Replacement optical drive for early 2008 MacBook

I own an early 2008 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 13" MacBook that appears to have developed a fault with the MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857E optical drive.
Unfortunately I am unable to get the optical drive replaced by Apple, as it seems they don't keep the parts for any machine over five years old. So I plan to replace the faulty unit myself. Can anyone recommend a replacement? The UJ-857E model doesn't appear to be available anywhere other than in the United states and then only as a refurbished unit and listed as an 857C which I assume to be from an earlier model.
I was wondering if there might be a more recent equivalent available that I might use instead. There seem to be several UJ-898 models for late 2008 MacBooks available, but I have no idea how much of a change Apple made to the internal configuration from early to late 2008.
Does anyone have any experience of replacing or upgrading their optical drive that they would be willing to share? I plan to follow the IFixit tutorials for the procedure. I just need to know what unit to buy as a replacement.

I would stick to what OWC (macsales) offers.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/superdrive/MacBook_13

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Replacing Display housing for Early 2008 Macbook pro. older housing ok?

Hi guys! i have the newest Penryn Early 2008 Macbook pro 2.6 and have had an accident with the aluminum of the display housing. I am currently trying to find a compatible case to replace it with. I cant seem to find spare display housing that are made particularly for the new macbook pros for some reason =(
I've heard that there are different moulds of the Display housing since there are 3 different manufacturer for the LCD screen? (LG, SAMSUNG,CHIMEI)
Would the display casings of the older Intel Macbook pro work as long as I match the manufacturer? (e.g. if i have the display casing from a samsung early 2008 macbook pro, would this be compatible with the 2006 or 2007 samsung display housing?)
i have found a case for an older samsung http://www.welovemacs.com/9227221.html and chimei here
http://www.welovemacs.com/9227351.html
Please help me out if you have any idea! thanks in advance =)
Message was edited by: wcngu1
Message was edited by: wcngu1

There is a service that I have yet to try but it looks pretty reliable and they service macs in virtually every way possible. Go to macservice.com and just follow the steps and choose what you want to repair. For MacBook pro you an get the display housing replaced for about $200, I know that is a bit steep but it's the easiest way to get it repaired. If you do use it let me know how you liked it.
Message was edited by: CaptainBump

Replacement hard drive for late 2008 Macbook Pro

I need to replace my drive in a late 2008 Macbook Pro 15". I can access the battery and what looks like the hard drive from the underside, if this helps. Would this be a good replacement choice?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136279
Finding exact specs for the drive has been tricky, or maybe I just need to have the physical size verified. What I know/have found is:
5400rpm       (would a 7200rpm improve performance, or am I limited by hardware?)
SATA II        (does this matter tese days?)
2.5" drive   (needs verification)
open drive? (do I need this or not?)
Any other options or advice? I'd like to spend a small amount since this is an older computer and won't be around a whole lot longer anyway. Thanks in advance!

The link you posted above is for a WD drive,....dont get it.   WD drives (some) have SMS sensor coflicts with Mac, and the consumer grade western digital HD are the worst you can buy.
Same as used by Apple below, best option, cheapest price.
best likewise replacement 1TB 9.5mm Toshiba
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Toshiba-1TB-MQ01ABD100-HDKBB96A1A01-2-5-5400RPM-Laptop-N otebook-9-5mm-HDD-/171120091488?pt=US_Internal_Hard_Disk_Drives&hash=item27d78d 6 160
$68
Stockdizzle
I will need to clone the current drive before it fails; is there an article in this forum on that?
Easy, 3 clicks and sit back and let Superduper CLONE your HD.....about 40 mins average.
Superduper is free and most of the pros use it (or carbon copy cloner)
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
See instruction and get software there<     very very easy to do

