HDD in place of SuperDrive

Hi to all
I would like to replace the SuperDrive of my Middle 2012 MacBook Pro with an HDD, obviously included the Adapter.
The adapter that I would like to buy is this one:
http://www.amazon.it/dp/B00A2VNUK4/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid =1FXR6IYU1RVGX&coliid=I2AXEHS3O941QJ&psc=1
What do you think about this accessory?
I've thought to put the original HDD in place of the SuperDrive and an SSD in place of the original HDD. Do you agree with my decision? I've read something about that it should be better to let at his place the original HDD because of some sensors, but I'm not sure about that.
Are there any compatibility problems with SATA3? I've read that the connection with the SuperDrive supports SATA3 and I think that there are no problems between the HDD adapter and the motherboard. Am I wrong?
I attach a screenshot of SATA specs.
Thank you

Here is an install video on the issue~quite good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyuQJE-Z9cQ I am not an expert on this but I felt some install method would help. from all I have read on this subject the drawback is excessive heat build up internall

Similar Messages

Should I put the new SSD drive in main HDD bay or the Superdrive/Optical bay for a Mid-2010 Macbook Pro?

Hello All,
I'm considering getting a new SSD drive to add on to my Mid-2010 Macbook Pro (13 inches, unibody), and wondering which one of the following two options I should really adapt:
(1) Replace the original OEM hard drive in the main bay with the new SSD drive, and then remove the Superdrive (or the optical CD drive) and to be fitted into an external enclosure for using it externally in the future, and then relocate the original OEM hard drive into the Superdrive position, so both the new SSD (preferably for running the OS and system files) and the old OEM hard drive (for storing media and documents for example) could be used; and
(2) Keep the original OEM hard drive in place in the main drive, and buy a superdrive/optical drive caddy to goes with the new SSD drive, and together place the new SSD drive fitted inside the caddy into the position of the Superdrive/Optical CD drive, and configure the boot preference to be booting from the Superdrive/Optical Drive (which is now the SSD drive with OS and system files);
I've done some researches and some suggested that option (2) is better approach for at least two reason: (a) the MBP main drive come with some sort of shock proof sensor, so placing the original optical hard drive in the main is better than placing it in the super/optical drive where there is NO shock sensing feature provided, and placing SSD in the super/optical drive, one doesn't really have to worry so much about shocks; and (b) as during the process of shutting down the MBP, for optical hard drive, some power will sometimes needed to finally spin down the drive, but if such optical hard drive is place in the superdrive, the power maybe cut off right away when MBP shut down, which may cause issue to the optical hard drive in a long run as it never properly spin it down.
Then the main concern is that, if I adapt option (2) above, placing SSD in the super/optical drive bay and install and running the OS from there, will it decrease the performance (i.e. speed, latency, and etc.) as if i was to put the new SSD in the main drive?
Also, any suggestions with respect to Samsung 840 EVO vs. Samsung 850 EVO (250GB)? any well-rated HD caddy aside from OWC for moving the main HDD to optical CD bay? and perhaps an external enclosure for the Superdrive? Thanks in advance for any comment and/or suggestion.
- Jack

Could you provide some rationale(s) behind it? As far as I know, the mid 2010 Macbook Pro, the HDD is running via the SATA interface at running at 3.0 Gb/s, which is SATA II, and the Super-drive and/or the Optical drive, which is also running via SATA II interface, so I would assume the performance (i.e. primarily in speed) would be similar if not the same by placing the SSD drive in either one of the two places.
Also, wouldn't it be better by placing the SSD in the optical so the OEM HDD could be kept in the original main bay since it has the shock-sensing feature there?

NEW 2011 15" Macbook Pro SDD or HDD in place of the Optical Bay.

