Problem with Internal disk on MacBook Pro 1425 (RD, 2012-2013)

Hi!

A couple of weeks ago I decided to change the internal disc of my MacBook pro when I open it to clean the connection of the trackpad which was having some issues. I saw that the replacement was easy, and decided to go for it.

So I bought an 500GB M2 SATA disc, an WD, this one: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B073SBX6TY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_i_276NW7V8V7QP0VWSN70V?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

I also bought an adaptator for it and go for the change. And then began my problem. When I swapped the disk, I started the MacBook pushing the keys for recovery options and it start without problems to the menu, but when I go to "Disk Utilities" i didn't find any disk, only the Mac rescue image.

I remember that some tutorials recommend to disconnect the battery so I opened the macbook again, disconnected the battery and tried again. Same result. I become a little bit frustrated and swapped back the original drive in the macbook. The result: Question Folder. Started again the recovery menu and went to Disk Utilities and the original drive was not there.

The MacBook seems to not be able to recognize any disk at all so I started to think that te problem was with the flex cable to the motherboard. I ordered a new one on AliExpress.

Yesterday I received the flex cable and started the process all over again. I can't manage to install any internal disk, so I have now a useless MacBook.

In case this info can help anything, when I put an external HDD or SD, the disk utility do find those. Maybe an extreme solution could be to install macOs on any external device or SD, and set it always there, but first I wish to try all the options and check if I I'm missing something.

I decided to swap disk because some years ago I changed the nvme disk for my brothers MacBook Pro Retina from 2013-2014. The method was different from mine, but wasn't very difficult.

Any help?

Thanks a lot in advance!

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jul 6, 2021 10:05 AM

Top-ranking reply

HWTech

Level 9

68,516 points

Posted on Jul 7, 2021 4:01 PM

If you are using an NMVe SSD, then you need to have already installed macOS 10.13+ while still using the original Apple SSD as a system firmware update is required before an NVMe SSD is even seen by macOS. You will also be restricted to installing & using macOS 10.13+ on an NVMe SSD since macOS requires an NVMe driver only available with macOS 10.13+.

It is also possible the SSD adapter you are using is not compatible. I've seen several recent posts on these forums where the SSD adapter used was at fault. It seems most users have the best success with using a Sintech SSD adapter.

You should definitely replace the swollen battery otherwise more damage can occur to the laptop and Trackpad. The swollen battery will only get worse as long as it is connected to the Logic Board and to power.

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Problem with Internal disk on MacBook Pro 1425 (RD, 2012-2013)

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