Dual Hard Drives in MacBooks and MBPs

[Audeo]

Apple sees the harddrive as user-replaceable but the DVD-drive.. That's where you void your warranty.

I bought a HDD caddy for my MPP 13" and it didn't fit that well.. so I ended up with foam and gaffertape in my MBP. Works great, doesn't come loose and no vibrations in the chassis (something I did experience with the caddy).

So my MBP is now rocking a 60GB Vertex2 in the original HDD bay and a 500GB 5400rpm Samsung in the DVD bay and it is lovely!
OSX on the SSD with the whole user folder moved to the conventional HDD for space-saving but all the programs still end up on the SSD by default. Which is nice!

Coldboot to desktop in 14 seconds, Photoshop CS5 loads up in 5 seconds and wow.. the UI system is really really fast

[loop]

Cool! You kinda made my day

any chance that you have a picture of how does it look like from the inside?

also, how is the ventilation of the spinning platter in your solution ?

[Audeo]

Ventilation isn't a problem since the HDD doesn't get hot or even close to hot.
Here are the insides of my MBP 13" mid 2009 model:

[loop]

Thanks, it looks quite OK

I have the same model with the 2,26CPU. Will be looking at how to implement something custom and save the ~100EUR.

Cheers!

[Audeo]

eBay solved my problem for about €24 including shipping
Search for "optibay" and be sure it says it's "SATA" and "9.5mm thick" in the advertisement.
If it doesn't fit properly, take out the little PCB and tape it up like I did

[mostapha]

I called Apple and while I couldn't get a straight answer out of anyone, it seems that it does void the warranty to change the optical drive for a hard drive chassis. I'm still going to get around to contacting executive tech support to see if there's a way to get away with it, 'cuz that's bullshit.

Changing normal things like battery, hard drive, ram…those don't void the warranty with any respectable vendor.

It's really annoying. I haven't used my internal optical drive for any legitimate use in a long time, and I don't plan to. The thing is nothing but dead weight…broken dead weight, according to the last time I took my computer in for something. I told them not to fix it because they didn't have one in the store and I'd have had to come back…screw that.

Heh…my first MacBook shipped with a dead optical drive and I didn't notice for 6 weeks…and didn't get it fixed for 8 months after that.

Seriously…what do people use optical dives for?

[fullenglishpint]

have to agree there. I can't remember the last time i used it for anything. A mate of mine covered his macbook in stickers and they went right over the opening for the Superdrive, not been a problem yet!

[mattinthebox]

I have a friend who put in the OWC tray and SSD drive. He absolutely loves it. It really does make a huge difference in booting and app launching time.

I'm personally holding out for SSD prices to come down. Be sure to get a decent drive that wont have problems with losing write speed over time.

As far as Apple warrantees go, I have had nothing short of great experiences with their customer support. I upgraded my HD on my old MBP and they never questioned it when I needed two logic board replacements and a new screen replaced under warranty.

The rule I follow with my Apple products, be it iPhones, iPods, or computers; is that if you mod the thing, just return it to the normal configuration when you need service. There is no way that a tech is going to be like "woah, woah. This thing had an SSD in it 2 weeks ago." At the same time, be logical. If your SSD craps out do you think Apple will give a damn? (Yes, seems obvious, but you know people would try).

[exokinetic]

This is totally awesome, I have known about this on PC laptops for a good minute, and have always done it.


But I never thought they would make em for Mac's...


+100


SO cool.