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Replacing HDD with SSD and installing macOS on a Mid 2012 MBP Question....

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Scoot65

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 7, 2017
162
74
England, United Kingdom
The internal HDD in my mid 2012 MBP 13" (8GB RAM) appears to have failed (I've since read that it could be the HDD cable), anyway...

I've ordered a Samsung internal SSD which should be arriving tomorrow. I know that replacing the HDD with a SSD is a pretty easy job however I have a question regarding installing macOS on to the SSD.

I have a bootable clone of the internal HDD on an external drive (using Carbon Copy Cloner) and I also have a USB thumb drive with the macOS Sierra installer.

Once the SSD is fitted and I've formatted it what do you guys recommend would be the best way to install macOS Sierra on to it using either the CCC clone or USB stick installer?

Also could you give me the steps needed to do so.

Many Thanks....
 
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Depends how big a pain it would be to reinstall all your programs, restore data that's on the bootable clone etc.

The SSD will mean that your machine will feel a lot faster than it did with the HDD. It will boot much faster, apps will load faster etc. Some apps that previously could have taken several seconds to load will load almost instantly.

How much RAM is in your MBP?

A mid-2012 13" unibody MBP can take up to 16GB (2x8GB) RAM. If you have less than 8GB RAM installed you may wish to upgrade to at least 8GB RAM as well.
 
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Thanks for the reply.

I've got 8GB of RAM (2x4GB) in the MBP. It won't be a major job to reinstall my programs as I've not got many currently installed.
 
There are always some benefits to a clean install as some remnants left behind of deleted apps/old versions of apps etc. won't be there with a clean install.

There is guide to installing off USB here: https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/macos-sierra-clean-install/

You will need to erase the SSD using Disk Utility and format it using Mac OS X Extended Journaled using the GUID partition map so you can install onto it.

If you were to use High Sierra (or later) you would use APFS.

If your system had 10.12.4 (or later) an alternative to the USB would be Internet Recovery. using Option-Command-R on boot to install the latest Mac OS still available for your Mac (see https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT204904)
 
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Having fixed/upgraded a few of the A1278 model MBP's (2009 thru 2012 13 inch MBP), including two of my own 2012 MBP 13's, I would do this simple test. Take the hard drive you removed from the computer, put it in an external usb enclosure, then boot from that external drive. If it works then I would say your internal sata cable is bad and you need to replace it. Personally, I would replace it anyhow, they are only about $8, and you have the computer opened up anyhow.

I have read some forum post where they have replaced the HDD in a perfectly working MBP with an SSD and then the computer did not work correctly. After they replace the sata cable all was fine. The thought was the sata cable was damaged but did not reveal it until the ssd was trying to move a lot more data.

Having an SSD in that computer is a wonderful upgrade, the speed increase is huge. They boot in about 20 seconds.

As for installing the OS, you can install your SSD, boot from the Carbon Copy Cloner cloned drive, format the internal SSD as Mac OS Extended Journaled, and clone external drive to the internal ssd. Then test the internal ssd by booting from it. You do not have to perform a clean install although you can if you want.

This all works if you are using any OS previous to Mojave. If you are using Mojave when you get done you will need to convert the internal OS to the APFS format or you will not get security updates, etc. (I'm not sure about the later versions such as Big Sur)
 
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Thanks justashooter for your post. Great information!

After ordering the SSD I read that the HDD cables can be problematic with age.
I've now ordered a replacement cable and an external enclosure too.

If it turns out that it was just the HDD cable that was bad, then it's no big deal as I will still put the SSD in the MBP and will use the HDD in the external enclosure as a second backup drive / additional storage.

Regarding installing the OS, I'm running Sierra and I've got the CCC Clone drive and USB installer for options I can use. Thanks for confirming the process.
 
I did this a few years ago, same model Macbook Pro. I used the USB installer to get a clean install and copied documents and such afterwards. My HDD cable had already been replaced by then so no need to change that again. I also put in 16Gb of memory and that same Macbook Pro is still running very sweetly as I'm typing this.
 
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Jhieminga said:
I did this a few years ago, same model Macbook Pro. I used the USB installer to get a clean install and copied documents and such afterwards. My HDD cable had already been replaced by then so no need to change that again. I also put in 16Gb of memory and that same Macbook Pro is still running very sweetly as I'm typing this.
Click to expand...
Great to hear that it's running well after all these years. I do love this model MBP, so easy to open up and work on. I'm going to stick with this for as long as I can. It meets my (not very demanding) needs perfectly.
 
OP:

IF you have a recent bootable cloned backup, the easiest way is just to "re-clone" the backup to the SSD.