2nd Optical-Drive for Early 2008 Mac Pro: Suggestions Required

I am hoping to add a second optical-drive to my Early 2008 Mac Pro. I notice that there are various SATA ones available for Early 2009 Mac Pro's onwards (e.g. the LG GH24NS90) but according to OWC (Other World Computing) these ones are apparently unsuitable for earlier Mac Pro's.
The current optical-drive in my Mac Pro is a Sony AD-7170A.
Can anyone suggest a suitable optical-drive that is still available as new (preferably available in the UK).
Thanks,
Yan Lee

The SATA optical drives will work fine in a 2008 Mac Pro. I just installed this model:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136259
I already have a Blu-Ray SATA drive in my other tray, so I've done this a couple of times now.
You have to run a SATA data cable through to one of the two ports on the motherboard - it involves removing the first two drive trays and the front fan. The cable goes up behind the top left corner of the compartment, together with the black cables feeding the optical ATA connectors. You CAN use an L-shaped (90 or 270 degree) SATA cable, but I've found that a regular straight cable works OK too - it is a tight fit behind the fan, but it should fit. The trouble with the L-shape is that it blocks the other SATA port. You can also look for low-profile SATA cables, which have slightly smaller heads.
You'll also need a molex-to-SATA power adaptor. Don't forget to remove the front bezel from the drive - I do this by attaching everything to power, don't slide the optical enclosure back into the space yet, power up the computer, eject the drive using its eject button, and then slide the bezel up and off. You can then slide the enclosure into the space. Turn the computer off to put the fan and drives back in.
Matt

Lion thumb-drive for my 2008 macbook pro WONT INSTALL!!!!!!!!!!

I just bought the $69 Lion thumb-drive for my 2008 macbook pro (still running leopard) and when I insert the drive, the Lion Install screen opens up and it say "You cannot use this version of the application Install Mac OS X Lion with this version of Man OS X."
The Guy at the Apple store said it should just install! I hope somebody can help me through this, I shouldn't have to pay another ******* $30 to run something that was supossed to work in the first place!
< Edited By Host >

Does that mean I will have to re-install all apps? Will I have to do this regardless??
I found this article written before the Apple Lion thumb drive came out and it references the quick but techie way at the bottom of article of altering the file /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist
http://www.macworld.com/article/161087/2011/07/install_lion_over_leopard.html
Will this work?

Average Maximum Cycle Count for Early 2008 MacBook (Black)

I have a black early 2008 MacBook that now in its fourth year, and I have noticed that battery health have started to diminish.
I am wondering what is the maximum battery cycle count for the early 2008 black MacBooks, and if its time to replace it? (I have 250 cycle count, with 78% health remaining)

You can get a new third party battery fairly cheap on eBay. Every MacBook from 2006 through Mid 2009 except the Late 2008 Aluminum Unibody and the Late 2009 and 2010 White Unibodies use the same A1185 battery.
Black Batteries http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=macbook+black+battery&_sacat=0&LH_BIN=1&_sop=12 &_dmpt=Laptop_Batteries&_odkw=macbook+white+battery&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0. m 270.l1313
White Batteries http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=macbook+white+battery&_sacat=0&LH_BIN=1&_sop=12 &_dmpt=Laptop_Batteries&_odkw=macbook+black+battery&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0. m 270.l1313
Or for $129 from The Apple Store http://store.apple.com/us/product/MA566LL/A?mco=MTY3ODQ5OTY

Unable to clone hard drive from early 2008 macbook using disk utility, error 254

Attempting to upgrade my early 2008 Macbook hardrive, currently 160gb to a 250gb drive. Using Mac Disk Utility to restore from drive in computer to the 250 gb drive currently attached via usb. Receiving error, Could not validate source, error 254. I know this process works as I recently upgraded our MacbookPro to 1 TB. The 250gb drive I am attempting to clone to is from that computer. I have formated the 250gb drive, mac osx extended journaled, guid. Not sure how to proceed. Suggestions?

To transfer your current hard drive I like the free application Carbon Copy Cloner. It makes a bootable copy of everything on your hard drive http://www.bombich.com/index.html You'll need a cheap SATA external hard drive case. Put the new drive in the case then format and partition the new drive and clone your old drive to the new one. Check that it's set up right by booting up from the external drive. Then replace your old hard drive with the new one and put your old one in the external case.

