***Performance of SSD: Optical Bay vs. SATA

I was thinking about installing a second drive into my optical bay that I can use as my media/scratch drive.
System/Apps on main drive
Video on optical drive
Just wondering..is there any difference in performance/speed when editing based on if the drive is in the SATA bay or the optical bay. If there is, would it be better to just get a Firewire drive as the media/scratch?
Thank you.

Hi A,
The earlier MBPs have PATA optical drives, and there would definitely be a difference, so it depends which MBP you have.

Similar Messages

Can I put an SSD in my optical bay? Early 2008 8 core Mac Pro.

I have an early 2008 8 core pro with 8 gigs. All my drive bays have drives. Can I drop a 2.5" SSD in the optical bay and hook it up there. Are the optical bay cables SATA on my pro? I know they were in 2009. And I see people doing it in later pros. I have 2 optical bays one is empty. Plenty of room. Just wondering about the cables.
-Josh

Yes, but it's not plug and play like the 2009+ Mac Pros.
http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-InstallingSSD.html
Scroll down to the 2008 instructions for the details...

SOLUTION: DOES MY 2011 MACBOOK PRO HAVE 3G OR 6G IN OPTICAL BAY FOR SSD? *ANSWER*

Hey guys, I just wanted to share the love and tell you I've finally spoken with Apple tech support (had to go through a handful of them to find the answer).. I have a [b][u]Late 2011 MacBook Pro (8,2) (MacBookPro8,2)[/b][/u], which was [B]*PURCHASED ON APRIL 4, 2012*[/B] and wanted to upgrade both the main HD and the optical bay/SuperDrive with Dual SSD's.. but saw so much conflicting info. on the internet about how some 2011 MacBook Pros only have 3G capabilities for the optical drive, where others (released later on) had 6G drive capabilities in BOTH the main drive and optical drive bay..
so now I'm probably sure you're asking yourself...
WHICH CONNECTOR DOES MY MACBOOK PRO SUPPORT FOR A [B]2ND SSD IN THE OPTICAL DRIVE/SUPERDRIVE BAY?[/B]
3G (SATA-II) OR 6G (SATA-III)
I literally had to call Apple a half a dozen times, spoke to 2 different managers, and then eventually got them to spill the beans.. The thing with Apple is that they beat around the bush big time when it comes to things like you personally replacing/upgrading components.. As soon as you bring up the connector for the optical bay, they start asking questions.. It eventually took me to 5th call to end up speaking with some chill dude who was able to pull up my "About My Mac" and interpret if I were part of the 2011-MacBook Pro releases which had the (6G main + 3G optical) or the group that had the (6G main + 6G optical).. Literally tried everywhere on the internet, but SO HAPPY to finally have a solid answer from Apple themselves..
[b]My specific MacBook Pro Model:[/b]
[u]MacBook Pro (8,2) - Late 2011 (purchased April 4, 2012) - 2.4GHz Intel Core i7 - 15"[/u]
[B][U]*SOLUTION*[/B][/U]
If you pull open your "About this Mac", click "More Info", and then "System Report", click on "SATA" on the left column, and then if your stats in those windows match the stats from the 2 screenshots I posted, then your Optical Drive Bay/SuperDrive is equipped and handle a 6G/SATA-III drive or SSD! I'm pretty sure that it doesn't matter at all what your "MacBookProX,x" number is, as long as you have #'s that match mine in those screenshots, you're good to go!
ENJOY!

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?

2x SSD as RAID-0 in 2nd optical bay, orig. must function... also RAM ?

