Macbook Pro 2012 losing Operating System

[khakiman]

Please advise what would cause my macbook pro 2012 mid year to keep losing the operating system. I'm not sure what is causing it. I have to do restore on it about once a month and reinstall Catalina. It has the original 500GB hard drive and I've updated mem to 8GB about two years ago. It works great when it works and then all of the sudden when I turn it on it gives me the prohibitory sign. Could the logic board cause this or more likely the hard drive? I'm not sure what to try first. Please advise. Thank you.

 

[Fishrrman]

First things first.
Is this a retina or a NON-retina MBP?
The NON-retina has the DVD drive on the right side.

If it's a non-retina, chances are the drive ribbon cable (which connects the internal drive to the motherboard) is getting flaky.

This is a CHEAP and EASY fix.

Go to ifixit.com to see what's involved (again, it's easy).
You'll need a Phillips #00 driver and a Torx T-6 driver.
Both are cheap, in hardware stores or online.

You'll need a replacement ribbon cable.
You can either order it from ifixit, OR, get the part number and order it elsewhere online.

While you have the back off, it might be a good idea to replace the original platter-based hard drive with an SSD.
You'll need a 2.5" SATA SSD, any will do, I like Crucial and Sandisk.

If you decide to upgrade to an SSD, I suggest you also get one of these:

SABRENT 2.5 Inch SATA to USB 3.0 Tool Free External Hard Drive Enclosure [Optimized for SSD, Support UASP SATA III] Black (EC-UASP)

SABRENT 2.5 Inch SATA to USB 3.0 Tool Free External Hard Drive Enclosure [Optimized for SSD, Support UASP SATA III] Black (EC-UASP)

tinyurl.com

Use it to "prep and test" the new SSD BEFORE you open the MBP.
Then, when you swap the drives, put the old one into the enclosure and use it for a backup or extra storage.

 

[khakiman]

Thank you for the help and information. I have the (Non Retina) Macbook Pro 13". I did have an SSD in it before but had same issues so I went back with the original drive and new ribbon cable. I believe I may have gotten some bad ribbons to begin with now that you think it could be the that. I'll check with a better distributor to see if I can get a better quality one , maybe iFixit. Once again thank you for your time and suggestions.