05-04-2012, 05:49 PM

I like to think I'm pretty handy inside a computer, and this MacBook caddy install sounded easy enough. Right now I'm on an early 2010 13" C2D MBP with a 250 HDD boot drive and I am using an eBay-bought MacBook caddy to install a WD Scorpio Blue 500GB HDD, 5400 RPM (not a SSD - not enough $$ yet).
The physical installation went okay, put the 500GB in the caddy and disconnected/reconnected all the proper cables, and then tried to turn it on.

My MBP began to spin up, played about half of the chime, and then turned off as if the computer had died. I've scoured the internet (and reddit) for a replication of this problem but I can't find one.

Steps I've tried to rectify the problem
-Swap drive positions (boot drive in the caddy and the spare HD in the HDD slot) - same result, plays half the chime sound and computer shuts off.
-Formatted the spare 500GB drive to GUID (after re-installing the DVD drive and got to disk utility)
-Holding option to get to the partition selection - can't even reach that screen
-Tried to reset SMC - won't stay on long enough.
-Tried to reset PRAM - won't stay on long enough.

My only guess is that there isn't enough power getting to the hard drives, but I can't find an article online with someone having that problem. Another idea is that this particular caddy is just bad. I can hear the hard drives spinning momentarily before the computer turns off.

I'd really appreciate some advice here. I've reinstalled my DVD drive and I'm back to square one, so there isn't anything wrong with the current hardware. I saw something about SATA 3 compatibility, but I'm not sure what that means, and I'm not sure if it applies to me. Thanks in advance.

05-04-2012, 08:09 PM

It sounds like you've tested everything, and have a defective drive caddy.

The computer works fine without the caddy installed?

05-05-2012, 01:09 PM

Originally Posted by Stretch

It sounds like you've tested everything, and have a defective drive caddy.

The computer works fine without the caddy installed?

Yeah the original configuration still works fine. And when I put the 500GB in a USB caddy (what it was originally in) the drive was recognized, so I'm becoming more and more convinced it's the caddy. It was cheap enough, it wouldn't surprise me. It's still a bit disappointing though.

05-05-2012, 01:20 PM

Probably more than what you paid for your ebay caddy, but Macsales will stand behind theirs. Guaranteed to work with Macs. OWC's Data Doubler. I have one, and haven't had any problems with it.

05-05-2012, 03:53 PM

This is just too much $$ for some plastic and a simple adapter. Ridiculous.

05-05-2012, 03:56 PM

Originally Posted by Stang

This is just too much $$ for some plastic and a simple adapter. Ridiculous.

But they work. How much is that worth?

I figure $65 is roughly an hour of MY time.

05-05-2012, 05:16 PM

Originally Posted by Stang

This is just too much $$ for some plastic and a simple adapter. Ridiculous.

That's not plastic. It's aluminum. It's quality, instead of cheap plastic crap from ebay.

05-06-2012, 04:03 AM

Originally Posted by Dysfunction

But they work. How much is that worth?

I figure $65 is roughly an hour of MY time.

That's not my point. I'm not getting paid $65 an hour. If you are, great. If I was, I'd for sure buy the best, most expensive one. I attribute this price gauging to HDMI cables and the like - they're either $70 at Best Buy or $5 on eBay. I went with a cheap alternative and I got burned. I don't have the $$ for a expensive drive bay caddy, and I assumed (wrongly) that the internals are all the same.

I'm not going to get into a semantics debate. I appreciate your help. Ordered a new caddy on Amazon so at least I'll have a place to complain to if it doesn't work.

Thanks again.

05-06-2012, 11:56 AM

My point isn't my pay rate. It's this, I spend my working life dealing with hardware development. I, in no way, want to spend countless hours (and in this case cash twice) to debug something when a known solution is available. This is simply false economy. Good luck though.