Hey all I know this is kind of a long post but I think it would help a lot of people out to get all of this information together in one spot so please help me figure this out. Thanks in advance.
I am purchasing a 3.33GHz Hexcore MP, aside from processor stock from Apple. My plans are:
Add 2x 4GB RAM to 2 of the 3 orig. 1GB chips, for a theoretical 10GB (for now) Is this feasible/advantageous?
2x 50GB OWC Mercury Pro RE SSDs as RAID-0, boot volume, in 2nd optical bay. The catch is I'd really like to keep the std. optical drive functional in the first bay.
4x 1TB 7200 drives in HD bays, two RAID-0 arrays, second as mirror of first.
So here are my series of questions:
1 - How can I hook up the 2 SSDs in the second bay as far as SATA/power are concerned. I do not want to hook them up externally and want a good fast pipeline for them, yet I do not want to disconnect the stock optical drive. Do I need any additional hardware/cables for an internal connection? I've also heard of a sort of hardware RAID enclosure that houses the two SSDs in the optical drive, occupying only one SATA/power connection and sharing it between the two of them. Does anyone know any specific products, and is the performance as good as two dedicated SATA connections?
2 - using Disk Utility (or similar), can the second RAID-0 2TB HDD set mirror the first, like two RAID-0s nested in a fat RAID-1, or, in a pinch, is Time Machine or cloning the way to go for redundancy there? The idea here is to not buy the RAID card.
3 - Can I partition a RAID-0 stripe or is that just a bad idea? The idea is to partition off space on the two RAID-0 HDD sets to mirror the SSD set (thus cloning the boot drive), plus a small partition for a windows VM. Any better ideas how to accomplish redundancy for the boot volume and isolation for a Bootcamp/VM partition?
I know this is a lot and may seem rather amateurish, but I'd really appreciate some help here. I'd like to get this ball rolling! Thanks in advance for your replies!
Steve

What are some of the 'other things' you refer to in this area that would yield a greater payback?
• The biggest payback comes from having a separate System/Applications/Paging drive, by moving the Users folder off it completely.
When you are running a program, it will read a User file, execute a little, then move into an area of the program or System that is not currently resident in RAM memory. This requires an access to the System Drive, to get a part of the program, a part of the System, or a part of a Paging file. Each access to the System/Applications/Paging area or drive takes longer because the arm was positioned to read the User file, and has to seek a long way to get to the System etc. area.
Each time you access System stuff, this moves the arm away from your User input file, and the next User read will take longer because the drive arm has to be moved back to the User file.
Separating System/Applications/Paging onto a separate drive from all User files speeds up everything you do.
• If this drive is fast, that is better.
Access time on a spinning disk varies varies, but it is commonly 10 to 20 milliseconds. It consists of seek time (time to move the arm to the track desired and verify that it has arrived at the proper track) and rotational latency (average time for the platter to spin around so that the required block is under the read/write head).
At 7200 RPM, (120 spins/sec) one full spin takes 8.3 milliseconds, and half that amount is about 4.2 milliseconds. At 10,000 RPM, (166.6 spins/sec) one full spin takes only about 6 Milliseconds, and half that is only 3 milliseconds.
A drive with a faster seek time, a higher RPM rate (which indirectly gives a faster transfer time), and a larger cache (approximately in that order) will speed up your System/Applications/Paging drive and make your Mac seem faster. For example, using a small 10,000 RPM Velociraptor instead of a 1TB 7200 RPM WD Black is snappier overall. It seeks faster and is spinning faster so the arm is positioned faster, the data get into read position faster (on average) and once reading has begun, the data are presented to the drive cache faster.
Access time plus transfer time is usually dead time, in that little else can proceed until the data transfer is complete.
• If this drive is a \[no seek time, no rotational latency, fast transfer rate] SSD, that is Much better.
An SSD eliminate both seek time (positioning the arm to the track) and rotational latency (time waiting for the disc to spin around to the right block to be read) and substitutes a miniscule (by comparison) read time. Once reading has begun, a huge block of data is immediately available for transfer, so the effective data transfer rate is also much higher.
• If this drive is an SSD Striped RAID, that is marginally better still, because it increases the effective transfer time.
But the access time, the Big Boat-Anchor in this process, was almost eliminated by using the FIRST SSD. None of the typical seek-time and rotational latency gains of RAID-ing spinning disks are recovered by RAID-ing SSDs. The transfer rate is increased, often nearly doubled, but that is the smallest part of the delays caused by disk accessing.