I am going to purchase the new 15' 2.2GHz MBP. I am just unsure right now about which Data drive to get. I currently have a 500GB 7200rpm HDD that I would like to put in my NEW Macbook Pro with the OWC Data Doubler( http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/DDAMBS0GB/ )by taking out the Optical bay and replacing it with a second data drive. If I do this I would like to get the 128GB SDD with my new MBP and then install the second drive as the 500GB HDD I already have. I could always get the 500GB 7200rpm and then install my other 500GB 7200rpm, but would this cause too much heat and battery lose running both? I know how to install them and everything but I do not know how to set them up through the Disk Utility application. I have 4 options I could do......
Creating an individual volume with its own desktop icon.
(With this option my OS and all the applications would be installed on my SDD and everything would be ran quicker. I would then use my HDD for data. Can someone give me examples of this?)
Combining a new drive with the existing internal drive for one larger volume (SPAN).
(This would defeat the purpose of getting a SDD)
Combining a new matching drive with existing internal for high-performance RAID-0 Stripe volume.
(I would love to use this for the gain in performance but I don't know if I can if the drives are different size/make/technology)
Configuring a new drive as a Time Machine™ backup drive.
(dont want this)
Formatting one drive for the Mac OS and the other dedicated for Windows.
(Would like to format the SDD for Mac OS and applications, and my HDD for data. But having only 128GB as the main disk with the OS, I dont want random things to get on it.)
I will be using my new MBP for HD video editing, photo editing, web searching, maybe games, and music and movie downloading from itunes)
HOW WOULD I SET UP THESE DRIVES TO WORK WITH EACH OTHER. ANY HELP WOULD BE GRATEFULLY APPRECIATED.
Message was edited by: Pinn

the answer marked as correct is incorrect
check exactly yours MBP - cos part of 2011 MBP's have 6/3 Gbps link to HD/Opti and part - 6/6
modern SSD's can utilise this so you can get ~500 MBps in HD bay and only ~260 in optibay.
MacRS4, C300 is good drive, but to see difference you need some M4 or intel510 or Vertex3 or OWC 6G class drive - they are of new, 500 MB/s delivering generation
Even on C300 you can get 350-360 MBps on reading over SATA 6G and only ~260-270 MBps on SATA3G

OSX Mavericks won't boot after changing user home folder

Hi guys,
I have a clean install of Mavericks on my macbook pro 17" and have two drives in. One is hdd (in place of superdrive) and the other is ssd where OSX is installed.
I have uset the following:
If you right-click on the User in the Users & Groups system preferences, choose "Advanced Options..."
You can then change the location of the home folder
to change location of my user home folder and set it up to be on the hdd but now OSX Mavericks won't boot. I get the progress bar on boot and it just freezes no matter how long I left it.
Can anyone help me out?
Thanks!

I managed to boot after dozen tries and restored the location of the home folder to where it was at the first place.
The thing is, on my second drive I have the whole user folder with data, settings and everything else in it and would really like to use it in the Mavericks.
I guess I could just copy it over the one in the Mavericks and it should be good?
Not sure, why this is the issue now since on previous OSX releases this home folder changing thing worked without problems :/
If anyone else have the solution for this problem please do feel free to let me know!
Thanks!

SSD and HDD / TimeMachine and CCC

I have a 240GB SSD as my main drive and it had all of my data on it.
Recently I installed the OWC data doubler and put a 500GB HDD in place of the superdrive.
Since then, I copied my "home" folder (under /Users) to the new 500GB HDD.
After this I went into user settings and set the path to the new drive, so new files created will be stored on the HDD instead of the SSD now.
I have yet to delete the DUPLICATE data on the SSD. (in case this method wont work)
My question is about TimeMachine:
Right now I have TWO external drives to back up my data.
Drive 1: 2TB
Partitioned into 1.5TB for TM and the other 500GB for Carbon Copy Cloner.
This drive (1) has been backing up my system since the beginning, Before my "home" folder was moved.
Drive 2: 1TB
Partitioned into two separate 500GB sections.
TM is set up to back up the data on the drive (HDD - which there has been no data to back up as of now)
The other partition is for CCC, which also has not been used yet because there is no data on the HDD (not SSD).
The question is:
Since I moved my "home" folder (or directory, whatever) to the new 500GB HDD, and changed the settings to have all "data" be stored on that drive, will TM back it up as if it were all still on my main SSD?
And if it will NOT back up as a single drive, will the data duplicate in TM? (I dont want to have duplicate backups)
If it will make duplicate backups, would I be able to erase the external drive and start fresh and have it just backup as if it were a single disk? (something I am interested in, especially since I can then encrypt my external drive)
Is it stupid to have 1.5 TB for TM and 500GB for CCC? Should I just partition it into TWO 1TB drives? (Since my 240+500=740GB of space...)
A few more things Im concerned about.
My second external drive has time machine on it for the data on the HDD, but the "home" directory or folder is now stored on the drive and if TM will back it up as if it were a single drive, then TM on the second external drive becomes pointless. (Correct?)
Now I know that making duplicate backups of data is critical, so I suppose I could just have TM set up for the second drive, but also back up the main drive, as if it were the single drive (so it would back up my SSD and HDD, just like my primary external drive)
A good set up would be go partition the SECOND external drive with a 750GB partition and the rest for a 250GB. Then TM would have enough space to back up both internal drives (just like the primary external) and then the 250 could just be a clone of the SSD (using CCC- and this would be a duplicate clone)
So this leaves me with two TM external backups and then two CCC backups.
Please tell me if I left out any details. I know its a lengthy description!
Thanks for taking the time to read and respond.
Greatly appreciated!

