Chosen Solution

I just recently purchased a used MBP Early 2011 with an SSD drive in it. Heres the info for that: Physical Volumes:disk0s2:Device Name: Samsung SSD 840 EVO 250GBMedia Name: Samsung SSD 840 EVO 250GB MediaSize: 249.2 GB (249,199,591,424 bytes)Medium Type: SSDProtocol: SATAInternal: YesPartition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)Status: OnlineS.M.A.R.T. Status: VerifiedPV UUID: 2F86FB24-0DE2-4DAE-AEDE-DC201298F766 Now, my problem is that I don’t have enough space on this to restore from Time machine backup, so, I’m being told I can add a second hard drive in the space where my optical drive is. Here is that info: HL-DT-ST DVDRW GS31N:Firmware Revision: TA17Interconnect: ATAPIBurn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)Cache: 2048 KBReads DVD: YesCD-Write: -R, -RWDVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RWWrite Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAOMedia: To show the available burn speeds, insert a disc and choose File > Refresh Information So thats where I’m at currently and I’d like to know what kind of hardware I need to add the 2nd hard drive. I would like it to be at least 1 TB drive so I can backup from TM and move forward. Thanks in advance

A. One solution is to add a Tardisk. There is a compatibility app at the bottom of the machine that you can check it with: https://www.tardisk.com B. Get a SSHD 1TB drive instead of the SSD. C. Use your old drive and a SATA to USB adapter. Then use migration assistant to move just the things you need.

Why do you want to add a second drive Vs merely swapping out your current drive with a bigger unit? You have a few issues here which makes adding a HD a bit iffy here: The optical drive SATA port has a known issue. Review the red note here: OWC Data Doubler. So you’ll need to find a fixed SATA II drive which are getting hard to find. It also makes no difference who’s carrier you use the issue is within the logic board.The second issue is only the primary drive bay (HD bay) has crash guard protection so you do run the risk of crashing the drive if you bang the system when its active. If you put in a HD in the optical drive bay. OK, What to do? I would just bite the bullet here and get a bigger SSD or SSHD (hybrid HD) replacing your current SSD drive. If yo want to reuse the old SSD I’d get an external drive case to hold it.