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Can I Remove Dead Optical Drive from MacBook?

I have a 2 year old MacBook with a dead optical drive (started rejecting the odd disc, now rejects them all without even spinning). Tried repairing permissions, tried cleaning lens of drive with a cloth around a credit card.

I'm pretty sure it's dead, and since I don't use it that much I'll probably get an external drive. My question is, and forgive me if it sounds silly, but can I remove the dead one and either leave the space empty to reduce the weight, or is there a way to mount another hard drive there?

Thanks!

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Here's a product that lets you mount a hard drive in the optical drive bay:

http://www.mcetech.com/optibay/

Removing the bad optical drive can be done, and the laptop should function fine without the drive. Just go to the iFixit repair section, choose your particular MacBook, and choose the optical drive replacement guide.

It does sound like the drive is bad. When they kick out everything you put in, there's not a lot that can be done.

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Hey, that sounds like what I'm looking for. Do you have any experience with the product?

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I don't personally, but Leo LaPorte, the tech podcaster guy, has the MacBook Pro version, and he seems to like it. There may be other brands of basically the same thing...personally I'd check eBay in order to hopefully find something cheaper.

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As long as it is not used as a mounting point for something else, I guess there is no problem removing the drive. Why don't you try to disconnect it first (power and data) and see if the machine boots and performs still ok?

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Good idea, I can try that. I guess the Bluetooth antenna is mounted on it, but being so small it should go somewhere else easily, I would think?

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Yes, it's got sticky material on the underside, so you can easily just stick it somewhere else, like the inside wall of where the optical used to be.

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