I recently bought an MCE Tech OptiBay for my new (Mid-2009) 15" MBP. I have a 128GB SSD in the normal hard drive bay, and a 500GB Western Digital Scorpio Blue drive in the OptiBay. Everything works great, except that the 500GB mechanical drive makes more noise than it rightfully should, presumably because the OptiBay does not provide any damping of vibrations coming off the drive.
I have tested the HD outside the machine and put other identical HDs in its place, and it is always a noisier with the drive installed as compared to having the drive outside the machine, so I am very confident that it is the mounting scheme that is causing the noise.
An obvious solution would be to eliminate the OptiBay, and use foam and some double-stick tape to mount the drive, but I believe there is a more elegant solution that is worth looking into: Putting the SSD into the OptiBay, and putting the mechanical drive into the the actual rubber-damped hard drive bay.
The problem I have in executing this plan is that I want to boot from the SSD and have the operating system and apps installed on the SSD while my data (which is obviously bigger than the OS and Apps) installed on the much larger SSD.
Unfortunately for me, the connector that goes to the actual drive bay is the one from which the computer boots, which means that the machine would have to boot from the mechanical drive instead of the SSD, which totally defeats what I am going for here!
So, finally, here is my pointed question: How can I make it so that the computer boots by default from the SSD with the SSD installed in the OptiBay, and connected to the connecter that was once going to the SuperDrive?
I am confident that there is an answer, and I am excited to hear what you guys come up with!
Thanks,
Josh
I have tested the HD outside the machine and put other identical HDs in its place, and it is always a noisier with the drive installed as compared to having the drive outside the machine, so I am very confident that it is the mounting scheme that is causing the noise.
An obvious solution would be to eliminate the OptiBay, and use foam and some double-stick tape to mount the drive, but I believe there is a more elegant solution that is worth looking into: Putting the SSD into the OptiBay, and putting the mechanical drive into the the actual rubber-damped hard drive bay.
The problem I have in executing this plan is that I want to boot from the SSD and have the operating system and apps installed on the SSD while my data (which is obviously bigger than the OS and Apps) installed on the much larger SSD.
Unfortunately for me, the connector that goes to the actual drive bay is the one from which the computer boots, which means that the machine would have to boot from the mechanical drive instead of the SSD, which totally defeats what I am going for here!
So, finally, here is my pointed question: How can I make it so that the computer boots by default from the SSD with the SSD installed in the OptiBay, and connected to the connecter that was once going to the SuperDrive?
I am confident that there is an answer, and I am excited to hear what you guys come up with!
Thanks,
Josh
