Optical Drive Replacement

Mijn probleem

I had a factory installed 500GB 7200RPM hard drive in my MacBook Pro that I was always having to tidy up to keep from running out of space. I purchased a 1TB 5400RPM external USB 2 drive that I offloaded my iTunes library and digital video to to help, but it was just to slow. When I saw SSD prices dropping, I decided to replace the 500GB drive with a 512GB SSD. Great move, but I was still in the same boat, a slow external drive. A coworker suggested that I replace my optical drive with a kit that would allow me to reuse the 500GB drive I once used as my primary drive. At first, I was reluctant to do it, but as I thought more, I knew I needed to get rid of the external drive and have everything stored on my MacBook Pro. He suggested another kit, but it looked pretty flimsy. When I saw the iFixit kit, I knew that's the one I wanted.

Mijn oplossing

The replacement of the optical drive with the hard drive enclosure was pretty straightforward. Since I had just replaced the factory hard drive with a SSD, I already knew how to open the case. The removal of the optical drive is a little more involved though, the size of the screws can cause some anxiety (see My Advice).

The Airport/Bluetooth assembly was a little tricky to keep out of the way while removing the optical drive. It kept wanting to return to its original position on top of the optical drive, which was kind of annoying.

The hard drive enclosure that I received only had two screw attachments. The optical drive I removed had three. This is not a big deal since everything still worked fine, but was a little unnerving when you are in the middle of doing this and think that something is wrong.

Mijn advies

Since my computer was offline during this upgrade, I used the iFixit iPad app to follow the guide. If you have an iPad, get the app!

I would recommend paying special attention to the tiny screws that are removed during the process. Some of them are so tiny that it can be very easy to lose them.

Carefully follow the instructions in reverse to get things back together. I wish iFixit just tacked the reassembly instructions onto the end of the guides, but I do understand that the logical process is to just go backward and undo what the instructions say.