Early 2011 17" MBP -- USB 3.0 portable, reliable, bus-powered option?

Hi everyone,
I have the above mentioned MacBook Pro, and have been scouring the Internet for quite a while trying to find a solid USB 3.0 solution.
Ideally what I'm looking for is accesibility for portable, bus powered USB 3.0, 7200 RPM hard drives.
I know there are limitations in what expresscard/34 can deliver in power, and have been really trying to figure out solutions, as my drive isn't getting sufficient power from my current card, especially if both usb 3.0 ports are occupied (even if the other is just a camera SD card, the HDD will just 'click').
I've looked at different adapters, and Sonnet seems to make a pretty decent one that has two ports, and can be powered by a wall adapter is purchased from a third-party like OWC. This, however, would still leave me in a situation where I would always be reliant upon electricity, detracting a lot from the portability factor. It is also limited to pretty much only storage devices, and doesn't support USB 3.0 hubs
CalDigit makes an adapter as well that seems to be well received, but it cannot be externally powered from what I can tell… so I assume it would not provide enough power to the drives?
One option I have thought of is to get a USB 3.0 y-adapter, and plug the extra "power" USB plug into the adjacent USB 2.0 port.
Would this work, and likely provide enough power? Or would the speed be throttled down to 2.0 speeds?
Another option seems to be the CalDigit Thunderbolt hub, which, while expensive… seems to provide a great deal of value. However, that would really limit my portability and effectively limit my USB 3.0 usage to home, or wherever I drag the box around with me to.
Do any of these seem like they might work, or are there any other options I am not thinking of?
It seems like the only way I will have true USB 3.0 functionality is either the CalDigit Thunderbolt hub, or parting with this particular mac (which I'd hate to do). The other thing I would possibly like to expand to is a Blackmagic Intensity module ... which come in USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt ... with the USB 3.0 a bit cheaper (and not requiring a cable...) -- I would never be able to use that with the Expresscard/34 adapters, it seems.
I apologize for this being long, but am hoping I am giving enough information for my question to receive some feedback.
Thank you!
John

As a (likely) final update to this thread, after talking to CalDigit one last time, this product is no longer being produced by them, and one of the only vendors left for it seems to be OWC.
The card does not come with the USB "ac adapter"-type cable to add the extra needed power for bus-powered storage devices, and is not available through them, either. The CalDigit tech support rep recommended a regular USB 3.0 y-cable.
When I inquired about driver updates, the gentleman said it will likely continue to be covered for approximately 2 more OS system updates (typically 1.5 years each, so 3 years, according to him). He said that, as I have read, that it is indeed possible that the driver is more unstable under Mavericks.
At this point it seems there is no sure-shot solution based on expresscard/34. This is a huge pitfall, as everything else with my older macbook pro is wonderful (and upgradeable).
Anyway, just wanted to give that final update, as it varies significantly from what I was hoping for in my last post. I suppose I could "try" it, but OWC has a 15% restocking fee, along with having to pay return shipping...both of which I confirmed I would have to pay with OWC. I am not willing to do that, as that comes out to almost $20 just to return the product if it doesn't work correctly. Shame, as I would like to give it a fair try, at least, but they don't seem to be willing to budge, and after getting burned on bad products from the past (from other sites with restocking fees), I am no longer willing to go along with those business practices.
Good luck, everyone.

Similar Messages

Is it possible to downgrade an Early 2011 15" MBP to Snow Leopard?

Is it possible to downgrade an Early 2011 15" MBP (MacBookPro8,2) to Snow Leopard?
The laptop shipped with Lion, and I don't recall whether this model ever even shipped with Snow Leopard. I figure if it did ship with snow leopard then there is at least a chance that I'd be able to downgrade. Though, of course, I don't have the disk.
I will check with the apple store guys at some point, but I thought I'd ask here.
Austin

If you had bought the same model MBP a few weeks earlier you could have received two software licenses - Snow Leopard as shipped, and also a free upgrade to Lion. That being the case, why not call AppleCare and see if they will "retroactively" give you the same capability by sending you the grey-labeled machine-specific Snow Leopard install disc that originally shipped with your model MBP before it started shipping with Lion.
In this thread the OP requested a Snow Leopard disc for a new iMac that shipped with Lion, and reported the following:
Called Apple and they first said I coul not install SL, a day latter and I received a call from the manager saying that I had gotten the wrong information, so yes, I can install SL. They sending me the grey disk free of charge.
Apple usually charges a nominal fee for replacing a "lost" grey-labeled Install disc. Of course in your situation you are not actually "entitled" to any disc at all, and the particular person at Apple that you speak with may not be as accommodating. But it can't hurt to ask.

