[econgeeker]

This is what I've been expecting. I used to think I was unique, but looking at the forums, I realize there's a whole cadre of people who buy MacBook Pros, take out the optical drive, and replace it with an SSD, so they run with both an SSD and a hard drive. The SSD runs the OS and has your code and apps on it, the hard drive has your Big Media.

I hope, when Apple gives up the optical media drive, they will still continue to have a hard drive slot.

I'd much rather just buy the machine configured this way from Apple than have to rework the internals of my laptop (And undo everything if I have to take the machine in for support.)

[jamesteow]

No you're definitely not alone.

Most of the people I know in the tech and creative industries rarely use their optical drive, downloading instead and viewing media through consoles/players connected to their TV.

I assume that they won't have the extra hard drive slot because the majority of consumers don't need to have two hard drives. But I'd be happy if Apple proved me wrong because that's exactly what I'd like.

[xentronium]

> they will still continue to have a hard drive slot.

Not gonna happen. Even if they decide to save the current form-factor, they will fill the empty space with something actually useful, like battery.

[jodrellblank]

Like the way they filled the original iPad with batteries and didn't leave empty space?

http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/pp43/zuo_2008/07393211888...

[lukifer]

I do this also, and I would be pretty miffed if it becomes impossible in the future to buy a new MBP without two drive bays.