Hello GNUTup,
Welcome to the HP Forums, I hope you enjoy your experience! To help you get the most out of the HP Forums I would like to direct your attention to the HP Forums Guide First Time Here? Learn How to Post and More.
I understand you are trying to install a new SSD or HDD in your HP Touchsmart 300-1025 Desktop PC.
First, I am going to do is provide you with the HP Support document: HP Touchsmart 300-1025 Desktop PC, which will walk you through the process of replacing the Hard Drive you currently have. If you require the Hard disk drive mounting cage assembly the part number is 575664-001 and can be obtained from The HP Parts Store. I have not seen anything that limits the type of drive you can install, but I have only seen documentation on HDDs. I am also going to provide you with the HP Support document: Partitioning and Naming Hard Drives (Windows 7) as it is relevant to your computer and since you are replacing the Hard Drive is a great opportunity for you to review a document of this type.
Second, as for your CD-ROM I am providing you with the HP Support document: Replacing the CD/DVD Drive in HP TouchSmart 300-1000 Series Desktop PCs, which again will walk you through the process of changing out your CD-ROM. If you require the Optical disk drive mounting cage assembly the part number is 575663-001 and again can be obtained from The HP Parts Store.
I hope I have answered your questions to your satisfaction. Thank you for posting on the HP Forums. Have a great day!
Please click the "Thumbs Up" on the bottom right of this post to say thank you if you appreciate the support I provide!
Also be sure to mark my post as “Accept as Solution" if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others who face the same challenge find the same solution.
Dunidar
I work on behalf of HP
Find out a bit more about me by checking out my profile!
"Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong." ~ Donald Porter

Can't boot MBP. New HDD worked for a day, back at square one

Out of no-where my MBP froze after bring it out of sleep mode. I held down the power button and when turning it on it stuck at the grey spinning circle screen. I tried:
1) reset PRAM
2) booting to recovery partition and repair permissions and disk.Disk repair failed, can't recall the exact error.
3) booting to 10.7 CD that I made from my Lion AppStore download and repairing permissions and disk. Disk repair failed, can't recall the exact error.
I had a spare drive lying around so I opened it up and replaced the drive. Booted to the Lion DVD, formatted the drive and install Lion. Everything installed no problems. After the install I downloaded all of my applications and starting restoring all of my data from a backup drive. After getting almost all of my things set up to my liking the machine hung. I held down the power button and then pressed power again to turn on the machine. After the Apple logo screen the dreaded flashing question mark came onto the screen.
I can take either of these two HDDs and place them into an enclosure and read/write data on the disk without a problem so it seems unlikely that I had two bad (flaky) HDDs. I tried inserting my 10.6 and 10.5 install discs and holding D before the grey screen to start the hardware diagnostics tool but it just boots onto a black screen with a white cursor in the top left corner. I'm afraid to let it sit at this screen too long because the machine gets pretty hot near the display hinge.
Any ideas?

I tried that earlier but I guess I didn't wait long enough. I wasn't factoring in that the load time would be slower booting it via USB. If it's just that cable that would be great. It's ironic if that's the problem because I replaced that cable 6-8 months ago because my sleep indicator stopped working. I may have the old one, if not I'll order one since it's only a $30-40 part and let you know if that resolved it.

