SSD question

[bobcat7]

I just picked up a used mid 2012 MacBook Pro with 4 gb ram, i5 cpu and 500 gb hard drive. It is running High Sierra. I have a used Crucial 120 gb SSD that I am considering putting in. Do I need ant special adapters. Thought I read somewhere that you do. This is my first Mac and so far I like it, so would like to learn more. Will also upgrade to 8 gb ram when I can afford it.

Thank you for your input.

 

[keysofanxiety]

Nope, no adapters necessary. Nice and simple with cross-head screws all the way.

You may need a torx screwdriver for the drive screws to hold it in place (you'll see when you take out the old HDD), but that's about it.

 

[Maxx Power]

You do not need anything extra. Since you said 500GB HDD, I assume you have the non-retina version, which implies that your SSD is plug and play.

FYI, since this is an older Macbook Pro and you are going to be opening it, just do yourself a favour and get a can of compressed air to get rid of all the dust that has built up on the heatsink and fan on the inside. Since you are from Saskachestan, why not eh ?

 

[treekram]

If the mid-2012 MBP already has a hard drive in it, you can just plug in the SSD where the HDD is. If you want to use the SSD (or move the HDD) in the optical slot, you need a bracket. You may need to replace the HDD cable as those have been problem-prone. The cable may work with a HDD but not work correctly with a SSD.

 

[bobcat7]

You do not need anything extra. Since you said 500GB HDD, I assume you have the non-retina version, which implies that your SSD is plug and play.

FYI, since this is an older Macbook Pro and you are going to be opening it, just do yourself a favour and get a can of compressed air to get rid of all the dust that has built up on the heatsink and fan on the inside. Since you are from Saskachestan, why not eh ?

Yes it is the 13” non retina version. Thanks fo the tip about the dust.
[doublepost=1520873782][/doublepost]

If the mid-2012 MBP already has a hard drive in it, you can just plug in the SSD where the HDD is. If you want to use the SSD (or move the HDD) in the optical slot, you need a bracket. You may need to replace the HDD cable as those have been problem-prone. The cable may work with a HDD but not work correctly with a SSD.

Yes it already has a HDD that I will clone first. Just replacing the original hard drive, will look at adding another one in the future. Apparently the previous owner just had the cable replaced so hope that will not be an issue.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Once you get it installed and have MacOS up and running, be sure to enable TRIM. If you're going High Sierra, it might even be worth your trouble to skip the conversion to APFS.

 

[bobcat7]

Once you get it installed and have MacOS up and running, be sure to enable TRIM. If you're going High Sierra, it might even be worth your trouble to skip the conversion to APFS.

Thank you, not sure how to enable trim.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Easiest way is in Terminal, "sudo trimforce enable" with no quotes.

 

[AlaskaMoose]

A

Easiest way is in Terminal, "sudo trimforce enable" with no quotes.

Have you heard of any troubles with TRIM on Samsung 850 Evo? I set mine on TRIM, and it seems to be working fine.

 

[JTToft]

A

Have you heard of any troubles with TRIM on Samsung 850 Evo? I set mine on TRIM, and it seems to be working fine.

- There are no issues on most SSDs. Certainly none on the most widely used SSD in the world, the Samsung 850 EVO.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

A

Have you heard of any troubles with TRIM on Samsung 850 Evo? I set mine on TRIM, and it seems to be working fine.

I don't have experience with that drive specifically, but I can tell you I had 2 other SSDs that had no issues with TRIM. In fact, on my SanDisk drive, I had forgotten to enable it, and write speeds were terrible after just 8 months. I enabled TRIM, and I started getting the expected performance again. For some reason Apple is overly cautious about enabling it on third party drives.

 

[Fishrrman]

Congrats on the MacBook.
Here's my advice:

You don't need a special adapter for the SSD.
Just "put it in".

BUT...
I suggest you spend about $12 and get one of these first:
https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-2-5-...478&sr=1-2-spell&keywords=sabremt+usb3+to+ssd
(I have this one, very handy peripheral to have around)

THEN....
Use the adapter/dongle to "prep and test" the SSD BEFORE you open up the MBP to put it inside.

If you do it that way, and something doesn't go quite right, YOU STILL HAVE A WORKING MACBOOK.
You can work on the problem far more easily that way.
After you've got the OS installed and the SSD set up, you can boot from it as well (power down, press power on button, hold down option key continuously until startup manager appears, then select external SSD and hit return)

Also:
Be sure to use THE RIGHT TOOLS for this job.
You'll need a Phillips #00 driver for the screws on the back.
You'll need a TORX T-6 driver for the 4 "busses" on the drive.
Get these online or at hardware stores.

Be aware that the drive ribbon cable in 2012 MBP's can be a "weak point", prone to failure. Yours may be fine for now.

You can either install a clean copy of the OS, or "clone over" the install that's already on the MBP.
IF you want to do a clean install, I suggest that you download the installer app and then use a USB flashdrive (and the free app called "Boot Buddy") to prepare a bootable USB flashdrive installer. Things just go better that way.

If you want to "clone over" what's on the internal HDD now, use CarbonCopyCloner. It's free to download and use for 30 days.

After you do the drive swap, you can use the adapter/dongle to access the old HDD.
Use it as a backup, extra storage, etc.

 

[bobcat7]

Thank you for all the input. I cloned the drive and put it in then decided to put on a fresh copy of High Sierra as I didn’t have anything on it and wanted to make it my own. Everything went well and she seems faster now. I did enable trim. Now to get everything set up and load some programs. Next upgrade will be ro 8 gb. memory.