Will a standard MacBook Pro optical-bay HDD caddy fit a non-unibody MacBook Pro?
The optical drive in a non-unibody MacBook Pro uses a PATA interface, so you would need to go with the MCE or iFixit caddy, both of which use an interconnect board to convert from SATA on the HD side to PATA on the logic board side.
The caddy on Amazon needs a SATA connection on the logic board side, so it will only work in a unibody MacBook Pro.
Based on the pictures of that specific drive it will work. It has the screw holes on the sides. You'll need the SATA connector cable from the old drive and the brackets from the old as well.
It will look something like this.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/manwhoyells/6020598352/in/photostream/
iFixIt has a caddie as well.
http://www.ifixit.com/Apple-Parts/9-5-mm-Optical-Bay-SATA-Hard-Drive-Enclosure/IF107-078
After some research, wondering why non-unibody caddies should be 3-to-4 times the price, I found this site, which does an excellent job of explaining why their caddies are good and why you need a pata vs sata caddy for the non-unibody MacBook Pro.
The optical drive has a pin (or PATA interface) at the rear, instead of a card-type (or SATA interface). The enclosures look pretty much the same. Here is an overview of what I found:
- At this time, OWC doesn't offer any non-unibody caddy
- MCE prices theirs at $50 plus about $10 shipping
- ifixit is $60 plus (presumably) shipping,
- and finally this product his total cost is under $50 (including shipping).
After all this research, I think I'm still gonna wait, or look for a PATA interfaced caddy on ebay...
UPDATE: I found a non-unibody MBP drive enclosure on eBay for $12 (including shipping).
If it fits, I'm gone. If it doesn't work, I'll let you know.