macbook slow - new models have same spec

[macbook2012]

Hi everyone, I purchase a mid 2012 macbook pro and it is running extremely slow.

It has to think and lags when I try to do simple tasks like open an excel file and click on a cell.

I am looking to upgrade to the latest macbook pro but when I just saw the specs they are exactly the same as my current 2012 version. That is, 2.9ghz, i7 and 8Gb ram.

Am I missing something? How are the latest versions improved? surely the new macbook will be quicker? I am really confused .

My macs specs are included below:

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012)
Processor - 2.9ghz Intel Core i7
Memory - 8 GB 1600 MHZ DDR3
Startup Disk - Macintosh HD
Graphics - Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB

 

[treekram]

I don't see a 2017 2.9Ghz 13" MBP model. There is a 15" model at 2.9Ghz, but that's a quad-core - all 13" models are dual-core. There was a 2.9Ghz 2016" 13" non-touchbar model which used an i5 processor that was maybe 5-10% faster than the CPU you have on the Geekbench benchmarks. CPU performance for certain years haven't gone up that much and Apple will have processors in differing stages of their lifecycle. Also, there have been better performance increases recently in some of the Intel CPU's. So, the 2017 2.5Ghz i7 non-touchbar 13" model has 25-50% better performance than your model using the Geekbench benchmarks.

CPU performance is just one aspect of performance. There's the GPU, disk, bus, etc. which all affect overall performance.

In your case, if you use an SSD vs. the HDD, you will notice a big performance boost. Your Excel issue could be related to that or perhaps the amount of memory you have - you have to run the Activity Monitor app to find out. A 500GB SSD is $110-$120 for the current Crucial or Samsung models - two of the more well-regarded brands.

Another possibility since you likely bought a used computer is that there's something not working correctly or there's some software issue. More information would be need to narrow down the issue.

 

[macbook2012]

I have just done more research and it appears its a much better move to upgrade my hdd to sdd and 8gb ram to 16. I just want a fast laptop, I dont care about graphics and the extra functions. Would this be a better option than buying the latest 2017 macbook pro and throwing away my one?

There does not seem to be any major change in the latest 2017 macbook relative to my one in terms of processing - my only concern is speed not the size, shape, graphics etc.

This is the latest 13 inch macbook specs

2.3GHz Processor
256GB Storage

• 2.3GHz dual-core 7th-generation Intel Core i5 processor
• Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz
• 8GB 2133MHz LPDDR3 memory
• 256GB SSD storage1
• Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640
• Two Thunderbolt 3 ports

Am I missing something? When I compare to my 2012 model, my one has more ghz, it is i7, also has 8gb

Speed wise, if I upgrade mine to an SSD will it almost be on par with the latest version?

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012)
Processor - 2.9ghz Intel Core i7
Memory - 8 GB 1600 MHZ DDR3
Startup Disk - Macintosh HD
Graphics - Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB

 

[treekram]

The higher the clock speed of a CPU (GHz), the more heat it generates and the more power it takes - very important considerations in a laptop. Thus, Intel looks for other ways to improve the performance of a CPU without increasing the clock speed. YOU CANNOT MEASURE CPU PERFORMANCE BY CLOCK SPEED ALONE. That's what you are missing. As I mentioned in a previous post, the 2.5GHz 2017 13" MBP has 25-50% better CPU peformance measured by Geekbench benchmarks even though it has a slower clock speed.

If you put a SSD in the 2012 MBP, it will be a SATA SSD. The new MBP's use PCIe NVMe SSD's, which is much faster (3-4 times faster using the Blackmagic Speed test). The new MBP's will be faster to boot but after that, if all you do is work with Excel spreadsheets, then you probably won't notice that much of a difference because it may take the SATA SSD .1 second to read/save a file vs. .03 second to read/save a file with the new MBP.

If you have plenty of money, buy the new MBP. But the best approach cost-performance wise is to buy a SSD (buy a new SATA cable as well because they are prone to have problems as they age). Your MBP will not be as fast as the new MBP (there is nothing you can do to make it as fast as a new MBP) but it may be fast enough for you. If you're not happy and decide to buy a new MBP, you can re-use the SATA SSD in an external enclosure - that's why a SSD makes a lot of sense. Check your memory usage using the Activity Monitor app to see if you need more memory. You cannot use any new memory you buy in an MBP newer than the one you have - models after the mid-2012 MBP had RAM soldered to the logic board.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/ht201464

I'll mention it again - the performance issues you are noticing may not be due only to having a HDD vs. a SSD or lack of memory.