Optical drive in early 2008 black MacBook

When I tried to burn anything on DVD (DL) I'm always unable to do it. How can I find out if the optical drive is OK? Is there any software for this situation? Can you recommend me where I can buy a new one or what kind of optical drive will work with my MacBook?

Hey jurajb,
Have you ever been able to burn discs? What error are you seeing?
Look in System Profiler(Applications>Utilities) & click the *Disc Burning* tab on the left-hand side.
Look at *Write Strategies*. You should see something like this:
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw
What's listed for yours?
~Lyssa

Replacement optical drive for '07 20" iMac.

Have a 2007 20" iMac, that was refurbed in 2008, who's optical drive(DVR-K06PD) was making horrible noises. As there seems to be a rather high failure rate with these, thought I'd replace it with something else.
Picked up a Sony AD-7630A after reading that people had success with it. Worked OK...except it wouldn't eject media consistently. Then tried a UJ85C that was available. It worked fine until you put the bezel back on the computer. Then it wouldn't load media unless you pushed it in with something. Even a swift shove wouldn't get it completely past the slot protector.
After a bit of poking around, it seems that only the K06 will work in these iMacs. I did find a repair site that mentioned a UJ-875, but that was the only other one. Hoping someone might know of good replacements. There is not a lot of info out there. Puzzling, as they've been around for a couple of years. Lots of references to the white versions.
Thanks
PS - In researching this, I did come across a blurb from the Apple KB that recommended that these drives only be used in a horizontal position!.

The www.ifixit.com website says that your iMac needs this replacement drive; 12.7 mm PATA 8x Pioneer SuperDrive They list this part number, but I cannot tell if that is Pioneer's number or their in-house number; IF167-005-1. They say that your iMac has different mounting slots and requires this drive to correctly attach to the optical drive bracket.
Dah•veed

Replacement optical drive for late 2009 Mini

I recently purchased a used late 2009 Mac Mini that works great except the optical drive does not read any CD's/ DVD's I have fed into it. I hooked up an external USB drive which reads hem fine, but is not bootable, in case I ever need to reinstall my OS.
Can anyone provide a model # of a reasonability priced internal slot load CD/ DVD reader- writer that is also Mac bootable?

There should be a compatible replacement superdrive-like optical drive
among those listed for Apple Mac Mini from OWC macsales site online.
They also appear to have several other upgrade & replacement parts...
An instruction video (free) can be seen on the bottom of their pages
on how to install optical and hard drives. Or use online iFixit guides.
About USB flash or externalHDD, be sure the HDD or SSD is formatted
to use with GUID and HFS+ Journaled; there may be other details that
need to be readfor these to work. External USB optical drives can be
used with bootable system discs, be sure to check retail seller returns
policy when you get some brand such as LG or other, so you may return
the unit should it not work out for your purposes. Some won't boot OS X.
Good luck & happy computing!

I work for a university and we have a legal apple vendor.Can we re-install macosx for a replacement hard drive for a old macbook?Just one example.

I work for a university and we have a legal apple vendor who we get to buy all our Apple products from.Can we (university) re-install macosx for a replacement hard drive once the hard drive gets replaced? How can we as the university IT department legally re-install macosx on a imac,macbook, macbookair etc. We would like to load customized macosx imaging software onto the mac machines(imac, macbook, etc ). The university has its own IT workshop and we would like our users to get their laptops back in the shortest turnaround time.