Early 2011 (March) MBP hard drive crashed a week ago, all data was lost. Why is the Hitachi hard drive so prone to have defective read/write heads?

Shouldn't Apple be better quality than this? I've used my old MBP from 2006 for 5 years with no problems. I've only had to back up data maybe once a year because it was so durable.
But this 2011 MBP had the hitachi 320gb SATA drive and one day it started clicking and everything froze. I immediately shut it down took it to the Apple Store, in which the genius bar guy said there was nothing they could do other than swap out the drive (which I did myself as I was not prepared to be charged $250+ for services and waste 2-3 weeks as my warranty was 1 month overdue). Even with AppleCare coverage, Apple will still not recover the data...
This is ridiculous! I strictly use the MBP for school/no gaming/haven't dropped it or moved it around rigorously/bought it instore (assuming it was handled properly). There is no reason for being such crap quality at $1300. I took it to a data recovery center and get this, the quote was $1700 as the read/write heads were defective and the surface of the disk was scratched, I could buy a new computer with that money! Were there no quality checks for these drives? I have PC laptops at home and none of them has had that problem! I'm planning to dispute this with Apple for losing years worth of valuable data.
Does anyone have the same problem? Are early 2011 MBPs prone to hard drive failures?

As Ogel stated drives fail. Unless you bought your 2011 Mac right when the early 2011 models came out you still should be under the one year warranty. They came out at the end of Febuary.
So that drive should be covered, dependinig on when you bought your Mac. And they offer a extended warranty which if you had purchased it would cover the drive failure, Hardware not data.
As far as the data, Apple includes the Time Machine program and there are 2, that I know of, cloning programs available to backup your data. If you did not use any of those programs you will ALWAYS LOSE YOUR DATA.
That is a fact of computers. They fail, end of story. Unless you have multiple copies of your files you are going to lose them.
Good Luck.

Replacing Hard drive in early 2011 15" MBP

Hey I'm a film student I've had my MBP fro a while now I am in need of a new hard drive that can handle 4k footage raw and 4k Images. I also have a Early 2008 Imac which also needs to be replaced which is the best for both?

I belive the maximum size for an internal drive is 1.5 TB. A 1 TB SSD would be expensive. A good alternative is a hybrid disk-SSD such as the Seagate 1 TB hybrid SSHD. It combines the speed of an 8 GB SSD cache with the size and price of a 1 TB disk. It will work in both of your Macs.
These toolkits are handy for replacing HDs.
$5 Toolkit: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TOOLKITMHD/
$22 USB 3.0 enclosure: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/ES2.5BU3W/
You can check out tutorials and macsales.com, crucial.com, or ifixit.com.
Keep track of which screws go in which hole. They are not necessarily all the same length.

Can I use a 45 Magsafe charger for a Early 2011 i7 MBP regularly?

Hello,
A few weeks ago the 60w charger that came with my MBP started to fail and ended up shutting the mac down unexpectedly and preventing it to boot. Therefore, I had to take it to a tech to reinstall OS with all the inconveniences this caused me. Now the computer is fine.
A friend of mine lent me a spare charger he had and told me to use it, seems pretty new and fine, but I just got home and realized it is not 60w as the default MBP but 45 Magsafe charger.
I have been reading Q&As along the forum and I found different opinions, some say yes I can some strongly oppose to it.
I am planning to use it regularly for an average of 5-6 hours of daily basic use ( internet, browsing and downloading music ) can I be safe keeping it for a few months?
Thanks for your help in advance

The general rule is that a lesser charger than was intended for the computer will charge the battery (more slowly) or run the computer, but not both at the same time. While doing heavy tasks, it will be possible that the battery will drain somewhat even while the computer is on A/C power. Shouldn't be a major problem but you should try to get a proper charger to avoid any potential issues.