Mid 2007 iMac SSD in optical bay - cannot write to last block of device

Hi All,
I've just replaced my optical drive in my 20" mid 2007 iMac (Dual core, 2.4 Ghz, 2 Gb RAM running Mavericks) with a solid state drive (Crucial MX100). The plan is to transfer my boot disk to this drive while keeping my 1 Tb HDD for media and such.
I followed the ifixit guide and it all went smoothly, however when I try to partition or erase the new SSD using Disk Utility, it tells me "Operation failed - cannot write to last block of the device". After googling, I found some answers here that suggested the optical bay cable may be faulty, so I bought a replacement and swapped it in, but no such luck, same problem. I also saw some threads suggesting that the boot disk should be in the original hard drive spot, but since this isn't the boot disk (yet) this shouldn't be the issue.
My computer recognizes the new SSD but won't allow me to partition it. Any suggestions on how to proceed?
Thanks!

ds store wrote:
3. The new disk is just bad.
OK. If that's the case, I'll just get another disk.
Lots of problems with that hybrid drives on Mac's on these forums, get another one that's 7,200 RPM and from Western Digital, not Seagate.
With a 7,200 RPM you get more performance across the entire drive, not just what's cached in the small flash portion of the hybrid.
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents#/
1. Hybrid drives: I'm on number 8 in 6 different machines, no problems at all, what happens when you try?
2. The OP is not using a Hybrid.
3. Lot's of problems with WD drives not booting on these forums though.

Optical bay hard drive ide to sata for tecra a2-s336

hello guys, i have a question, i buy a optical bay hard drive for mi laptop but in the screen i got a error "ide1=error" but my computer does not recognize the disk you buy 160GB sata in windows if it recognizes the adapter but not the hard drive any suggestions

http://forum.notebookreview.com/toshiba/589654-guide-replacing-optical-drive-bay-portege-r835-p56x-h...
http://forum.notebookreview.com/toshiba/591240-another-guide-install-ssd-replace-odd-hdd-portege-r83...

Possible to put two or more 3.5 SATA drives in optical bay of early 2008 mac pro?

Hello! A question about expansion really. Here is my iexpansion plan. Wondering if you can see any possible problems?
drive bay 1 - SSD - raid with drive 2
drive bay 2 - SSD - raid with drive 1
These will make the boot drive.
Then...
drive bay 3 - 3.5" sata - raid with drive 4
drive bay 4 - 3.5" sata - raid with drive 3
Two extra internal eSATA ports being extended out with wires to an empty PCI slot, leading to two external 3.5" drives in eSATA interfaced, self-powered enclosures.
Optical Bay - Removing the two currently installed optical drives and replacing with two 3.5" SATA drives. In order to do this I'll need to get some form of ATAPI to SATA adapter as my early 2008 macpro uses the older interface.
So my question is:
Can you see any reason why this would not work and if you can point me towards an adapter that might work for holding/converting the interface of those two 3.5" drives in the optical bay? Will there be enough space for the adapter? I'll probably rig my own bracket for holding the drives there but any suggestions welcome!
Will power become an issue? I'm also running a flashed PC graphics card which uses both of the additional power ports (rather than just one). But other than that nothing extra.
Many thanks for your time!

Hi Hatter,
Thanks for your reply. I'm not so worried about the SSDs as I am about the ability to put 2x3.5" SATA drives into the optical bay and have them fit (I do not want to pay a lot of money for any fancy pieces of metal such as the one you linked) when they necessary PATA-SATA adapter and power supply adapter if attached to them. Have you ever seen someone do this and what adatper did they use? I'm looking at this sort of thing:
http://www.cooldrives.com/satoidecofor.html
I can not put the SSDs in the Optical bay because the slower PATA interface would cut the speed so much it would not be worth it.
Any tips on known reports of 2x 3.5" drives fitting in there would be great, and what adapter was used.
Thanks!

