How to fix a MacBook Pro with a failing SMART???
how do I fix this problem??
MacBook Pro
Question marked as
Since this laptop is actually using a hard drive, you can actually replace the hard drive yourself. It would be best to replace the hard drive with an SSD upgrade which will help to increase performance of the laptop. Only you can decide whether it is worth spending money on such an old laptop. OWC sells SSD upgrades for Apple laptops and provides installation videos as well on the product pages for your laptop. With some laptops (especially the MBPro 13" Mid-2012 model) the hard drive SATA Cable may need to be replaced if you have issues with the new SSD.
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc
Since you posted in the macOS Mavericks forum, your laptop can at least run up to macOS 10.11 El Capitan. Depending on the exact model of the laptop you may even be run even later versions of macOS as well. You can see which versions of macOS are compatible with your Mac using this article:
https://eshop.macsales.com/guides/Mac_OS_X_Compatibility
Keep in mind when replacing the drive, you will need access to a macOS installer. It would be best if you created a bootable macOS USB installer using the instructions in this Apple article:
How to create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support
FYI, if your laptop is able to run much newer versions of macOS, then it may be best to make a USB installer for macOS 10.11 and the later version of macOS as well since the laptop may first need to be updated to macOS 10.11 before going to macOS 10.13 or later (assuming the laptop is compatible).
You definitely want to have a good backup right away since when macOS mentions "SMART status failing", it means the hard drive is usually in really bad shape.
You should always have frequent and regular backups of your computer and all external media (including the cloud) which contains important & unique data.
