Resolved SSD Install in mid-2012 MBP

[Ace2617]

Hi I have a question about installing an SSD in a mid-2012 Non-Retina MacBook Pro.

I have a full backup of the MacBook Pro, and my plan was to take out the 5400 RPM HDD, install the SSD, then connect my external drive with the Time Machine backup, boot the system and restore from Time Machine.

But I just want to verify that I won't be skipping a step.

How would I go about formatting the SSD once it's installed? When I boot into Recovery Mode, can I go into Disk Utility and format it prior to restoring to Time Machine? As I understand it, I'd go into Disk Utility, format the drive, and then close disk utility. Could I then restore from Time Machine?

Thanks.

 

[Audit13]

Install the SSD, boot into recovery, create partitions, erase, restore from TM. This is exactly what I did for my nephew's mid-2012 MBP 13.

 

[Ace2617]

Install the SSD, boot into recovery, create partitions, erase, restore from TM. This is exactly what I did for my nephew's mid-2012 MBP 13.

Thanks I will follow those steps.

 

[sboychuck]

If you have an external enclosure, you can run CCC and fully copy the entire hard drive onto the new ssd before you even install it. You could also just format it before you install it. I have always formatted them before I installed them, just to make it a bit easier on the initial start-up. Just what I have done, not the only way.

 

[Ace2617]

If you have an external enclosure, you can run CCC and fully copy the entire hard drive onto the new ssd before you even install it. You could also just format it before you install it. I have always formatted them before I installed them, just to make it a bit easier on the initial start-up. Just what I have done, not the only way.

Thanks for your reply. I actually made a thread here a while back seeking opinions on CCC with the idea of doing the upgrade how you described, but at the time I opted against the SSD upgrade for various reasons. But I'm now ready to do it and hope that it helps the MBP for a few more years. Unfortunately, I didn't end up buying an external enclosure so I'll be using Time Machine, but nevertheless I appreciate your suggestion.

 

[sboychuck]

I run Time Machine back-ups on the external that is connected by USB3 cable. I have an HGST 7200 rpm 4TB Deskstar NAS drive in the enclosure. I also have another of the same drive that I do CCC backups once or twice a month, in the event the Time Machine backup gets corrupted. I cannot afford to lose data. Glad all went well.
[doublepost=1493420169][/doublepost]By the way, this is the enclosure I picked up. It is not the most glamorous, but it gets the job done well, and is a USB hub as well.

 

[Ace2617]

Update: I am doing the SSD upgrade, and unfortunately I've run into a problem. I put the SSD in, closed the MacBook, and booted into Recovery. I formatted the SSD, (Partitioned, GUID Partition Table, etc.) named the drive, and erased it.

I plugged my external HDD with Time Machine in, and began the restore process. When restoring, I get the following error message: "An error occurred while adding a recovery system to the destination disk"

The system then reboots, and prompts me to restart the entire process. Anyone know a fix?

Could it be a problem with the Hard Drive cable? Or maybe the SSD is faulty?

Thanks!
[doublepost=1493936901][/doublepost]Anyone seen this error message? I'm not sure what to do. As a last resort, I'd probably put the HDD back in if I had to. But I'd like to get this fixed. Has anyone come across this error?

Another update: I tried to repeat the process, and the MBP wouldn't even boot into recovery mode. So for the moment, I took out the SSD and put the HDD back in. The HDD is working normally, which is good. But if anyone knows a fix, I will try the SSD again, or maybe go to an Apple store.

 

[Audit13]

Which ssd did you get? Did you try using a USB key with MacOS to partition, erase, and install rather than using time machine to restore your OS?

 

[Ace2617]

Which ssd did you get? Did you try using a USB key with MacOS to partition, erase, and install rather than using time machine to restore your OS?

I am using a 500 GB Samsung 850 EVO which I bought about a week ago. I did not try using a USB Key, as I'm not quite sure how.

 

[Audit13]

Did you try doing an internet restore? Start the MBP by pressing Command (⌘) – Option (⌥) – R. This will perform a fresh install over wi-fi. It may take a while, depending on your internet speed. The file size is around 4 GB.