SSD in optical bay - unable to write/format! Pls help!

About one year ago, I swapped my macbook pro 17" HD for an SSD, then formatted the original HD, and placed it into the optical bay to use as a secondary drive. Although this has worked well and my applications have been booting blazing fast, I was recently told that having the SSD as a secondary drive and applications on the standard HD (in other words, the opposite of what i have now) would help video editing speeds (given that the video files would be on the SSD drive).
So now I cloned the SSD back onto an HD, swapped the two so that the HD is now in the original slot and the SSD in the optical bay. The computer starts fine and all, but the SSD drive will not let me write anything to it. When I try to add a file to it, I get:
Then when I click authenticate and type my password, I get:
I then tried erasing the drive using disk utility but got this:
Finally, I removed the drive from the optical bay, mounted it externally with a firewire g-drive mobile, and formatted with disk utility. I then mounted it back into the optical bay and Im getting the same issue.
Everything works well and the SSD shows up on the desktop, etc, but I just can't write any files to it. How do I fix this?

I've researched this a bit and Ive read something along these lines in several places:
The optibay is limited to SATA II. The general consensus on this forum is to move the SSD to the primary bay and the HDD to the optibay.
Could that be the problem? If I swap the HD and SSD around, would it solve the problem?

SSD Will Not Format in Optical Bay? (Early 2011 MBP, Lion, Samsung SSD)

Computer Specs:
Early 2011 17 Inch MBP
2.3 GHZ Intel Core i7
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1024 MB
Mac OS X Lion 10.7.4 (11E53)
Serial-ATA Device Tree:
-Intel 6 Series Chipset
-- Product - 6 series chipset
-- link speed - 6 gigabit
-- negotiated link speed - 3 gbit
-Intel 6 Series Chipset
-- Product - 6 series chipset
-- link speed - 6 gigabit
-- negotiated link speed - 6 gigabit
Hard Drive Specs
Samsung SSD 830 (MZ-7PC512N)
512 GB
SATA 6 Gb/S
Optical Bay Drive Holder Specs
MCZ Tech OptiBay
http://www.mcetech.com/optibay/
Problem:
When I install my SSD in the Optical Bay, I'm unable to format and use the drive.
I have two of these SSD's and I plan to copy my existing MBP hard drive to one of the SSD's and then run two 512 GB SSD's in my MBP.
The SSD comes with a USB cable so I tested both drives with the cable. I can format both drives. Move files around. Restart and they still work.
I started by putting one of the SSD's in the Optical bay to test it out. When I restart it says the drive needs to be initialized, even though it already was. If I try to format the drive it gets half way and just sits there without doing anything. I've let it sit for quite some time and nothing happens. If I keep retrying eventually I can get the drive to format and work. I can move files too and from the drive but when I restart the computer, the drive is gone and needs to be initalized again.
I found Samsung has updated firmware so I had a coworker update the drives on his PC as that's the only way to do it.
I then installed the drive back in my MBP and I have the same issue with the drive not initializing properly. This is true for both drives I own and I have not tried moving the SSD to the primary HD bay. I checked the OS X Software update and I'm all up to date as far as I'm aware. I do not know how to check my MBP Firmware and I'm not sure if this is something I need to do.
Has anyone experienced this issue and have any solutions?

I have a similar scenario. While waiting for my optical bay to arrive I installed the SSD in the primary HDD bay, formatted it, installed OS X Lion, etc. It was working great. When the bay arrive I moved it over to that and I was no longer able to boot from the SSD. Just had the spining progress wheel under the Apple logo on boot. I booted to my previous HDD via a USB enclosure and I could see the SSD and read files from it but cannot format it or install OS X on it. I've had the following errors at various steps...
Can't download the additinoal components needed to install Mac OS X
... when booted into the Recovery HD to resinstall OS X on the SSD
Volume Erase failed with the error : File system formatter failed.
... when trying to format the SSD in the optical bay via Disk Utility
Partition failed with the error: Wiping volume data to prevent future accidental probing failed
... when trying to partition the SSD in the optical bay via Disk Utility
Some "-254" error
... when trying to partition the SSD in the optical bay via Disk Utility
Has anyone solved this with the SSD in the optical bay? I would prefer to keep the SSD (with the OS) there rather than trusting my data drive in it.

