So I'm thinking about removing my optical super drive to put a second SSD in there for the OS and the 7200 HHD to hold the data for access which will increase the speed of my current macbook without getting a new processor.

So what happens to my optical drive? I can put it an enclosure and draw power via USB and make it an external super drive. The problem here is that I've never tried this and don't know anyone who has. Potentially, since the Optical drive exchanges data at 300 MB/s and USB 2.0 exchanges data at 480 MB/s, then theoretically, I'm making my optical drive slightly faster.

I could use someone's experience here!

Thanks,

Carl

6/20/2011 10:02:55 PM

I've never tried what you're trying to do, but I do know that external superdrives for the Macbook Air work just fine on all other Macs and can be found on eBay for ~$45.

A quick google search shows that external enclosures for superdrives are similarly priced. Personally, I wouldn't go to the hassle of making your own external solution, when you can get the real deal for the same price/a little cheaper.

6/20/2011 10:08:25 PM

The MacBook Air SuperDrives don't work with Macbook Pro unless you found something I didn't...
http://www.tuaw.com/2008/02/04/confirmed-macbook-air-superdrive-does-not-work-with-other-macs/

There are reports of one where you can solder a part to the macbook air and get a $9 part, but this is beyond my expertise and kind of makes you look like a fool for straight up lying.

6/20/2011 11:12:52 PM

in my MBP i took out the superdrive and put in a 500gb 7200rpm drive to use for storage - the primary is a 128gb SSD - the superdrive is in an external enclosure for the rare time that i actually need it

it's worked out well for me - maybe 10% less life on the battery if i heavily use the HDD - i still store my music that i listen to regularly on the SSD and only really use the larger for mass storage and the only time i actively use it is when i watch a movie and i'm too lazy to copy it over to the SSD before watching

the only real usability complaint is that since the extra drive is sleeping most of the time when i first try to access it there is a ~2 second delay before i can open anything

6/20/2011 11:21:49 PM

^^Oh that's my bad. You know what I forgot to do before I made my first reply? I forgot to go through all the 3 year old blog posts to see if what I suggested worked a long ass time ago.

You know what I did do however? I bought a MacBook Air SuperDrive and tried it out (unmodified) on a MacBook Air, a regular Macbook, a Mac Mini, and my cousin's MacBook Pro. And it all worked just fine.

I also made a video. Just for you:

6/21/2011 12:35:03 AM

This is great stuff! Thanks! So the Optical Drive still does everything you need it to (write, play DVD movies, etc..) when it's out of the computer?

As for the dual drive, is it possible to make it read the two drives as though it were one? I can't seem to find any answers for that one.

[Edited on June 21, 2011 at 12:48 AM. Reason : OmarBadu]

I answered my last question in searching, I just didn't word it right. It's called RAID... Thanks.

[Edited on June 21, 2011 at 1:02 AM. Reason : Asked the wrong question...]

6/21/2011 12:44:05 AM

For El Nacho, the superdrives no doubt work on all macbook airs and the 2010 mac mini. My question was if it worked on the macbook pro late 2008 model. If so, can you find a link to support that?

I've seen a rumor concerning an option key and problems with usb power on the superdrive. However, nothing to really confirm that this works on the macbook pro.

6/21/2011 12:48:05 AM

That's not the 2010 Mini in the video. My Macbook is also from 2008 and the drive works just fine on it.

I honestly can't find a link. I was just going by personal experience. If I were in your shoes I probably wouldn't believe it either.

I just really didn't appreciate being called a fool and a liar for giving you genuine advice based on my actual experiences with the product.

6/21/2011 12:53:15 AM

Well, you did that to yourself. Way to glance a question too. Either you're not sharp (a fool) or you're blatantly trying to lead me astray (a liar). Every link I've went to has just said the exact opposite of what you did.

Let's see this macbook pro that you had so much experience with since you can make videos so quickly.

6/21/2011 12:58:53 AM

God damn. Why are you intent on being such a raging asshole to someone who was only trying to help you?

I bought the SuperDrive for use with my MBA. When I got it, I tried it out on my 2008 Macbook, and it worked fine. I tried it out on my 2009 Mini and it worked fine. I was over at my cousin's last weekend and I tried it on her MBP and it worked fine. That's my personal experience with the product and that is the information I used when I was genuinely trying to give you a helpful response. As it turns out, it looks like that's not what it looks like you can expect from the product. Alright, fine, bad advice for your situation. I've already said that if I were in your shoes I wouldn't just go out and buy one because some guy on TWW said it would be OK. But if you're suggesting that I purposely gave out bad advice in order to fuck with you, or that I'm somehow too stupid to not notice that a DVD drive doesn't work as intended, then you're the fool.

6/21/2011 1:10:36 AM

Just in case anyone wanted to know some answers I've found for this question.

The optical drive (from with an external enclosure with USB) works just fine. However, it will not be used with the DVD application.

6/27/2011 10:19:54 PM

i'm surprised if anyone actually wants to use the built in dvd app but you are correct - it needs to be hacked to work and some basic google searching will pull up what you need to do

6/27/2011 11:15:21 PM

I think I'm going to go for it! Keep the OSX on the SSD, keep the bootcamp windows partition on the HHD. Partition the same HHD so that Windows as a good portion and OSX can use SSD with HHD at RAID 0 (or maybe not...).

Any thoughts on the method to my madness here?

[Edited on June 28, 2011 at 2:56 AM. Reason : Thanks OmarBadu, appreciate your input here]

6/28/2011 2:55:49 AM

i've done this and used the kit from http://www.maxupgrades.com/istore

They include an external USB enclosure for the superdrive. Works great.

The only hiccup i've found is that you can only boot mac boot discs over USB. the Mac EFI won't let you boot a linux or windows CD over USB. which is pretty lame, but its a functional limitation because those OS'es want to see a BIOS instead of an EFI and so won't boot.

This bit me when my SSD firmware update utility was on a linux boot disc. I had to take my computer part and put the optibay back in to boot it and update the firmware. no big deal though really.

6/28/2011 7:35:05 AM

Is there another way to get around that?

6/28/2011 1:01:04 PM

Nope

6/28/2011 5:39:40 PM

Would this concept still work with OSX Lion? I mean putting the OSX in one SSD and the rest of the data on the other HHD?

7/2/2011 2:59:31 PM