We're not "Apple Inc." here, just users like you.
So whatever we say is not an official statement, nor does it in any way, shape, or form represent the official or unofficial policies or opinions of Apple, Inc.
But I'll offer my quick opinion, having worked in information-systems and technology support in a wide variety of environments over many years.
Question #1. "NO!"
No tech support nor repair facility, even if "Apple-authorized", is automatically empowered to install or upgrade OS X on a replacement hard drive just because it is more convenient or time-efficient. When the repair is complete, the student should be expected to (re)install the operating system themself*!
Nurturing students (and occasionally dragging them, screaming and kicking!) as budding computer-, tablet-, smartphone-users to become digitally self-sufficient is a worthy goal that any institution of higher education must pursue.
Making students totally dependent upon "Mother Support" for every little thing about their personal digital devices is a grave disservice to both the students and the people who provide the support. Support-mothered students do become life-long digital dependents, instead of taking the required time to learn enough about the care and feeding of their digital "pets" to sustain them. Entreprenurial students may choose to become 'experts' and actually help each other with their devices, and even make money doing it. Some students may even be inspired/coerced to pursue a career in tech support!!!
*By all means, if the student requests additional help (re-installing the OS), then the University should charge the student a fair price for the service, provided that the user provides the OS on original or upgrade media, or in the case of the 'digital download' upgrades (for OS X 10.7 and 10.8) provides proof of purchase for the OS upgrade, or the original purchase receipt or other recognized documentation for the purchase of the computer showing the version of OS installed when purchased. Students need to learn about personal responsibility, economics ("What is MY time really worth"?), and proper record-keeping too!
Question #2. Regarding the customized imaging software, provide it on media or a link for students to download and install it. Make it their responsibility!
Message was edited by: kostby

External desktop drives for early 2008 Mac Pro: USB 2.0 or 3.0 question

I have an early 2008 Mac Pro 3,1 (OS 10.6.8).
I currently have a 1 TB Fantom Drive with USB 2.0 that I use for the Time Machine. I want to get the second external drive to use as a boot drive so I can install & boot from Mountain Lion to use Maya 2014 3D application software that requires the Mountain Lion OS. For all other applications, I want to stick with Snow Leopard (10.6.8), which works well for me.
Most of the searches I've done for external drives have USB 3.0. Some have USB 3.0/2.0.
Questions:
1. Will one of the USB 3.0-only external drives work with my early 2008 Mac Pro 3,1, which is only equipped for USB 2.0? If so, would I need some sort of adapter? (I realize that the speed would still be USB 2.0 speed.)
2. Or do I need to get the USB 3.0/2.0 external drive (which is more expensive)? I am assuming this would not require any adapter.
3. Will I be able to boot from the external drive with Mountain Lion?
Thanks for any help with this.
S

First, many thanks to both Grant Bennet-Alder and The hatter for their fast responses to my questions. I really appreciate this information. Based on your suggestions I did some research in order to better understand the proposed solutions.
Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:
You can add a PCIe card to get these interfaces:
eSATA
USB-3
1. Does one need to get a separate PCIe card for each interface, or is there one PCIe card for multiple interfaces?
The hatter wrote:
Installing or cloning OS X should be done on SATA II drive bay or external and then moved to the PCIe - depends what card you buy, and some issues are with arrays (no need for system on one).
2. I went to http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_pro/faq/, which says, "By default, a single 3 Gb/s Serial ATA -- sometimes referred to as SATA 2.0 or SATA II -- hard drive is installed in the first of four bays for all models." I interpret that to mean that SATA II is a in the first bay located on my internal hard drive. Can I create a partition here and install Mountain Lion as a separate system, and then move it to a PCIe SSD?
3. Or, can I install it on my external Falcon Drive (which has a Partition Map Scheme : GUID Partition Table, and which, I believe means it is not a bootable drive). Following that installation could I then move it to the PCIe SSD and boot Mountain Lion from there?
4. Or, if partitioning is an option, can I just clone it to the Falcon Drive for backup?
My apologies for my ignorance. This is not my forte. Thanks for any help you can give.

