hard drive died on my macbook pro 13” mid-2012 model

If you have the mid 2012 (non retina), it is quite easy. I have the same model and I replaced the slow hard drive with an SSD as well as added more RAM. You can find the right parts on this site as well as excellent install videos (make sure this is your model):

https://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/macbookpro-13-unibody-mid12/

Since this model also has exhibited problems with the hard drive cable, get that while you are at it. Ask their sales support about which SSD to get. I got a kit and created a bootable clone of my system, but that may not work if yours is dead.

I am not sure how that will work because the drive needs to be formatted first or you can't boot from it and it needs to have the recovery option on it to boot into recovery. I've always used the method described above, but that is, of course, using a working drive. Do you have another Mac that you could connect in target disk mode and see if you can access the dead drive from there?

Or - and I have not used that method either - you can try to make a bootable USB stick and install the OS on it and use that to install the OS onto the new SSD. Here is some info on that:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

I have the same Macbook Pro mid-2012 13-inch upgraded with 16gb of memory and 500gb SSD.

It is only a dual core i5 CPU but it runs okay. Not a speed burner.

OWC.net has a black friday sale going on right now.

16gb of memory for $75

500gb SSD for $75

NEW battery for $100

So for about $250 you can give your 2012 macbook pro a hardware refresh.

My 2012 Macbook pro with the upgrades runs most apps fine including boot camp Sierra/Windows 10

MS Office 2011, Adobe CS6 suite, etc.

I highly recommend you perform an SSD and ram upgrade if you plan on keeping this macbook.

It is pretty easy to do.

Parts you need.

Carbon copy cloner app ( free trial )

USB sata adapter

16gb ram ( DDR3-12800 )

250gb SSD at least

a small tool kit with T6 and small screw driver.

Steps

1) download and install carbon copy cloner app.

2) connect the SSD to the Macbook using the USB adapter.

3) perform the clone using software.

4) when complete remove SSD and power off your macbook.

5) disconnect and open up the macbook using a small phillips screw driver.

6) replace hard-drive with ssd

7) remove and install new battery

8) install new ram.

9) power on macbook and perform an NVRAM, PRAM and SMC update.

https://www.macworld.com/article/2881177/how-to-reset-your-macs-nvram-pram-and-smc.html

10) You are done , Enjoy. Should last you for another 5 years.

Install the new SSD and cable in the laptop. Boot into Recovery Mode using Command + R which should boot into Internet Recovery Mode for the OS which was most recently installed on the laptop which hopefully will be Sierra. If there is no local recovery partition, then the Command + R combo should default to Internet Recovery Mode. However, sometimes you just never know what you might get regardless of the keys used to enter Internet Recovery Mode.

Once the installer boots you can use Disk Utility to erase the new SSD as GUID partition and MacOs Extended (Journaled).

I've never used TM, but if you can boot a TM backup maybe you can erase the drive before restoring from the TM backup.

babowa wrote:

Thanks for popping in; I was not sure if recovery will work on an unformatted drive, especially since this is an older model and my way is using clones which will bypass most other problems.

A new drive won't have a recovery partition. Also not sure of how using a clone to boot works with the recovery partition.

You're welcome. It has worked for me a couple of times and at one point Apple's documentation did mention this behavior. Unfortunately with some computers you just never know which OS you will get.

A new drive won't have a recovery partition.

I know that.

Also not sure of how using a clone to boot works with the recovery partition.

Of course, a recovery partition has nothing to do with a clone. Booting from an external clone allows you to erase, format, or whatever is needed the internal drive and then simply clone back your entire system. Done.

FWIW, I don't care for recovery. We do not have a blazingly fast connection, so a full installer takes at least an hour to 1.5 hours to download. I find that a waste of time. Additionally, you don't know what you are going to get. I've done quite a bit of testing when they first introduced that with 10.7 and it was a total mess. The mess is somewhat better now, but why bother waiting to download and then install and then port over your files if you can simply clone it back. I'd only use recovery if there is an absolute need - major corruption or such that I can't get it fixed. When the Mojave installer rendered my Mac completely unresponsive - it would not recognize its internal drive, a clone, or any external drive. It would not boot into recovery. For all intents and purposes, it was dead. After various troubleshooting for two days, it finally actually acknowledged my external clone and that saved my .....

I've never used Recovery or Internet Recovery to install MacOS, but I have used it for formatting a new drive. And I've also formatted a new drive with a bootable clone. My big fear with that would be accidental disconnection - especially with the micro-USB connection from many newer external hard drives.

I still have a lot of my stuff from my 2001 iBook 600 through Setup Assistant and clones. I'm on my 3rd drive for my mid-2012 MBP.

However, Recovery/Internet Recovery is certainly a feature that was ahead of its time for people who need to recover when they failed to back up. I've ended up helping my wife get her PC laptop working again, and downloading a Windows 10 ISO image was a huge pain, although I ironically did it on my Mac. And if it's a new machine without an optical drive, it might get interesting. I thought that Microsoft was working on something similar to Internet Recovery.

How will you do a clone when the hard drive is dead/not accessible?

Thanks for popping in; I was not sure if recovery will work on an unformatted drive, especially since this is an older model and my way is using clones which will bypass most other problems.

You are welcome; glad it worked out.