Battery/Charger Issues (Early 2011 15" MBP)

So, over the past few weeks, I've been watching the cords for my laptop (and my iPhone) basically disintegrate (heavily frayed, cord is almost completely exposed).
The phone charger stopped working first, so I got a replacement. It isn't one of Apple's own chargers, it's from a third party, but it was working, so I didn't mind.
Anyway, I went to sleep last night with my laptop plugged in, and my phone plugged in to the laptop. I keep it by my bed, because I use it as an alarm.
(There was also another cord plugged into the laptop, charging a game controller.)
Well, when I woke up, my laptop was dead. I figured that the cord had just stopped working, so I ordered a replacement.
The strange thing is, when I press the battery indicator button on the side, nothing happens. The lights don't flash, nothing.
Also, the replacement cord for my phone seems to have stopped working as well.
I thought maybe that having too many things plugged into each other caused them to mess up, but the cord that was charging the controller is still working properly.
Any thoughts on what the problem might be? I just recently had my Macbook repaired, so obviously I don't want to have it serviced again, can't be throwing around money like that.
Also, depending on what the problem is, would I need to buy a new phone charger? (probably an Apple one...)
Thank you in advance for any assistance.

It is traditional to (1) Try Resetting the System Management Controller , then, if nothing improves,(2) take it in for testing/servicing.

I would like to know if a particular HDD is compatible with my 13" Early 2011 MBP

I have an Early 2011, 13" MBP with the following operational characteristics and want to know if an HGST Travelstar 2.5-Inch 500GB 7200RPM SATA III 32MB Cache SATA 6Gbps hard disc upgrade will be compatible with my system? This question has probably been asked already but I cannot seem to make a whole lot of distinct sense out of responses so I figured I would just ask in my own terms. Please bear with me.
Hardware Overview:
Model Name:    MacBook Pro
Model Identifier:    MacBookPro 8,1
Processor Name:    Intel Core i5
Processor Speed:    2.3 GHz
Number of Processors:    1
Total Number of Cores:    2
L2 Cache (per Core):    256 KB
L3 Cache:    3 MB
Memory:    8 GB
Boot ROM Version:    MBP81.0047.B27
SMC Version (system):    1.68f98
Serial Number (system):    C02GD24FDRJ7
Hardware UUID:    0343A0B9-8898-527E-B965-4A15E7619B0D
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State:    Enabled
Intel 6 Series Chipset:
Vendor:    Intel
Product:    6 Series Chipset
Link Speed:    6 Gigabit
Negotiated Link Speed:    3 Gigabit
Description:    AHCI Version 1.30 Supported

i use an older sata I enclosure when i clone drives for myself and my friends....no issues so far...
i also have sata II usb enclosure that i use but i prefer the older one i have since it's one of those quick release cases.
in any event, i've never had any issues....and i've been using it to clone SSD
good luck...

Can I use an Early 2011 cloned drive into a Late 2011 MBP A1278?

Will be upgrading and selling the early 2011 A1278 MBP 13". Instead of reinstalling everything, I have created a clone of the older drive onto a spare 320GB drive. Can I just pop the clone drive into the new MBP 13" when I get it?

No boot from the old drive that you cloned Lion to connected to the New system by USB. What program are you using to clone?
Then run the cloning software and clone from externalk to the internal. Also if you used Dusk Utility to do the cloning you can boot the new system from the included Recovery HD partition, hold down Command+r keys, and run Disk Utility from there to clone from external to internal.
I wouldn't boot from the SL disc to clone Lion. Use the Recovery HD.
Did that system come with Lion or Snow Leopard? If Snow Leopard you should not include Lion on the drive when selling it. Also you should give the new owner the SL and Applications discs that came with that system (BUT FIRST make a copy or DMG file of both of them).
Apple will not recognize the new owner with Lion installed. It is tied to your Apple ID. It is up to the new owner to update to Lion if he want to use that OS. Yes you just lost $29.

Re-installing Snow Leopard - early 2011 Macbook Pro

I recently sold my early 2011 15" MBP, and before sending it away wanted to clean off the harddrive. I followed the instructions for erasing it, but it has now failed 5 times to reinstall Snow Leopard from the disc. It gets about 3/4 of the way through the installation and then I receive an error message "Mac OS X could not be installed on your computer. The installer encountered an error that caused the installation to fail. Contact the software manufacturer for assistance."
Any ideas?
Thanks!