 

[macbook2012]

Thanks mate, that was very helpfuL.

I will add the ssd and extra ram and see how it goes.

Apart from the activity monitor check what else can I do see check to see what is causing the delay? Can you direct me to a thread?

 

[treekram]

Thanks mate, that was very helpfuL.

I will add the ssd and extra ram and see how it goes.

Apart from the activity monitor check what else can I do see check to see what is causing the delay? Can you direct me to a thread?

With a SSD, you get good price performance with something like the Crucial MX500 or Samsung 860 Evo. You can get something like the Samsung 860 Pro which has better performance but it cost quite a bit more. There are cheaper models but they're not that much cheaper - for some models from good manufacturers you may spend $10 less but the compromises that are made result in quite a bit less performance - not advisable IMO. Of course this depends on what part of the world you're in.

So if you put the SSD and get the memory or you find that you don't need extra memory and you are still experience lags in performance, I would look at:

- Run in safe mode. This will prevent 3rd-party background programs from starting. If you find that fixes your performance, you will need to stop using whatever program is causing the problem.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262

- When you replace your SSD, check for dust - particularly where the fan is. There's a video at:

You only need to watch the first few minutes. Note that this person makes a mistake regarding the cable which he thinks is the battery cable but isn't so don't disturb what he thinks is the battery cable.

- Check your battery health. Even if you use the computer with AC power, sometimes the MBP will throttle if the battery is not healthy. This is more of an issue with the 15" than the 13".
https://support.apple.com/en-us/ht204054
https://support.apple.com/en-us/ht201585

- Make sure you have the right version of Excel that corresponds with your OS version.

If performance problems still persist after all of this, there may be some other hardware issue that can't be cheaply/easily fixed.

 

[macbook2012]

With a SSD, you get good price performance with something like the Crucial MX500 or Samsung 860 Evo. You can get something like the Samsung 860 Pro which has better performance but it cost quite a bit more. There are cheaper models but they're not that much cheaper - for some models from good manufacturers you may spend $10 less but the compromises that are made result in quite a bit less performance - not advisable IMO. Of course this depends on what part of the world you're in.

So if you put the SSD and get the memory or you find that you don't need extra memory and you are still experience lags in performance, I would look at:

- Run in safe mode. This will prevent 3rd-party background programs from starting. If you find that fixes your performance, you will need to stop using whatever program is causing the problem.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262

- When you replace your SSD, check for dust - particularly where the fan is. There's a video at:

You only need to watch the first few minutes. Note that this person makes a mistake regarding the cable which he thinks is the battery cable but isn't so don't disturb what he thinks is the battery cable.

- Check your battery health. Even if you use the computer with AC power, sometimes the MBP will throttle if the battery is not healthy. This is more of an issue with the 15" than the 13".
https://support.apple.com/en-us/ht204054
https://support.apple.com/en-us/ht201585

- Make sure you have the right version of Excel that corresponds with your OS version.

If performance problems still persist after all of this, there may be some other hardware issue that can't be cheaply/easily fixed.

Thanks - I will be going for the Samsung Evo SSD.

Is there any good ram brand you can recommend or do they all effectively do the same job?

I just want to do this update properly this time round so I minimise having to get further work done?

Also, is £60 to install the ram and ssd a good price? I don't want to do it myself as too much of a risk.,
[doublepost=1529961442][/doublepost]The technician recommended I put my hdd into the cd drive and put the ssd into the slot for the hdd so I get additional space.

Is there a chance this may corrupt and slowdown my laptop even when I am not using the hdd? I understand it will be slow if i try to add files to the hdd or access the hdd just don't want it to slow down the performance while I am using normally with the ssd.

 

[macbook2012]

Also, can the Mid 2012, 13 inch, i7, 2.9ghz macbook take 16gb ram? I was told by the technician it can but when I look online it says it is only configurable to 8gb ram.I currently have 4gb in each slot was planning on buying two 8gb crucial ram

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007B5S...6gb+1600mhz+ddr3&hsa_cr_id=1689161220402&th=1
[doublepost=1529968046][/doublepost]https://support.apple.com/en-gb/ht201165#1

Apple outline the maximum ram for my mid 2012 macbook pro is 8gb

Is that per slot or is the most I can have 4gb per slot?

