MacBook Pro 15" Unibody (Mid 2009-Mid 2012) SATA SuperDrive Cable

Mon problème

Before selling my early 2011 15" MacBook Pro I wanted to remove the OWC hard drive caddy and put back the SuperDrive. In the process I lost the SuperDrive cable.

Ma solution

It was easy to reinstall the optical drive. I did learn not to use the screws that came with the optical drive caddy because they are too big and will dent your top case. Oops, lesson learned.

Mon conseil

Always make sure you use the right parts down to the screws.

Mon problème

My secondary internal drive was no longer responding. I noticed that the SATA Super drive cable was broken

Ma solution

I bought a part on iFixit and within 3 days I fixed it.

Mon conseil

Yeah, I fixit is a great resource. They got all the parts, plus STEP by STEP instructions on how to repair things on your own. No more costly Apple repairs.

Mon problème

The Computer: Late 2011 MacBook Pro, 15.4"

The Problem: When I bought the computer, I immediately replaced the SuperDrive with a second hard drive. The Solid State was replaced the original HDD (in the hard drive section) and the original drive replaced the SuperDrive (i.e. CD Drive). All was functional for about a year and a half, up until about a month ago. During some travel, one day, I noticed I was unable to access my music, photos, and documents stored on my HDD, where the SuperDrive used to be. I thought the drive had gone bad, so I worked on replacing it. I tried three different drives from three vendors and got the same error every time I went to initiate and format the drive. After A LOT of research, I saw a forum thread suggesting a cable had gone bad. I moved hard drives around and realized my problem was probably with a pinched/broken SuperDrive Cable.

Ma solution

The repair was simple- Follow the same steps to remove the SuperDrive.

Mon conseil

A few things:

- The SuperDrive cable is FRAGILE and isn't really designed to go through more than a couple of drive pulls/replacement.

- If you're interacting with the cable to replace the SuperDrive with a hard drive carriage, ensure the carriage is properly secured to prevent it from pinching the cable AND the carriage is small.

Mon problème

I was replacing my optical drive with an SSD. In the process I somehow broke this fragile cable. It wasn't immediately obvious as the drive showed up correctly on the first boot, but stopped responding shortly afterwards. I first suspected the drive, but when I swapped the HD and the SSD, the trouble stayed with the cable, so I looked at the comments on people who had done this repair before and saw other people had broken this cable as well. It seemed the obvious suspect.

Ma solution

I had already taken my mac apart a few times in trying to troubleshoot the problem, and my research that led me to suspect this cable, so I took care, replaced it, put it back together and everything was golden.

Mon conseil

I couldn't see any obvious damage to the old cable, nor did I remember doing anything that would have harmed it, so treat it carefully. As the title says, it really is fragile.

Mon problème

I broke the super drive cable when I was installing the original hdd in place of the super drive. I bought a SSD to be my main hard drive. All was going well until the cable tore.

The cable sits in a 90 degree angle and when you pull out the super drive or put the hard drive enclosure down, it can snap...

Ma solution

Easy! I just had to be extra careful seeing that I broke the original one.

Mon conseil

Be very careful with the cable...it is way too fragile and would break at any time

Mon problème

I had installed an OWC Data Doubler in my 2011 MBP and all was fine until the now-external SuperDrive stopped working properly. So I swapped the SuperDrive back into the MBP only it didn't work there either.

I put my HDD back in and THAT didn't work! Something was wrong. Careful inspection revealed the SATA cable had been flexed too much and sustained two cracks, severing a couple of circuits.

Ma solution

Having re-assembled my MBP several times with the various swaps I had done until this point I managed to do the whole operation from memory – being VERY careful with pressure on the new SATA cable. When I put it back together again, the HDD worked. The SuperDrive was still dead, so I ordered a Blu-Ray drive to replace it.

Mon conseil

When the instructions say "fragile" they mean fragile. Take care with that SATA cable!

Mon problème

I accidentally damaged the optical drive cable of Macbook pro 15" when I opened it. I am covered under apple support, but since this is a self-inflicted damage, I didn't expect Apple to replace it for free. I was forced to find the spare part myself which is when I found iFixit.

Ma solution

I searched in iFixit and found an identical spare on it which I ordered. I received the piece in 2 days in Singapore. I replaced it in the Mac and it worked perfectly. The packaging was meticulous and the updates from iFixit with tracking in Fedex were wonderful.

Mon conseil

In future, I will look into iFixit as my first choice of spare parts. I recommend the same to all.