Replacing DVD Drive with HDD/SSD

Greetings,

I am planning to remove the Optical Drive from my MacBook pro 2012 and install a ssd in its position (with a ssd case from eBay). Many people have done this upgrade. Upon connection of a ssd/hdd, the dvd drive is replaced with the disk in finder. This upgrade is useful if you want 2 drives in your mac.


My Question is, if i press the eject button on the keyboard, What will happen?

Will it unmount the secondary ssd that i replaced? I am very curious.


Thanks and regards.


Mathew Antony John.

MacBook Pro, iOS 10.1.1, OS Sierra

Posted on Nov 22, 2016 6:05 PM

Reply
3 replies

Nov 23, 2016 1:55 AM in response to mathewantonyjohn

To elaborate on Illaass' comment, the Mac detects it is an internal hard disk or SSD and knows it cannot be ejected. If it was connected via an external connection or what the Mac thinks is an external connection then it could be ejected. Of course this will not mean it will be spat out the DVD slot! It will however in that situation disappear from the desktop.


This later situation only really applies to USB, FireWire or Thunderbolt connected drives, or specifically to the old classic Mac Pro. With the classic Mac Pro it is possible to fit an internal PCIe SATA card and even though this is the same type of interface i.e. SATA the Mac knows it is not the standard built-in one and treats it as an 'external' connection. There is a free third-party KEXT driver which overrides this.


In any case as far your situation is concerned the Mac will treat this second drive as a standard internal drive and you will not be able to accidentally eject it. (I have fitted one of these previously in a MacBook Pro.)

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Replacing DVD Drive with HDD/SSD

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