 

[Ace2617]

Did you try doing an internet restore? Start the MBP by pressing Command (⌘) – Option (⌥) – R.

I did not. Later, I will put the SSD back in and try that. I took it out because I seemingly hit a wall, as the MBP told me I needed to visit apple support. But I will put it back in either tonight or tomorrow when I have time and try that.

 

[Audit13]

Which OS is on your MBP?

I used a 120 GB 850 evo in combination with a 500 GB mechanical drive in the DVD bay on a late 2011 13" MBP.

I did a clean install of Sierra from a USB installation key with no problem to confirm that the 850 EVO works in the MBP with Sierra. Then, I booted from the USB key again and restored from a TimeMachine backup of my Sierra OS with office, paragon NTFS for Mac, Acrobat Reader, etc.

 

[Ace2617]

Which OS is on your MBP?

I used a 120 GB 850 evo in combination with a 500 GB mechanical drive in the DVD bay on a late 2011 13" MBP.

I did a clean install of Sierra from a USB installation key with no problem to confirm that the 850 EVO works in the MBP with Sierra. Then, I booted from the USB key again and restored from a TimeMachine backup of my Sierra OS with office, paragon NTFS for Mac, Acrobat Reader, etc.

It is currently on El Cap 10.11.6. I don't have a USB Install key ... can I make one? Or does it need to be purchased?

 

[Audit13]

You can download the Sierra upgrade from the app store. When the upgrade had downloaded, close there app.

To create a USB Sierra installer, do this: http://www.macworld.com/article/309...-a-bootable-macos-sierra-installer-drive.html

 

[Ace2617]

You can download the Sierra upgrade from the app store. When the upgrade had downloaded, close there app.

To create a USB Sierra installer, do this: http://www.macworld.com/article/309...-a-bootable-macos-sierra-installer-drive.html

Thanks I will do that. So would I install the SSD then boot from the USB to get into MacOS? Then I'd be able to restore the files I need off of the time machine backup? Sorry if these are odd questions, I haven't done this process before.

 

[Audit13]

After creating the install USB key, boot from the key and create a time machine backup of the existing drive.

I then recommend doing a fresh install of Sierra to the ssd to ensure that there are no errors during the installation, set up, and use. After using it for about 30 minutes and everything is good, you'll know the ssd works properly.

If everything is running properly on Sierra, you can boot from the install USB and perform a restore from time machine. If it errors out again, it's possible the time machine backup or backup drive is the problem.

 

[Fishrrman]

The problems the OP is experiencing above illustrates why I -ALWAYS- advise someone who is going to upgrade a MacBook to do it the following way instead:

1. Get a 2.5" external USB3 enclosure -- they are dirt cheap.
2. Get CarbonCopyCloner -- free to use for 30 days.
3. Put the new SSD into the EXTERNAL enclosure FIRST.
4. Initialize it using Disk Utility
5. Launch CCC and clone the contents of the internal drive to the external. If you have never used CCC (or SuperDuper), you won't understand how simple and easy this is until you try it for yourself. CCC even clones over the recovery partition for you, sets it up, etc.
6. Now, TEST BOOT the new SSD BEFORE you "do the drive swap". Reboot and hold down the option key until the startup manager appears, and then select the external SSD and hit return.
7. Do you get a "good boot"? Fine, then NOW is the time to shut down and swap the drives around.

When you do it this way, you STILL HAVE A WORKING MACBOOK with which to diagnose any problems along the way.
Put the SSD in first, and if you run into problems, how are you going to fix them? (Unless you have another Mac around).

 

[Audit13]

If you put the original drive into a USB enclosure, couldn't the Mac still boot using the original drive in the enclosure?