There is a menu bar on the second screen when you run the installer.
Click Utilities in the Menu bar and select Disk Utility. Use DU to erase the hard drive and format it as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
When that is done, quit DU and continue the installation.

MBP (13-inch, early 2011) goes into hibernation instead of safe sleep upon closing the lid (only when using battery power)

MBP details
13-inch MacBook Pro, early 2011 (model identifier: MacBookPro8,1)
Running Yosemite, OS X 10.10.1 (however, problem started while using Mavericks)
2.5 GHz Intel Core i5
4 GB memory
Symptoms
* the MBP goes into hibernation instead of sleep upon closing the lid on battery power (i.e., when AC adapter is NOT connected)
-- problem does not occur when AC adapter is connected
* putting the computer to sleep by other means does not induce the problem; these other means include:
-- [i] option+command+Power,
-- [ii] Apple Icon --> Sleep,
-- [iii] in Terminal: pmset sleepnow
* the battery is NOT getting drained at all; if I close the lid on 87%, the battery is still at about 87% when I get the MBP back up and running
To be as clear as possible:
(1) MBP is on and in use (power source: battery); battery is at X%
(2) the lid is then closed
(3) the battery indicator light glows bright for about 10 seconds, then shuts off, and with it so does the MBP (all fans and sounds cease)
(4) opening the lid and pressing any key on the keyboard does nothing (the computer is not sleeping)
(5) to turn the MBP back on, I must hit the power button once; this brings up and the gray screen and loading bar indicative of returning from hibernation
(6) log in; battery is still at X%
Attempted Solutions / Fixes
There are Apple Discussions addressing similar MBP issues, many of which at least have work-arounds, if not full-blown solutions. However, I have tried many of the proposed work-arounds and solutions; nothing has solved my problem. Such attempted solutions include:
* made sure EFI/SMC firmware was up to date
* updated all software
* logged in as a different user
* booted in Safe Mode
* reset the PRAM
* repaired disk permissions using Disk Utility
* repaired additional disk permissions in recovery mode (a la this chron.com advice)
* ran the Apple Hardware Test multiple times (short test while plugged in, short test on battery, extended test while plugged in, extended test on battery)
* booted from an external known-good OS on USB drive
* reseated the RAM
* used MemTest to test the RAM's health (it was good)
* tested my battery's health with the app Battery Health (it is healthy!)
* booted my computer with one stick of the MBP's original RAM at a time (figured "why not?")
* booted my computer using other sticks of RAM
* checked my power management settings using PMSET in the terminal (e.g., pmset -g); tried various hibernation modes (e.g., sudo pmset -a hibernationmode X, where X=0,1,3, etc)
* searched/grepped through my power management logs and Console messages to look for googleable items (e.g., pmset -g log | grep WORD, where WORD=failure, sleep, etc); still have not found help online
* brought the MBP to a Mac Genius
-- he ran some further tests, but found nothing;
-- he re-installed my OS as a hopeful-hail-mary-just-maybe-last-ditch effort; the problem persisted!
-- we both agreed that we had ruled out a software cause
-- he offered me to leave my MBP to get fixed for a flat fee of $300.00 (which after a couple weeks of trying to figure this out is starting to sound more and more reasonable)
Given that it is likely not a software issue, what hardware might it be? By booting from an OS on an external drive, I think I've ruled out a bad hard drive or hard drive cable. Also, given that inducing sleep in any way other than closing the MBP's lid does not cause the problem, it seems there might be a wire (or something) in the hinge section of the MBP that gets moved when the lid is closed possibly causing some kind of short circuit...or something.
If someone with more experience interpreting Console messages, for example, can help, I'd be happy to provide some logs, or any additional information.
Thank you for your time and consideration.