 

[treekram]

Re: RAM - I buy Crucial (Micron) RAM. It's worked for me and I don't have experience with any other brands. Looking at what Amazon sells here in the US, I see Crucial, Corsair, Patriot, OWC, and no-brand. I wouldn't buy OWC (usually pricey) and other people like Corsair or Patriot. I would avoid the no-brands. If your technician has good experience with a brand and will warranty the work, that's not a bad way to go.

Re: Max RAM. The Apple documents were current when they were first published. Since then, compatible 8GB RAM modules were introduced. I have 16GB in my 2012 MBP without a problem (as do many other people).

Re: moving the HDD to the optical slot. That will work. I have two Samsung 850 Evo's in my 2.5Ghz 2012 13" MBP. The speed they have is not affected to any noticeable extent by them being in there together and running them at the same time as I tested them outside the computer in a USB enclosure running the Blackmagic benchmark (it will run slower in a USB enclosure) and I also run RAID0 which has both of the SSD's running at the same time (running RAID0 isn't helpful unless you have specific use cases - there's a couple of threads in the MBP forum here which I've written posts on). The benchmark when I do RAID0 indicates that both are running at full speed. The design of the 2012 MBP's and the Mini (which shares a lot of the same components) is that there are 2 independent SATA channels on the HM77 chipset which serves as the major "helper" chip for the CPU. The connection between the two are fast enough to handle having two SATA devices running at full speed at the same time. Also having a HDD and a SSD together doesn't slow down the SSD. Maybe if battery life is a major concern you would only have the SSD but there is also an option in the System Preferences to cut power to the HDD when it isn't being used.

In the US, the $ equivalent of 60£ would seem to be high for the RAM+SSD install since they're not particularly difficult to do (I've done both). But if that includes moving the HDD to the optical and the HDD cable is thrown in, that's pretty fair. I've also done the optical move. If the price includes the caddy for the HDD to be placed in the optical slot as well, that's a pretty good price as the caddy also has electronics in it - it's not a simple connector. I'm basing this on what people report they pay here in the US. Oh - and make sure they check for dust in the fan and vents.

 

[macbook2012]

Mate you are a legend! thanks very much
[doublepost=1530048257][/doublepost]https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B015AFUTVY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B078WQL6XF/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007B5S...6gb+1600mhz+ddr3&hsa_cr_id=1689161220402&th=1


I bought these three from amazon. What you think?

Is there anything else i need to buy for the technician to do the installation?

 

[treekram]

With the caddy, the cheaper ones (the one you listed would qualify) either work or they don't. In the reviews I see complaints about it not working vs. something like the OWC Data Doubler. But if they work, it doesn't seem like they develop early-life problems. If it doesn't work, unless your technician will let you bring back another one without extra charge, you might just want to not put it in or try this one yourself - to me it's the easiest of the three to do (RAM, HDD-to-SSD, optical caddy) - but you'd have to make the choice.

It looks like people have used the RAM you listed in the 2012 MBP. Crucial is a bit coy - they'd prefer you buy from their site and they say what they sell (a different Crucial-only part number) is geared towards the Macs but they say the one you have listed will work as well.

The Samsung 860 Pro should last you a long time (much longer than the computer I would guess). I have a 240GB SSD in my 2012 Mini which was used as my primary computer for 3 years - it was on most of the day and I probably had more than the average usage. It has a 90 TBW (terabytes written) rating and I just checked it about a month ago and it was 93% healthy. The 860 Pro (500GB) has a TBW of 600. The TBW typically is directly related to the capacity of the SSD (so the 250GB 860 Pro has a TBW of 300 TBW).

 

[macbook2012]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/owc-data-doubler-vs-generic.1422217/page-2

This thread seems to outline there is no real difference. If it works, should I just leave it or will it cause me some hassles?

You recommend the OWC Data Doubler?

What do yo mean by coy? Is there another ram you would recommend for my mid 2012 macbook?

 

[treekram]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/owc-data-doubler-vs-generic.1422217/page-2

This thread seems to outline there is no real difference. If it works, should I just leave it or will it cause me some hassles?

You recommend the OWC Data Doubler?

What do yo mean by coy? Is there another ram you would recommend for my mid 2012 macbook?

