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I am trying to format the 2TB ST2000LM003 HN-M201RAD for use in the optical bay of my MBP 17' Early. I have formatted it several times and used restore from a Thunderbolt external dock and it works fine. As soon as I place it in the optical bay via the OWC Data Doubler, MBP wants to initialize the disk. It show as a master boot and not GUID. I have tried to Partition it with the Disk Utility Mac OS Extended (Journaled) option GUID. It just hangs with the words 'Waiting for disk to reappear'.

Is this a problem the OWC Data Doubler? Or will a 2TB drive not work in the optical bay? Sure DRJG Intel 6 Series Chipset: Vendor: Intel Product: 6 Series Chipset Link Speed: 6 Gigabit Negotiated Link Speed: 6 Gigabit Physical Interconnect: SATA Description: AHCI Version 1.30 Supported ST2000LM003 HN-M201RAD: Capacity: 2 TB (2,000,398,934,016 bytes) Model: ST2000LM003 HN-M201RAD Revision: 2BE10001 Serial Number: S377J9AG901992 Native Command Queuing: Yes Queue Depth: 32 Removable Media: No Detachable Drive: No BSD Name: disk1 Rotational Rate: 5400 Medium Type: Rotational Partition Map Type: MBR (Master Boot Record) S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified Volumes: disk1s1: Capacity: 2 TB (2,000,398,933,504 bytes) BSD Name: disk1s1 Content: 0xEE. Sadly, your system is unable to support your. You see your system is running at a I/O speed thats between SATA II (3.0 Gb/s) & SATA III (6.0 Gb/s). If you reference the OWC Data Doubler doc.

Owc Data Doubler Optical Bay Hard Drive/ssd Mounting Solution

Slide down to the red statement: Testing has demonstrated that Apple factory hardware does not reliably support a 6G (6Gb/s) Solid State Drive or Hard Disk Drive in the optical bay of 2011 MacBook Pros (ModeI ID8,1; 8,2; 8,3). If your OWC Data Doubler bundle comes with a 6G drive, you should ONLY install that drive in the main drive bay and utilize the Data Doubler to re-task your existing drive or install a new 3G SSD or HDD in the optical bay. PRE-2011 models can utilize a 6G drive in the optical bay, but will do so at a reduced 3G (3Gb/s) speed. Now if we look at the spec sheet from EveryMac you see your system is a MacBookPro8,3 system. You'll need to get a fixed SATA II (3.0 Gb/s) drive if you can find one, sorry they only go up to 1 TB.

Thanks I am aware of the disclaimer. Back in 2013 when is bought it, I put the original Apple 750 GB Toshiba in this bay after I replaced it with a Crucial M4 SSD 512 GB in the main bay. It has worked fine up to now and just wanted to increase my second drive space. With the Toshiba in the optical I did get 6 Gb/s link speed and negotiated link speed when I looked at the system info. What does concern me that when I looked at the 2TB via Disk Utility, Partition Map Type came up as MBR and not GUID. Do you know the terminal commands to format a drive as OS Extended (Journaled) GUID?

Thanks for the info and help Dan. I learnt a lesson here.

I have put a 1 TB Toshiba drive and it mounted straight away. At least I gained 250 GB. I always use Disk Utility but trust you that it won't make any difference. My next step was to replace the Crucial 512GB with a Samsung 850 EVO or Pro 2TB SSD in the main slot as I use this laptop a lot for video editing. Not sure now. I saw an interesting comparison earlier today between putting a SSD in the Computer and then placing it in an External Thunderbolt 2 dock and the rad speeds where almost the same. Internal still slightly better.

If you interested I can send you the link. Once again Thanks for your help.