Ok, this is a crazy-simple, quasi-embarrassing fix, but I'll post it anyway just in case anyone is having a similar problem (for example, this guy: Changes to pmset being ignored).
Some time around late last August / early September (2014) this issue began happening for me (specifically, issue = closing lid while on battery power induces hibernation / shut down instead of sleep --- independent of hibernation mode). Maybe it was when I upgraded to Yosemite (not sure what the exact date of that was). As detailed in my original post, I frantically tried everything I could think of... At that time, however, I had quite a few presentations and posters to create and present at meetings and conferences, so I held off fixing it for a couple of months and returned to it this past week, where I tried a few more things listed above, but again to no avail...
This morning, I simply tried fudging around with all my power management settings again (via pmset in Terminal). The simplicity of the fix surprised me. But now that I understand it, I know it is likely the same fix for other threads I've read, such as the one above:
(TLDR in bold)
(1) Take note of your power management settings (Terminal: pmset -g custom)
(2) Is the "standby" flag set to 0? If so, set it to 1. Wa-la! Done.
This fix is crazy and embarrassing b/c I was so close to it for so long. I tried changing my hibernation modes multiple times (sudo pmset -a hibernatemode X, where X=0,1,3,25,etc). I read about manipulating other PMSET settings that helped other people with newer MBPs, like "autopoweroff" and "autopoweroffdelay" --- settings that I do not have on the MBP early 2011 (check your settings: pmset -g cap). And most amazingly of all, I even messed with the "standbydelay" setting, trying to make it so long that my computer should never go into hibernation... Yet, from what I can tell by looking over my notes, I never simply set "standby" from 0 to 1.
There are interesting questions that arise due to this fix. For example, why did this problem persist on clean installs of OS Yosemite? Is "standby" being set to 0 the Yosemite default? I'm not sure. If it is, then Kappy was right: this was normal behavior... It just wasn't always the normal behavior...at least not for my MBP. Normal behavior (hibernatemode 3) used to be (and now is again) that the MBP goes into safe sleep, and then only after an allotted amount of time will it go into full-blown hibernation.
NOTE: the "standby" and "standbydelay" PMSET settings are not available in some earlier MBP models (e.g., my brother has a 2010 and does not have these settings); so if you're having a similar problem with an earlier model, this fix might not be of any help to you.

MBP early 2011 battery life

I have the early 2011 release of the 17" MBP (8gig ram, 2.2ghz quad i7, 500 gig harddrive) and it seems like the battery life has just been cut inhalf. It lasts me about 3 and a half hours from just general use. Is my battery faulty? Really appriciate any feed back

That battery looks pretty good, capacity is really strong for so many charge cycles, but the voltage looks low, would expect it to be in the 11.5 to 12.5 volt range and you are showing 11.27 volts. A little low but not critical.
How have you been handling that battery with respect to discharge/charge? While Apple has a lot of material talking about periodic deep discharge to shutdown and charge as a means of calibrating the battery, in reality that does not calibrate the battery itself. That only serves to calibrate the charge reporting circuitry built in to Lithium-technology batteries. In fact, the Battery University, an independent group testing batteries, has shown that repeated deep discharge behavior significantly shortens Lithium battery lifetimes. The optimum balance of use (discharge) and line-connection seems to be around 50% discharge before charge. Deeper reduces cycle life very fast, lower discharge makes for a very high cycle life but why buy a portable?
Anyway, just some thoughts. Use of high intensity applications, including other operating systems, looks like it is degrading the charge time but the battery itself looks healthy.
Just keep using it, perhaps try not discharging below 50% for a while and see how it behaves for your.

Can't install windows 8.1 on early 2011 MBP

Hey all,
I'm having problems installing Windows 8.1 on my Early 2011 MBP (MacBookPro8,2). When my superdrive died I installed an SSD for the boot drive and kept the original hard drive as a secondary drive. I used BCA (modified to support USB) to create a USB 2 Windows 8.1 install drive from an ISO I previously created. I also had it partition the hard drive. When it reboots I get the "no bootable device found" and blinking cursor issue. I've tried holding down option and choosing EFI, but i've picked up during the last week that installing through EFI on my MacBook Pro isn't possible. Does anyone have any ideas on how to solve this?

I ended up coming across this last night:
http://malwaretips.com/threads/installing-windows-on-a-mac-with-a-damaged-superd rive.32474/
I am in the process of testing this out, but currently I'm stuck with an issue with winclone not expanding the image of the usb install disk to use all the space in the partition. However I did boot into the Windows installer and didn't run into the "couldn't find partition" , "no bootable disk", or "not an MBR" errors I've seen before.
I Think the key for non supported hardware and Windows 8 or later is to create the bootable usb in windows and not through BCA. I actually used the VMWare Fusion trial and a windows 10 technical demo image to do the monkeying around in windows. Hope this helps someone else. I'll keep updating.