 

[Ace2617]

The problems the OP is experiencing above illustrates why I -ALWAYS- advise someone who is going to upgrade a MacBook to do it the following way instead:

1. Get a 2.5" external USB3 enclosure -- they are dirt cheap.
2. Get CarbonCopyCloner -- free to use for 30 days.
3. Put the new SSD into the EXTERNAL enclosure FIRST.
4. Initialize it using Disk Utility
5. Launch CCC and clone the contents of the internal drive to the external. If you have never used CCC (or SuperDuper), you won't understand how simple and easy this is until you try it for yourself. CCC even clones over the recovery partition for you, sets it up, etc.
6. Now, TEST BOOT the new SSD BEFORE you "do the drive swap". Reboot and hold down the option key until the startup manager appears, and then select the external SSD and hit return.
7. Do you get a "good boot"? Fine, then NOW is the time to shut down and swap the drives around.

When you do it this way, you STILL HAVE A WORKING MACBOOK with which to diagnose any problems along the way.
Put the SSD in first, and if you run into problems, how are you going to fix them? (Unless you have another Mac around).

Hi thanks for your response. After the Time Machine method failed, I decided to use this method.

I had to wait over the weekend for the external enclosure to arrive. I followed the steps and the test boot went fine after cloning the data, so I went ahead and installed the SSD and it is working great. Looking back, I should've just used this method from the beginning.

Thanks for breaking down the steps in order.

 

[Berel]

The problems the OP is experiencing above illustrates why I -ALWAYS- advise someone who is going to upgrade a MacBook to do it the following way instead:

1. Get a 2.5" external USB3 enclosure -- they are dirt cheap.
2. Get CarbonCopyCloner -- free to use for 30 days.
3. Put the new SSD into the EXTERNAL enclosure FIRST.
4. Initialize it using Disk Utility
5. Launch CCC and clone the contents of the internal drive to the external. If you have never used CCC (or SuperDuper), you won't understand how simple and easy this is until you try it for yourself. CCC even clones over the recovery partition for you, sets it up, etc.
6. Now, TEST BOOT the new SSD BEFORE you "do the drive swap". Reboot and hold down the option key until the startup manager appears, and then select the external SSD and hit return.
7. Do you get a "good boot"? Fine, then NOW is the time to shut down and swap the drives around.

When you do it this way, you STILL HAVE A WORKING MACBOOK with which to diagnose any problems along the way.
Put the SSD in first, and if you run into problems, how are you going to fix them? (Unless you have another Mac around).

I tried this method and it worked til step 7. The boot was good when I had the SSD in the enclosure but when I swapped it around it didn't want to start up to the normal login. Hitting cmd R didn't do anything as well.

What should I do?

 

[Audit13]

I tried this method and it worked til step 7. The boot was good when I had the SSD in the enclosure but when I swapped it around it didn't want to start up to the normal login. Hitting cmd R didn't do anything as well.

What should I do?

What's happening at boot up? Does it boot with the original drive? Possibly a bad internal sata hard drive cable?

 

[Berel]

What's happening at boot up? Does it boot with the original drive? Possibly a bad internal sata hard drive cable?

A few things happened in the mean time.

First it worked perfectly via the enclosure. Super fast, I opened a few heavy applications like Logic X and it was super smooth and fast. Then I shut down the macbook and put the SSD inside. First I saw a white screen with a block sign. Restarted it a few times and the 3rd time it worked after seeing the block symbol/screen again. I don't know if it was because I was waiting for a few minutes or because I pressed cmd R.
Logged in but I couldn't use any applications. No internet browser, logic or app store, nothing...

I put the HD back in and tried the SSD external. It started up etc. But then I still couldn't use any applications anymore. I saw it literally removing all the symbols. Then it said I couldn't open the application because it might be damaged (or incomplete I thought).

So I switched back to the HD and everything is working, pfew. I am definitely going to buy a new drive cable just to make sure. But I think its weird that it was working before...

 

[Audit13]

A failing drive cable is not uncommon in the Macbook pro.

I have replaced three such cables using third party replacements from Amazon.

 

[Berel]

I will definitely do that.

Also tried it once more using the SSD with the enclosure. The pictures show what's happening.

 

[Audit13]

Wow, weird. I've never seen that before.