Setting up OSX after installing a new SSD and moving HDD to optical bay

Hey all,
I know there are a tonne of other posts similar to this one in here, but I couldn't find the specific answers I was looking for.
Soon I'm going to remove my optical bay and put my current HDD in it's place, and install a brand new SSD where the original HDD once was. I'm comfortable with the hardware installation but am wary about what to expect on first power up afterwards.
I would like to ideally run OSX Mavericks and all of my apps (everything from Notepad to Premiere Pro) from the SSD, and leave all of my data on the HDD. I have an early 2011 13" Macbook Pro, model number A1278.
- When I first turn the computer on after the hardware switcheroo, what can I expect to see? How do I re-install OSX Mavericks onto the new drive? Am I right in thinking that Mavericks is merely an upgrade rather than a whole new OSX and that I will need to install Lion and then upgrade to Mavericks rather than just reboot immediately to Mavericks?
- How can I then remove Mavericks from the original HDD?
- Exactly which files do I need to move to completely relocate the apps to the new drive? Is it as simple as moving the entire applications folder over, or are there hidden files dotted all over the place that I need to consider also?
Thanks in advance,
Adam

Adam,
if your current HDD is a SATA III (6.0 Gb/s maximum throughput) drive, then you might find that you’ll have problems with it in the Optibay position. If this is the case, you’d probably be better off putting your SATA III drive into an external enclosure, and purchasing a SATA II (3.0 Gb/s maximum) drive to install in the Optibay.
If you have a SATA-to-USB or SATA-to-FireWire adapter, you can connect your SSD externally and format it with Disk Utility. After that, you could use a cloning utility to copy the contents of your internal HDD to your SSD (presuming that the SSD is at least as large as the amount of space currently used on your internal HDD), and then boot from the external SSD using Startup Manager to make sure that everything works well on it; that will save you from having to make sure that all of the scattered hidden files have been migrated. Once you’ve confirmed that your apps run well from the SSD, you can then install the SSD and move the HDD to wherever it’s going. An advantage of keeping Mavericks on your HDD is that you can boot from it if needed, e.g. should your SSD develop a problem.

MacPro RAID Card - working with SSDs in 2nd optical bay?

I am planning to get a MP wit the Apple RAID card in order to configure 4 internal HDs as a RAID5. Does anyone have experience whether this setup would be compatible with one (or two) additional SSDs (boot drive) which will be connected via the 2nd optical bay.
Does this work at all - I understand the RAID card changes from SATA to SAS ports. I am not interested to include the SSDs in the RAID setup but would like to know whether this would work at all or whether I should better plan without the RAID card.
Thanks
Tobias

I am planning to get a MP wit the Apple RAID card in order to configure 4 internal HDs as a RAID5. Does anyone have experience whether this setup would be compatible with one (or two) additional SSDs (boot drive) which will be connected via the 2nd optical bay.
Does this work at all - I understand the RAID card changes from SATA to SAS ports. I am not interested to include the SSDs in the RAID setup but would like to know whether this would work at all or whether I should better plan without the RAID card.
Thanks
Tobias

SSD in Optical Bay is not working in a Macbook Pro 15" 2012.

Can anyone tell me what can be the problem ? At the beginning I could use the SSD from the Optical Bay to read but not to write. Also was impossible to unmount it. I finally wiped it out with the OCZ TOOLBOX and I updated the firmware, but after that was impossible to create any partition. I removed the SSD form the Optical Bay and I moved it back in the 1st bay. Everything is working fine when is connected in the 1st bay. I finally formated the SSD and I put it back in the optical bay, but I still have the same issue, I can't unmount it or format it and I can only read from the SSD. Have in mind that my OS is running from a different SSD.What can I do with it ?
Many thanks.