AMD Radeon HD 6750M, Early 2011 MBP, 10.9.4 Problems

Hello,
Ever since 10.9.3 update I have a serious problem with my Early 2011 MBP with AMD Radeon HD 6750M card.
First my configuration:
MBP 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7 (Macbook Pro 8,2)
16 GB RAM
512 GB Sandisk SSD and 750 Stock HDD
AMD Radeon HD 6750M and Intel HD Graphics 3000
OS X 10.9.4
I'm usually using my MBP with external display with a resolution of 1920x1080. The display is connected via DVI to Mini Display Port adapter. When I connect the external display, my MBP switches to the AMD card. Here's where the problems begin. If I'm using Davinci Resolve, Capture One Pro or any other software (that I use regularly) that uses the GPU extensively, the cpu usage will rise, the computer will start to feel sluggish and my productivity almost becomes none because even the simplest tasks such as opening another tab in firefox or safari takes anywhere between 1-3 sec. When the computer starts doing that, I cannot play a simple HD video at native fps and the whole machine basically becomes too expensive paper weight. The strange thing is that even after I quit all programs, the system cpu usage continues to be high, around 50% with kernel_task being the star using all this cpu and it keeps using all of this cpu forever, at least until i shut it down or disconnect the external display and manage to make it switch to the internal Intel gpu.
The problem started after istalling the 10.9.3 update and it's still there with the 10.9.4 update. I even formatted the computer and reinstalled everything but the problem still persists.
I haven't experienced anything like this on 10.9.2 and the machine was actually quite fast before that. Now, I have too expensive paper weight on my desk.
Since the problem is very specific, I doubt many users will complain and I doubt Apple will ever do anything to fix it, at least until hopefully the new drivers in 10.10 fix the issue hopefully.
My question is:
1. Has anyone else experienced this and managed to solve the problem?
2. How can I downgrade to 10.9.2? I don't have time machine backup but i have bootable usb with 10.9.2. Will it help?
All best,
Goran

When you have the problem, note the exact time: hour, minute, second.
These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
☞ Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
          SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
          View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Scroll back to the time you noted above. Select the messages entered from then until the end of the episode, or until they start to repeat, whichever comes first. Copy the messages to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of it useless for solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

Is it able to bootcamp via USB drives in Macbook Pro 15" Early 2011?

I have a Macbook Pro 15" early-2011..
I want to install windows 7 using bootcamp via usb drives.
It is becase my superdrive is broken and i've asked the service center how it will cost to fix it..
And its about 250$.
I try to enabling the usb boot in bootcamp, but when its done partitioning disk and starts rebooting, there comes a black screen with " there isn't bootable device".
any body can help? and are there any option to boot via USB?
thanks,
i apreciate your help

The above post is not completely correct. On your model year MBP the only way to install Windows is from the built in Apple DVD Superdrive. This is not a MS restriction and is totally an Apple restriction. The Firmware on that model year, and any model that has a built in DVD drive, is set to only boot the Windows installer from the built in DVD drive.
Microsoft has nothing to do with it. On any other computer, even a Mac that doesn't come from the factory with a built in DVD Superdrive, you can install Windows from any type of device connected to a USB port, whether that device is a external DVD drive or some type of flash or rotating drive of one type or another.
Also Boot Camp Assistant is for partitioning the Mac hard drive and making that partition ready to install Windows. It has nothing to do with the actual Windows install. That is all controlled by the Windows install routine.
So your only option is to have the Superdrive replaced or replace it yourself

Installing Windows 7 on Replacement SSD in optical bay Early 2011 MBP

So i just bought a 120gb SSD and a optical bay enclosure that i installed into my early 2011 MBP. I also bought a optical drive external usb enclosure. I was hoping that I could use bootcamp to install Windows 7 onto the SSD but when i go through the bootcamp menu and my laptop restarts im stuck with a blank black screen. Ive also tried using bootcamp to create a bootable USB (which i had to do a work around to get to work because it supposed to only work for MBA) that didnt work. Can anyone help?

ANYONE???

Early 2011 17" MBP -- USB 3.0 portable, reliable, bus-powered option?

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