As I mentioned earlier, there is some electronics that's required by the HDD caddy for the optical slot. The electronics would be a chip, maybe a little more. I don't know that the chips are used are any different, but from what I see on the reviews for the generic vs. OWC, I think OWC will test every unit they send out, which doesn't seem to be the case with some of the generics. That's why I mentioned that I think that if you get one that works, it'll probably be OK. I got the OWC and it works fine - I didn't mind paying the extra money for not having to worry about doing a return and waiting for a replacement as that would have held up me using the MBP since I wanted to do the RAID0 thing which requires that you have both SSD's working.

Crucial sells direct and typically I've gone that route when buying memory since usually they'll be little, if any, price difference. A lot of times the part # of the memory they feature (what comes up when you ask for what memory works in a system) isn't the same as what's available from Amazon, etc. which has the same specs. On the Crucial support site, when asked, one answer will be that the memory they sell for Apple systems are somehow different (implying better) than what's available from the outside. Another answer to a similar question is that either the Crucial-sold memory or the Amazon-sold memory will work in an Apple. In that particular answer, Crucial support said if you get memory from an authorized source (like Amazon), it has a lifetime warranty (http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/company-warranty) so no worries - be happy. So to me, the memory is likely the same but Crucial won't admit it - that's what I would consider being coy. The last two times I got Crucial memory for a non-Apple computer, I didn't get it from Crucial because in those two cases, there was more than a few dollar difference in price - again that's not typical.

 

[johannnn]

My 2012 MBP turned into a beast when I upgraded to 16 GB RAM (Crucial "Mac compatible" RAM) and 500GB SSD (Samsung 850). Most important is the SSD upgrade, but getting extra RAM makes it even better.
For RAM, get something that is "Mac compatible", it will save you a lot of time.

 

[macbook2012]

My 2012 MBP turned into a beast when I upgraded to 16 GB RAM (Crucial "Mac compatible" RAM) and 500GB SSD (Samsung 850). Most important is the SSD upgrade, but getting extra RAM makes it even better.
For RAM, get something that is "Mac compatible", it will save you a lot of time.

I had a new samsung 860 pro installed yesterday. However, it kept rebooting back to the hdd which was placed into my optical drive. Or it just wouldnt boot up.

Went back into the shop and it turns out my hdd cable needs replacing. I purchased a new hdd cable and will have the new cable installed tommorow - I will let you all know how it performs.

I also went into the mac genious bar to get an update on my laptop as the technician that installed the ssd outlined the battery had expanded and needs replacing. The genius bar ran their full diagnostics test and said the battery doesnt need replacing but they did note one interesting point.

The mac genius said that theres no point of installing two 8gb as the my mac wont be able to utilise it to its fullest eventhough it can take 16gb ram. Best to just keep the original 4 x2 gb of ram as this will result in the optimal performance. Does this have any merit?

 

[treekram]

I had a new samsung 860 pro installed yesterday. However, it kept rebooting back to the hdd which was placed into my optical drive. Or it just wouldnt boot up.

Went back into the shop and it turns out my hdd cable needs replacing. I purchased a new hdd cable and will have the new cable installed tommorow - I will let you all know how it performs.

I also went into the mac genious bar to get an update on my laptop as the technician that installed the ssd outlined the battery had expanded and needs replacing. The genius bar ran their full diagnostics test and said the battery doesnt need replacing but they did note one interesting point.

The mac genius said that theres no point of installing two 8gb as the my mac wont be able to utilise it to its fullest eventhough it can take 16gb ram. Best to just keep the original 4 x2 gb of ram as this will result in the optimal performance. Does this have any merit?

I mentioned the issue with the HDD cable with these 2012 models.

If the Genius Bar folks said the battery is fine then I would believe them until proven otherwise ... although ... I don't know why they told you that about the memory. It may be the official party line that the model can only support 8GB, but people put and use 16GB in it on regular basis. But - just to make sure - I did the following on my mid-2012 (non-Retina) 13" MBP (mine is 2.5GHz and you have the 2.9GHz which should make no difference): I started up the Activity Monitor app and selected the Memory tab
https://support.apple.com/en-us/ht201464

This says I have 16.00 GB of physical memory. I also started a web app of mine and did a particular action that I know consumes a lot of memory. I then started a bunch of news sites in Safari that have ads and videos that like to play whether or not you want them to and it says I'm using 11.78 GB of memory. The memory pressure is green and I have no compressed files or swap used - which means that the OS doesn't feel it needs to make more drastic optimizations to free up memory. If my system was limited to using only 8GB of memory, the memory pressure would turn yellow or red and I would start to see either compressed memory or swap used. You can try the same thing on your computer but you might have to open a lot of tabs to sites that like to use a lot of memory to get over the 8GB hump. If you can get "Memory Used:" over 8GB and see only green memory pressure and little or no compressed or swap used, then you know it's not limited to 8GB.