2nd HDD caddy replacing optical drive for HP Pavilion 15-e073ca Notebook PC & Windows 10

Hello ! I am planning to add a SSD to my two-years-old HP Pavilion 15-e073ca Notebook PC. I found on some sites that I can remove the optical drive and put a second drive using a caddy adapter into the optical drive bay. I found that some people on the forum have done it successfully, but nothing about my PC model. I want to know if it could work with my product. In other words, there is my plan:1-Remove the actual HDD from the hard drive bay and replace it with the new SSD.2-Remove the optical drive and replace it with the caddy adapter containing my old HDD.3-Do a clean install of Windows 10 on the SSD, using a USB recovery flash drive made with my actual Windows 10 system (which was updated from Windows 8.1). I am planning to buy the following parts:1- a HDD / SSD caddy adapter for HP Pavilion 15 (model OBHD9-SATA-SATA-BU9), from NewmodeUS (http://www.newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_5&products_id=583)2- a 128 GB SSD drive (item SDSSDHP-128G), from SanDisk (http://www.sandisk.com/products/ssd/sata/ultra-plus/?capacity=128gb) I have some questions before buying the parts:1- Will the two drives (my old HDD and the new SSD) be recognized by the motherboard / BIOS and the operating system (Windows 10)? Is there a limit of one unique HDD/SSD drive on the computer?2- The height of the SSD is 7mm, and it seems that my old HDD is 9.5mm height (model WDC WD10JPVT-60A1YT0). Would it cause any problem (would I need to add spacers)?3- Do these parts work together and with my computer (size, compatibility)? Do you expect any problem with this upgrade?4- Will the clean install of Windows 10 work, since I plan to install it on a different drive than the one I used to create the USB recovery flash drive? I have never done a clean Windows installation before. Thanks in advance for your replies.Haghe

Hi:
Use the W7 32 bit drivers and software from the Probook 450 G2 except the graphics, firmware and BIOS files.
http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/public/readIndex?sp4ts.oid=6943827&swLangOid=8&swEnvOid=4053
Graphics:
First install the Intel chipset installation utility from the above model and reboot.
Second, install the Intel HD graphics driver and reboot.
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=24246
Then install the nVidia graphics driver and reboot.
http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/79892/en-us

Replacement Optical drive for (late) 2006 1.1 Mac Pro

Hi all,
Just a quick one: -
I have bought some new dual layer DVDs - Elite M Ultra Premium - to burn and they are failing on all attempts; with Toast, Disk Utility and on a PC laptop.
It looks likely that I Need a new optical drive, but I am limited in choices as mine is ATA, and a lot of new ones are SATA, so, 2 questions: -
1. Whats the best/most reliable ATA optical drive I can put in my machine?
2. Could I use a SATA one with a conversion or use a SATA lead fed from the motherboard - if one is available?
Many thanks
Barry

Sorry Guys/Gals,
I have a 2006 Mac Pro 1.1, I seem to have posted in the wrong section [Mods, could you move please]?
Thanks so far for the feedback, I may yet go for an external, it's just that I don't have much room on my desk as I have my monitor and printer on it already.
Regards

Buying an external drive for early 2008 imac?

Hi,is there any reasonable way to add external storage to my "legacy" (pre thunderbolt / usb3) imac?
would a firewire hd (assuming one can be found), besides paying a premium for obsolence
involve tossing it out in a year or two, when replacing the imac for a more current model?
on the other hand, would a usb3/thunderbolt drive need some sort of converter (assuming such a thing is around)
to plug into the imacs firewire port, getting you usb2 level performance?
I've seen similar threads on this topic, but not thusly phrased.

For performance, your best bet is a good quality FireWire drive. You didn't say what model iMac you have, but most FW drives have both FW400 and FW800 ports. If you are doing large file transfers, video or just using the drive continuously, FireWire is the way to go. The specs for USB2 would seem to indicate that it's as fast as FireWire, but in real life that's not true.
Here are some suggestions; most come in various capacities. Check B&H Photo, Newegg or other online vendors for good prices & delivery:
Lacie D2 Quadra
G-Tech G-drive or G-Drive mini
OWC Mercury Elite
If you get a new Mac with a Thunderbolt port, you can use the Apple Thunderbolt-Firewire adapter to connect your FireWire drive to your new Mac, so there's no "FW drive obsolescence" in the forseeable future.

Replacement optical drive for early 2008 MacBook

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