is used to replace my computer's superdrive with a secondary harddrive. It shiped and should come around this next coming Tuesday. However, I'm having trouble deciding weather or not to replace the superdrive with another harddrive. The reasons are:. 1. I wouldn't be able to use bootcamp to install windows on my mac should the desire come. 2. The stepps that are required to do this involve temporarily disconnecting cables. Those being the wifi, web cam, Bluetooth, and the right speaker subwoofer cables. I will probably have a technician at the Mac Life store in Boise do it for me. However, that still leaves the first concerned, what about installing windows along side os ten? I've used macs for years and know that, because the older macbook pros come with a built in optical drive, the EFI firmware will not allow booting from a windows installation usb flash drive. Any answers? I'm having a little bit of trouble deciding weather or not to do this. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. Oh, and their is 1 more reason I forgot to mention as far as why I'm having trouble weather or not to do this. 3. What if the harddrive in the optical Drive bay failes or the mac has a problem with it? In case you all don't know this, I'm blind, and I really don't want to have to open my mac and try to install a different harddrive in the optical drive bay and risk breaking things. Anyway, again, any help would be greatly appreciated. Again, thanks in advance.

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6), late 2011

Posted on Jul 27, 2016 3:36 PM

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Q: Replacing my macbook pro's optical drive with a second harddrive, is it write for me?

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  • by Stephen Zelley,

    Stephen Zelley Stephen Zelley Aug 2, 2016 4:05 PM in response to Stephen Zelley
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Notebooks
    Aug 2, 2016 4:05 PM in response to Stephen Zelley

    Hey, is anyone their? I've been waiting almost a week for someone to answer. I have done lots of research, and I'm still having a lot of trouble deciding weather or not to replace my macbook pro's superdrive with a secondary harddrive. Also, what are the pros and cons of doing this? Any help would be greatly appreciated. The caddy is supposed to come today, and I still am having trouble deciding weather or not to do this. Thanks in advance.

  • by celliott147,

    celliott147 celliott147 Aug 2, 2016 4:09 PM in response to Stephen Zelley
    Level 4 (1,571 points)
    Apple Watch
    Aug 2, 2016 4:09 PM in response to Stephen Zelley

    You can get an external USB SuperDrive and run some terminal commands to allow you to continue to have use of an optical drive. I did this when my MBP's SuperDrive died, and I didn't want to replace it. I ran some commands to allow me to use remote disc through my wife's MBP and have no issues. I have considered replacing my SuperDrive with another HDD or possibly SSD. I haven't due to not wanting to spend the money and not really having a need at this time, but I think it is a good idea if you need the HDD capacity or SSD speed.

  • by AeroGE,

    AeroGE AeroGE Aug 2, 2016 4:10 PM in response to Stephen Zelley
    Level 2 (223 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 2, 2016 4:10 PM in response to Stephen Zelley

    This is a fairly smoothly process, especially if it's done by a professionell. Do you want to get a traditionell hard drive or solid state drive (ssd) ? A ssd would give you some tremendous speed improvements.

    You can install Windows via an external CD drive. Those aren't expensive.

  • by leroydouglas,

    leroydouglas leroydouglas Aug 2, 2016 5:15 PM in response to Stephen Zelley
    Level 7 (22,887 points)
    Notebooks
    Aug 2, 2016 5:15 PM in response to Stephen Zelley

    What really is the issue?  Do you need a larger harddrive for your main Macintosh HD??

     

    The price of SSD have really dropped over the last couple years.

     

    Look here for a 480GB SSD  https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc/neptune-6g

     

    and leave your Superdrive in place.   HD/SSD are easy to replace on your machine.

  • by Stephen Zelley,

    Stephen Zelley Stephen Zelley Aug 3, 2016 2:20 PM in response to AeroGE
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Notebooks
    Aug 3, 2016 2:20 PM in response to AeroGE

    I I'm planning on using a regular harddrive in both bays

  • by AeroGE,

    AeroGE AeroGE Aug 3, 2016 2:27 PM in response to Stephen Zelley
    Level 2 (223 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 3, 2016 2:27 PM in response to Stephen Zelley

    I would recommend to follow leroydouglas advice. Using a ssd will speed up your macbook tremendously.

    It will also be slightly lighter and power efficient. AND you will keep your optical drive.