More advice needed

[alanbmwgs]

I want to upgrade my MacBook Pro mid 12 with a SSD, I think I can do it myself after watching a few YouTube videos. My local Tech guy wanted £170 for the honour My question is if I clone the HDD to The SSD, and it’s not successful, WILL, the HDD still work? Many thanks in advance.

Alan.

 

[tuftywhite]

What I would do, is back up your existing HD to TimeMachine and then you have a back up of the your HD just in case.

You can then install from the TimeMachine disk or your old HD.

Always take a back up if you have anything you don't want to lose.

If in any doubt or you have questions, contact Jon Bradbury at Bramleycomputers.co.uk and he'll guide you or do the whole thing for you. (IIRC cheaper than £170)

 

[CliveS]

Hi
No problem to clone a HDD to an SSD. You won't loose any info on your HDD.
While you have it open upgrade the ram to 16Gb (max) and your OS to High Sierra no higher. I did all this an my 2012 Macbook Pro and it works a treat.

 

[steveC]

Easy to do

Did the same on my 2011 MBP. Didn’t use a time machine back up because it was new to me so had no data to back up.

You will be impressed with the speed improvements. I later updated the RAM from 4 to 8Gb. That produced insignificant performance improvements on the tasks I used it for.

Whilst your in machine check the fan and boards for dust. The thermals will appreciate the increased air flow.

I bought an enclosure for the old HDD and it’s another back up source now. You tube is your friend when doing this.

As for the OS you choose, the APPLE system reads your configuration and will give you the latest it can handle. If your unhappy with that you can downgrade.

 

[Leasouth]

I want to upgrade my MacBook Pro mid 12 with a SSD, I think I can do it myself after watching a few YouTube videos. My local Tech guy wanted £170 for the honour My question is if I clone the HDD to The SSD, and it’s not successful, WILL, the HDD still work? Many thanks in advance.

Alan.

Samsung SSDs come with Samsung's own cloning software that works really well in my experience.
I have a cheap housing that takes HDD and SSD. Put the Samsung cloning software on the computer, follow the software instructions, plug in the housing with SSD and start the program that tells you when the SSD has the OS system and data from the HDD.
Unplug the SSD and your computer is still working same as normal.
The worst bit is opening the laptop case quite often....... finding all the screws and prising the case apart.

You're cloning/copying the HDD not transferring the data from it to the SSD. So your data is still on the HDD
With the back off unplug the HDD and then plug in the SSD and put the back back on. Switch on and BANG it'll be faster than Usain Bolt sprinting for the last bag of MaccyD's McNuggets. You can keep the system on the HDD or reformat it and put it in the housing as a backup storage.

 

[andysdad]

(upgrade) your OS to High Sierra no higher. I did all this an my 2012 Macbook Pro and it works a treat.

You can upgrade to Catalina using the Dosdude1 patch - AFAIK that is the newest. He has not done Big Sur (can't remember why but it is a bad idea apparently). My 2008 MBP (8GB and SSD) runs Catalina fine.

That is not an Apple upgrade - but it works and keeps you up to date on older hardware.

HTH

A

 

[alanbmwgs]

MacBook

Many thanks for all the replies guys, parts on ordered, I’ve already gone 16 gb on the Ram about 6 weeks ago.

Alan.

 

[alanbmwgs]

Thread closed