If it does turn out that by some fluke you can only use 8GB of memory you can return it to Crucial (or Amazon if you bought it from them) as they say the MBP will support 16GB and it doesn't.

 

[treekram]

I'm going to qualify what I said about the battery. If the Genius Bar folks didn't actually look at the battery, then they wouldn't know if the battery is starting to bulge or not. If the trackpad starts to go wonky, then the battery bulging is a prime suspect. The last time I had a battery start to bulge was some time ago and the trackpad started having problems but as I recall there was a definite shortening of the battery life before that so it may be that Apple feels that a healthy battery shouldn't bulge.

 

[johannnn]

This model has two memory slots capable of taking 204-pin PC3-12800 (1600 MHz) DDR3 SO-DIMM memory chips. Officially (i.e. according to Apple) these models only support 8GB of RAM. However, real world tests have proven that they can actually support 16GB of RAM.

I had a new samsung 860 pro installed yesterday. However, it kept rebooting back to the hdd which was placed into my optical drive. Or it just wouldnt boot up.

Went back into the shop and it turns out my hdd cable needs replacing. I purchased a new hdd cable and will have the new cable installed tommorow - I will let you all know how it performs.

I also went into the mac genious bar to get an update on my laptop as the technician that installed the ssd outlined the battery had expanded and needs replacing. The genius bar ran their full diagnostics test and said the battery doesnt need replacing but they did note one interesting point.

The mac genius said that theres no point of installing two 8gb as the my mac wont be able to utilise it to its fullest eventhough it can take 16gb ram. Best to just keep the original 4 x2 gb of ram as this will result in the optimal performance. Does this have any merit?

 

[macbook2012]

The genius bar didnt say my 2012 2.9ghz 13 inch macbook cant support the ram. He just said no real expodential uplift in performance as cant get full use out of the extra ram.
[doublepost=1530464975][/doublepost]

I'm going to qualify what I said about the battery. If the Genius Bar folks didn't actually look at the battery, then they wouldn't know if the battery is starting to bulge or not. If the trackpad starts to go wonky, then the battery bulging is a prime suspect. The last time I had a battery start to bulge was some time ago and the trackpad started having problems but as I recall there was a definite shortening of the battery life before that so it may be that Apple feels that a healthy battery shouldn't bulge.

He took the laptop to the back and did a full diagnostic test.

HE said he couldnt see any sign of the battery being expanded and that it had only used 600 cycles so was still at 80% capacity. He recommended i do not change the battery.

The technician who installed the ram said the reason for my trackpad being slightly off was because of an expanded battery. The genius bar disagreed with this as his view was an expanded battery shouldnt impact the track pad.

 

[johannnn]

2011 Mac. Check the result for the 500MB file.

8GB is a must, but 16GB is better.
Is 16GB worth the extra money for you? That’s a better question. The more things you upgrade, the closer you get in price to just buy a new machine.

 

[treekram]

Re: battery. Your technician has probably dealt with cases where an expanded battery did affect the trackpad if they have dealt with the 2012 MBP and similar designed models. I haven't experienced it personally since my 2012 MBP was manufactured in late 2015 and the battery is in good health. You can search the web and make an informed decision on the matter. You can also go to the MacBook Pro forum here and start a post stating what the Apple person told you and asking for feedback from people who have had trackpad issues with a battery that has expanded.

Re: memory. You can increase performance by having two modules with matched specs vs. one module or non-matched modules. This performance increase, is probably not noticeable by human observation. Other than that, what you're trying to avoid is running out of memory because that will decrease performance. Back in my post #4, I mentioned the Activity Monitor app and using that to see what your current memory usage is. It is a bit tricky because web browsers can use a lot of memory depending on what site you visit, how the web page is coded (if there's a problem with a web page today, they may fix it or make it even worse a week from now) and how you use the browser (lot of tabs/windows will increase memory usage). So you may look at the memory usage for 3 minutes of your typical usage when you should take a look at the memory usage at multiple times during the day to get a good idea of what your memory usage is. If the memory crunch becomes acute and you start using your disk as an extension of your memory (swap), the performance degradation will likely be noticeable. If your technician charges more for a separate upgrade later vs. having the SSD, optical and memory done together, then you have to make an educated guess. You can change the RAM yourself later but my opinion is that with the mid-2012 13" MBP, and with what you've stated perviously, there can be issues changing the RAM yourself as people have broken the clips which hold the RAM in and the way the modules are situated (one directly above the other) makes it more difficult that the more typical offset placement.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP --

I wouldn't worry about RAM. That's not where "the slowdown" is coming from.