Having trouble transferring large files from SSD startup disk to newly installed internal HDD

Have just installed an additional 2TB Samsung HDD in place of my optical drive on my late-2011 MacBook Pro.
Specs:
MacBook Pro 15inch late-2011
Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro8,2
Processor Name: Intel Core i7
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 8 GB
Boot ROM Version: MBP81.0047.B27
Hard Drives:
Startup = 120GB SSD
New HDD = 2TB SATA Samsung M9T
OS: Yosemite 10.10.1 (14B25)
Issue:
Installed my new 2TB SATA drive and it appeared OK in Finder. I was able to navigate to it and create new folders and move small files into it (under 100MB maybe)
Really want to move my iPhoto library onto the 2TB disk to free up space for Apps on my SSD, but when I try to copy/move it over it only does the first few MB then freezes and appears to timeout as the new HDD disappears from Finder and ejects itself. I'm surprised that the eject stuff shows for an internal HDD but that's a side issue.
Have read about similar issues in other OS versions, especially around external HDD and have tried the following already:
* Looked at power management of the hard disks to stop them going to sleep
* Have told Spotlight not to index the new HDD to prevent the indexing task causing issues
* Both SSD and new HDD are formatted using MAC OS/X Extended (not FAT)
* Have tried fixing permissions on both disks as I believe there can be issues in Yosemite
I'm still having a problem despite trying the above. Struggling!
Any help much appreciated.

Open Disk Utility. By selecting one of the two entries for the HDD please determine how it is formatted and what partition map it is using. I suspect you did not partition or erase this drive before use. If that's true, then do this:
Drive Partition and Format
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
Now you can try your file transfers again. However, before you do I recommend you clone your SSD to the HDD so the latter could be used as your boot drive should it be needed. That will also create an Home folder on the HDD with the files you wish to move to it. You can then simply remove those files from the SSD to free up the space.
Clone Yosemite, Mavericks, Lion/Mountain Lion using Restore Option of Disk Utility
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
     1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu then press the Continue
         button.
     2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
     3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
     4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it
         to the Destination entry field.
     5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
         the Source entry field.
     6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the new HDD. Source means the SSD startup volume.

SSD + HDD together?

Hi,
I have an ageing G770. Is it possible to add an SSD in addition to my existing HDD, as my budget won't currently allow me to get anything bigger than 250Gb, which isn't enough for me?
Sorry for the basic question.
Thanks in advance guys,

http://www.newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=290
Apparently the G770 supports using an HDD in place of the optical drive. If you're not using it, might as well put the SSD in the optical bay.
W520: i7-2720QM, Q2000M at 1080/688/1376, 21GB RAM, 500GB + 750GB HDD, FHD screen
X61T: L7500, 3GB RAM, 500GB HDD, XGA screen, Ultrabase
Y3P: 5Y70, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, QHD+ screen

HP dc7900 Versions/HDD

Hi. I own a HP dc7900sff computer. The problem is i am missing M3 screws which hold primary HDD in place. Apart from HDD being a little loose, can i install the HDD without those screws ?
Also i noticed multiple dc7900sff computers with the same hardware specs, however the little stickers on those machines varied. Some were "windows vista certified" others "windows 7". Why is that ?
Thanks.

Hi: The dc7900 model series came out toward the end of Windows Vista mainstream use and ran during Windows 7's introduction. So, the older dc7900's came with Windows Vista and the later models came with W7. I would order the antivibration hard drive screws you need on eBay, otherwise you will have to jury rig the mounting of the HDD. http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=dc7900+hard+drive+screws&_sop=15

Second HDD for Portege A600

Can I insert second HDD instead of DVD drive in my Portege A600-157 ?

Hi
As far as I know this is not possible with Portege A600 series.
From my knowledge some other Portege series like Portege M400 or Portege M7xx series supports an Ultra Slim Bay HDD adaptor in order to insert an second HDD in place of the CD/DVD drive but A600 does not support this

Is it possible to change HDD disk to SSD disk after buying ?

I want to change my disk after buying my MacBook Pro because of the huge price. Can i do this ? Or maybe it's impossible ?

Yes, you can do that. Visit OWC to explore their Data Doubler that will let you put an SSD or HDD in place of the optical drive.