Try that first. If it works, it works.
If it doesn't, THEN consider "a fresh install".
But I'd try the easy way first.

Since you have a new ribbon cable coming, change that out, too.
Your problem may have been "localized to" the ribbon cable, and the old internal drive may still be ok. Once the SSD is in, you can re-purpose the HDD in the enclosure for whatever you wish.

The 2012 MBP is noted for a problem with the internal drive ribbon cable -- it can get frayed, weakening or breaking one or more of the internal connections. This causes all kinds of problems communicating with the drives. It can make a drive "appear dead" (or unresponsive), even when it's fine -- the lack of communication between the drive and the Mac is the actual problem.
 
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Thanks for the replies.

Yes, the cloned backup was last done a few days ago so is fairly recent. I think I'll do as you suggest and use that to re-clone to the SSD. I wouldn't think that there should by any issues as it's working fine (in fact I'm using the back-up clone as an external bootdrive on the MBP right now as I type).

If it turns out that it was the ribbon cable then that's OK, as all it means is that I'll have got a nice fast SSD in the MBP and have another HDD that can be used externally for storage etc.
 
OK, as an update......

The SSD arrived yesterday so I thought I would try it in my MBP to see if it would work or if there would be problems and therefore definitely a cable issue. Once the SSD was installed it couldn't be seen / recognised (should I have launched disk utility straight away and formatted?) Anyway, after a bit of messing around the SSD was recognised I formatted it in disk utility and was able to clone by backup HDD to the new SSD.

I noticed that I could use the MBP OK, but if I shut it down and then rebooted, I would get a flashing folder / question mark or a circle with a line through it upon startup. After waiting half a minute or so I would get the boot screen / progress bar and then all would be fine. After using it for a while this issue has now gone and the MBP boots up in about 12 seconds.

The HD cable and external HD enclosure arrived today. I put the old HDD spinner in the enclosure, formatted and cloned it. It seems to work fine. In fact I'm using it as the start-up disk as I write this post. So the disk appears to be working fine.

I still think that the HD cable is flaky. I going to use it as it is and if (when) it gives me trouble, I'll replace with the new cable that I now have.

So, at the moment it's a win - win ... I have shiny new SSD in my MBP and have a second back-up clone HDD.


Thanks guys for the help!
 
It's great you have it up and running, but I would replace the sata cable. The cable acting flaky could possible corrupt the connected ssd. One of the explanations I have read for the cause of a failing cable is that it rubs against the inside rough aluminum case and grounds against the case due to the cable being quite thin.
 
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You won't mess up the SSD by changing the cable.
My prediction is that once you change the cable, the problems will disappear and the MBP will run very snappy with the new SSD inside.

BE CAREFUL when removing the old cable from the motherboard connector, and when installing the new one...
 
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Fishrrman said:
You won't mess up the SSD by changing the cable.
My prediction is that once you change the cable, the problems will disappear and the MBP will run very snappy with the new SSD inside.

BE CAREFUL when removing the old cable from the motherboard connector, and when installing the new one...
Click to expand...

All done! Fitted the cable today. Everything went OK and the MBP is up and running now.

Pretty easy job to do, although I as a bit worried when I has bending the cable at the location of the two little screws where the cable drops down the side of the optical drive. I didn't want to bend the cable too much incase I damaged it.
I also used the iFixit pictorial instructions and OWC youtube video as references.

Thanks again for the help guys!
 
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I can't remember where I found it but I reset the NVRAM on my Macbook after swapping the HD for a SSD. There was something about managing the new drive correctly, but I don't know if it made much of a difference.
 
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Jhieminga said:
I can't remember where I found it but I reset the NVRAM on my Macbook after swapping the HD for a SSD. There was something about managing the new drive correctly, but I don't know if it made much of a difference.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the tip. I've also read that TRIM should also be enabled. I don't know how important this is though ?????
 
Ignore TRIM. If your SSD is formatted as APFS, the file system is already optimised (if that's the correct word) for SSDs. AFAIK the TRIM function was a stopgap measure to get SSDs to work better when formatted with a file system that was originally designed for spinning disks.
 
Jhieminga said:
Ignore TRIM. If your SSD is formatted as APFS, the file system is already optimised (if that's the correct word) for SSDs. AFAIK the TRIM function was a stopgap measure to get SSDs to work better when formatted with a file system that was originally designed for spinning disks.
Click to expand...
Actually I formatted the SSD Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and GUID Partition Map as I'm running Sierra........ so does this mean I need to TRIM?

Edit, I've now enabled TRIM
 
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Yes, if you are staying with Sierra, you should enable trim.

FYI, I have been running Mojave on my 2012 MBP 13 quite some time and find it very stable. I would suggest you give it a try.
 
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