The MAIN PROBLEM you had with speed is the original platter-based hard drive and the internal ribbon cable.

Sounds like you are having those things taken care of right now.

ANY SSD you put in there is going to GREATLY improve performance.
You are going to come back here and tell us you never believed it could run so well.

I would get an external USB3 2.5" enclosure and put the old HDD into it.
It will still run "ok enough" this way (assuming it hasn't failed).
Your best bet would be to ERASE it, and then use it for things like a "cloned backup" (using CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper), or for "extra storage" of stuff that isn't important enough to be kept on the internal drive.

8gb of RAM is probably enough for all but the most "memory-intensive" tasks (such as 4k movie editing or processing large-sized photo files in RAW format).

If the battery has not "started swelling", and its performance remains above, say, 80% of total capacity (use the free app "Coconut battery" to check), I'd leave it in place for now, unless you really want to replace it. But be aware that often "replacement" batteries never seem to "live up to the performance" of original Apple-branded batteries that come with new MBP's.

 

[macbook2012]

Just got laptop back - ITS BLOODY AMAZINGLY QUICK.
[doublepost=1530655488][/doublepost]The technician put the old hdd hard drive in my optical drive.

He told me to go transfer my user file from my hdd to my desktop then go to disk utility and erase the HDD then drag the user drive from my desktop back to the hdd once erased.

When I try to do this it says:

Erasing “old HD” and creating “old HD”

Erase process has failed. Click Done to continue.

Unmounting Logical Volumes
The volume “old HD” on disk2 couldn’t be unmounted
Couldn’t unmount disk.
Operation failed…
[doublepost=1530655582][/doublepost]I have tried picking all the different formats in the drop down list - eg - mac os extended (journaled) but doesnt work.

Is there something I am doing wrong? Is it even necessary to do this step?

Why do I need to erase the hdd then put the data back to it?

 

[treekram]

Just got laptop back - ITS BLOODY AMAZINGLY QUICK.
[doublepost=1530655488][/doublepost]The technician put the old hdd hard drive in my optical drive.

He told me to go transfer my user file from my hdd to my desktop then go to disk utility and erase the HDD then drag the user drive from my desktop back to the hdd once erased.

When I try to do this it says:

Erasing “old HD” and creating “old HD”

Erase process has failed. Click Done to continue.

Unmounting Logical Volumes
The volume “old HD” on disk2 couldn’t be unmounted
Couldn’t unmount disk.
Operation failed…
[doublepost=1530655582][/doublepost]I have tried picking all the different formats in the drop down list - eg - mac os extended (journaled) but doesnt work.

Is there something I am doing wrong? Is it even necessary to do this step?

Why do I need to erase the hdd then put the data back to it?

Your technician probably suggested erasing the old drive because since it was used as a system disk, there's a lot of files on there that you don't need anymore and erasing the entire disk is easier than erasing all of the files. In the Disk Utility app, select the drive you want to erase and see if pressing the "Unmount" button on the top works or not. If it does, the erase should work. I think you'll need to re-mount the disk (not sure if the erase operation will re-mount or not). If it doesn't work, check to see if you have any app that is using something on the HDD that you want to erase. If that doesn't work, try re-starting the computer and go through the steps as the first thing you do after logging in. If it still doesn't work, there may be some startup script that is referencing something on the HDD.

Do you have a backup? If not, you should think about that - you should have at least one backup.

 

[macbook2012]

I did a backup on the time machine on the old hard drive
[doublepost=1530736947][/doublepost]The unmount option didnt work either.

How I check if there may be some startup script that is referencing something on the HDD?
[doublepost=1530737760][/doublepost]Ok so reset laptop and the erase worked.

Can I check:

What is the rationale for transferring my files back to the old hdd.

Can I just leave them on the desktop of my sdd so it is easier to access my files? Or is it recommended to move back to the hdd? I am referring to the user file which I transferred to my desktop on the sdd before I erased the hdd.