MacBook Pro / Mozilla Firefox / Netflix / Silverlight Update solved - DON'T DWNLOAD FROM NETFLIX
I solved this problem tonight. I have a MacBook Pro with 10.5.8. I know, it's old. But I love my Netflix and I recently noticed that Firefox plays Netflix much better. Then I suddenly got this message that I needed to download the latest Silverlight - it only takes 30 seconds! - WRONG. However, after much searching, I finally did the steps in order and it worked.
This was after repeatedly downloading Silverlight from the Netflix site without success. So here's what I did:
1. Went to http://www.microsoft.com/getsilverlight/Get-Started/Install/Default.aspx
2. Followed the directions. I felt like such an idiot for not doing it right before.
3. Go to your hard drive and search for "Silverlight" to locate ANY existing Silverlight files: .dmg, etc.
[also check your Libary/ Internet Plug-ins, but the above search is faster]
4. Drag it all to the trash and empty it.
5. Go back to the Get Silverlight page and click on the Install on that page, not the Netflix site.
6. Note the steps for Safari or Mozilla Firefox - I wanted Firefox, so I follwed those instructions.
7. Once it's installed, close all the browsers and Restart that bad boy. Right away.
8. Open a browser, go to Netflix and proceed to joyfully rot your brain with Netflix content. Yay!

I installed an SSD in my optical bay, is it possible to install Windows 8 in that drive?

[15" late 2011 MBP with preinstalled 8GB of RAM and 128GB of SSD]
To the goddesses of this community:
Here's the deal. Although I love OS X, but let's be realistic, there are some softwares out there only run on Windows
Therefore, I am planning to buy an OCZ Vector 256GB SSD, transfer the OS X and all other files from the preinstalled 125GB SSD to the new OCZ Vector SSD.
Then, install the new OCZ SSD in the hard drive bay.
After that, wipe my old 128GB SSD, swap out my optical drive and install my old 128GB SSD in its place.
Here's the critical part: I plan to install Windows 8 on my 128GB SSD which is currently empty and sitting in the optical bay.
I have read some past posts saying it is not possible since 1. Boot Camp only allows Windows to be installed in the same SSD OS X is installed in. 2. You can not install Windows using Boot Camp Assistant without an internal optical drive.
I wish to know it the above infomation is still true. If not, how to install Windows 8 in my new SSD?
Thank you very much!

A couple of things to note - first, you can't use Boot Camp to install Win8 on any drive except yoru start-up drive. Second, you'd want the SSD to be in the main HD bay, not the optical bay, if you plan to use it as a bootable OS X device.
Clinton

Better to use optical bay or drive bay for SSD?

Just bought a mid-2012 MacPro. Also purchased a Crucial 512GB SSD drive, which I intend to use for a boot drive. I know that I can install the drive in one of the four slide out drive bays. From what I can gather, it doesn't matter which bay I use, Mac will boot equally well from any of them. My question is: What about the second optical bay? Is there any advantage to putting the SSD there? (other than keeping another slot open for HDD?) Have tried to research this a bit, but the model is brand-new, not a lot of info out there.. Mucho thanks!

The model is not "new" it is just a tiny change in processor options, everything else is unchanged.
To use in standard bays you need to use an adapter to fit. If you put it in the optical bay if you are like me, it will get moved, put on its side, so again, might want to 'tie it down."
But it doesn't matter which location.
With 512GB you probably are going to use it for much more than just the boot drive. Maybe Aperture or other libraries.
As for research, there are products and reviews and Mac centric sites such as
http://www.macperformanceguide.com - click on Articles & Topics

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???

***Performance of SSD: Optical Bay vs. SATA

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