SuperDrive being ******** w/ dvd-r now

So in my wanting to back-up my computer last night, iLife, iPhoto, etc., my SuperDrive decides it no longer wants to read any of my dvd-r blank discs - they are Memorex brand. I've always used the same exact brand/disc. I also cannot read my old back-up DVD's any more since they were burned on the same kind of disc, and Memorex DVD-r. I had used 1/2 the stack i bought already, so i'm quite puzzled by this. I put in a Maxell DVD-R and it read that one!! Not sure if it's brand because i ended up doing my back-ups onto CD-R, which were Memorex!! (18 cd-r later...) I can still read regular dvd, i reinstalled os x last night (this was after i was already having issues w/ my super drive being stupid). Is there anything that could of broughten this one? i was just using the memorex dvd-r discs earlier this week. no weird software installed lately either.
14" iBook G4 1.42 GHz
OSX 10.4.6
60GB HDD
1GB DDR SDRAM
SuperDrive
Model: MATSHITADVD-R UJ-845E
Revision: DMP2
not sure what else to say.. just looking for thoughts for possible reasons it'd decide to do this.
(thankfully all my photos from iPhoto are backed up nightly to my iDisk!!!)

whew.. i sure hope so. (i'm glad i'm not the only one). come to think of it, yea, i had done the stupid update for os x, and then decided to do my backing up. hm.. almost think i should re-install again lol and not do the update. oh well - too lazy to do that now. maybe some other people will end up having the same issue also. that makes me a little happier - was afraid my iBook was breaking on me! lol of course i thought it was weird i could still do cd-r and other brand dvd-r. hm... conspiracy

T420 not detecting second HDD?

I just got my new T420 and everything looks to be ok so far. However, I wanted to add a second HDD in place of the optical drive and it is not being detected by the system. I am using the same adapter and HDD that I had before in my T400, and it still works fine there.
Any ideas on how to troubleshoot this problem?

@Protomic.
Not sure if this will help but see the specs here.
http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:item.detail?...
@ahsan,
Good point from tripplec, try to search for Windows Partition tools on Google. There are a few good ones. Or you can use a desktop, plug in the HDD then use Windows retail CD to create partition.
*Non Lenovo employee*
I have a Y2P (i5) ... Feel free to ping me if you want me to test some applications with your Y2P if you have the same model. I don't mind keep doing recovery on it if needed .... =)

2009 A1278 MBP 13" HDD not responsive

Have I exhuasted all possibilities to determine cause ---Where to next?
OS Mavericks, 320GB HDD, 8 GB RAM, New Battery - Upgraded 6-8 months ago!
Reviewed forum material and performed the list below:
MBP HDD not booting up - (apple logo w/ spinning gear and then prohibitive sign);
Tried PRAM reset - Fail;
Tried Safe Mode - Fail;
Tried SMC reset - Fail;
Tried Target mode - Selected HDD - Fail;
Removed HDD and Battery, re-sat them and retried 2 & 3 - Fail;
Inserted Installation disk, ran disk Utility, HDD not detected only SuperDrive;
Removed HDD and placed into Nexstar HDD Dock, reboot, select Target drive - PASS
Re-inserted HDD back into MBP, repeat steps 2 & 3 - Fail;
So, is it ribbon or logic board?
Preference towards ribbon - Cheaper - there is forum content on it;
Any test for logic board defects?
Much appreciated guys!!!
Thank you.

My1stMac_RC,
given your investigation, it reads as though the internal SATA cable is the culprit — it seems to be a problem in 2009 models.
For future reference, since you have Mavericks installed, you could have also tried booting into Recovery mode.

