Install a second hard drive in a MacBook Pro
Sunday, May 8, 2011 at 7:03PM | Print Article I have previously written about the significant performance increases possible by upgrading to a Solid Sate Drive (SSD). Unfortunately, even though SSD performance is amazing, the prices are still very high, which means that anything above 128GB requires a serious finacial commitment (unless you happen to be a lottery winner). This is a bigger challenge for a notebook as it means you have to trade off performance against capacity.
Thankfully there is another way for MacBook Pro users. Using a device known as an OptiBay you can remove your existing optical drive and replace it with a secondary hard drive.
In my case, I now have an Intel X25-M 160GB SSD and a Seagate 500GB 7200RPM HDD running simultaneously. Therefore I get all the performance benefits of an SSD for Mac OS X and my applications, while having 500GB for my personal data. The OptiBay drive still connects via SATAII so you get native performance and Mac OS X (and other operating systems) sees the drive like any other.
The other great thing about the OptiBay is that they can be picked up for as little at £20 (search for OptiBay on Google or eBay) and are quick and simple to install. To help get you started, I have put together a screen shot gallery of me installing an OptiBay in my MacBook Pro (Rev G).
For more details on the OptiBay head over to MCE Technology who sell everything you need (although for a bit of a premium).
Reader Comments (2)
Just curious, with the OptiBay, is there an insert that makes the drive flush with the side of the computer? Just wondering how it looks once installed. Thanks for the great writeup/pics.
Hi,
Thanks for your question. The OptiBay sites on the inside of the Unibody Mac. Therefore from the outside it looks the same as always. The only issue is that the DVD slot remains, even though it can't be used.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Matt.