Problems with Windows/bootcamp/efi? - Helpful collection of solutions

How to create a (legacy/Bios/conventional) bootable Windows installation USB drive:
If for some reason you don't want to use Bootcamp Assistant, you can follow these steps to create your own bootable USB drive.
Diskpart is a Windows command-line tool. To use Diskpart you need to have access to a Windows PC or a Windows Installer (where you can open the commandline prompt by pressing Shift+F10)
How to make an active partition in Diskpart:
1. Open a command prompt (type CMD in the Start Menu search bar, press enter);
2. Type diskpart;
3. Type list disk;
4. Look for the entry of your USB drive and remember it's number (checking disk sizes usually helps in spotting it);
5. Type select disk x, where x is the disk entry you checked in step 4;
6. Type clean;
7. Type create partition primary;
8. Type format fs=FAT32 quick;
9. Type active;
10. You're done, type exit twice. (once to exit diskpart, again to exit command prompt);
To add the Windows Installation files:
1. Mount a Windows ISO (in OSX or windows, doesn't matter);
2. Select all files on the disk;
3. Copy;
4. Open your freshly made USB drive;
5. Paste;
To add Bootcamp Support Software:
1. Download and unpack the Bootcamp Support Software (v5.x for 64-bit)
2. Select all files (Folder: $WinPEDriver$, folder: Bootcamp, file: AutoUnattend.xml)
3. Copy;
4. Open freshly made USB drive that contains Windows Installation files;
5. Paste;
Done.
Note: For EFI installs you don't need to do this. Just format the drive FAT32, copy over your ISO/DVD files, and you're good to go.
How to restore a protective MBR into a hybrid MBR:
If you installed Windows using Bootcamp the conventional way and adjusted partitions afterwards, chances are your Windows no longer boots.
You can fix this by following the link in the fix below and using that program (GDisk) to do the opposite of what is posted. (create a hybrid MBR)
How to restore a hybrid MBR into a protective MBR:
Disk Utility and Bootcamp Assistant automagically create a Hybrid MBR when a partition is formatted FAT32. Because of this you can't install in EFI mode if you used either of these apps to partition your drive.
The solution (check the answer on the linked question):
http://superuser.com/questions/508026/windows-detects-gpt-disk-as-mbr-in-efi-boo t
How to create an EFI bootable Windows 7 USB drive:
Windows 7 is only partially EFI compatible, you may run into problems during installation on a Mac.
Tip: If you're running a HD4000 graphics chip, it's likely you won't get a picture during the installation. Plenty of ways around this (like unattended installs (full thread)) but I advise you to wait for a firmware update (if it ever gets released).
The solution (skip to "Option two" - step 11, the rest is kinda... unnecesary):
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/15458-uefi-bootable-usb-flash-drive-create- windows.html
Can't see "Windows" as a USB boot option?:
Try resetting the PRAM.
Source: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5524707?tstart=0
How to reset PRAM: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

great job jognt, wonderful post (though i found out about it only after a 2-day research in to the subject).
however, i still cannot find a solution to installing windows 7 from a usb.
i'd be grateful for any advice if you have the time:
i have a macbook late 2008 - core 2 due, 2gb ram, 250gb hdd and the internal superdrive.
the hdd has osx snow leopard with win7 32-bit partitioned in bootcamp.
i performed a little surgery to my little mac so it could run much faster than before:
1. replaced one of the 1gb ram sticks to a 4gb ram stick (=5gb of total ram). would be happier with 8gb, but upon replacing both sticks i get a memory error which i could solve up to this moment (though this is probably not related to nmy problem).
2. replaced the superdrive with a 250gb ssd from samsung (840 series).
i downloaded mavericks osx 10.9.1 and loaded it into a 16gb usb, which installed flawlessly on the ssd (125gb partition).
as i've formated the usb using snow leopard's disk utility and hadn't install any lions, i had no recovery partition (which disables "find my mac" along with other stuff). i decided to add a recovery partition, and have successfully done so using a custom app named Recovery Editor (instructions can be found here: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1606779).
next, i've tried to install windows 7 64-bit on the same drive (ssd) on the second partition - 125gb formatted to fat32. i've placed win installation files in the usb using the modified boot camp assistant (removed "pre" from "PreUSBBootSupportedModels" and "PreUEFIModels", added my model under "DARequiredROMVersions" and "UEFIModels").
before even trying to use this usb (and following a mass amount of people reporting peoblems), i decided to use your method: formatted the usb with diskpart (fat32, active), added the windows installation files from an iso (which includes both 32- and 64-bit versions), copied the bootcamp v5 support software and restarted the computer.
however, pressing the option key shows 4 options - the snow leopard partition and win7 32-bit partition on the hdd and mavericks partition and recovery partition on the ssd.
the usb is not recognized.
i tried clearing the pram (option+command+r+p) and eject and insert the usb after pressing option to see if it will add the usb to the list.
from what i've read around, some people were able to use their usb if they disconnected the hdd and placed the ssd instead (leaving the cdrom place empty), but i would rather avoid this.
might anyone have an idea how to fix this?
many thanks.

HDD in place of SuperDrive

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