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can I replace the hard drive on a mid 2012 MacBook Pro?

I just bought a new MacBook Pro. I had a 2010 MBP and kept the hard drive (Hitachi 500gb 7200 rpm) from that computer. It ws running 10.7 and worked fine. It still boots up perfectly on my MacPro so I know it works.

I tried to boot the new MacBook Pro using the old drive but I get a circle with a line through it. I have tried to boot using Firewire and even installed it into the new MacBook Pro. I then tried to re-install OS 10.7. I just downloaded it from the App Store for my MacPro so I tried to use it to re-install. It will not work on this new Macbook Pro. I had to download a version specific to this computer (using the "recover" disk). I takes 1.5 hours to download and then it still didn't work. When the computer reboots after the download and restarts I get the same **** circle with a line through it. The new "manual" is a joke. There is no reference to upgrading drives or memory. Did Apple decide to make their new laptops inaccessible to the owner? I can't find any info online and at the Apple store today they told me they knew of no reason that the drive wouldn't work.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

MacBook Pro, Windows XP

Posted on Jun 18, 2012 8:38 PM

35 replies

Jun 27, 2012 9:26 AM in response to davidfromsummerfield

Didn't you buy a new MBP and want to use your old drive because it is faster?

I didn't know you had issues with your new MBP.

If however, you didn't have any issues with your new MBP and simply want to use your old drive in it because it's faster, then I suggest cloning it with your new MBP.

You have tried everything else so why not try this one?

You have to remember though, anything you have in your faster drive will be wiped out when you do the clone.

Jun 27, 2012 9:42 AM in response to Bimmer 7 Series

Yes I wanted to use the older faster drive. I didn't want to have to set up a new drive. I would have had to set up the new internal drive to clone it to the external drive. It would be easier just to set the old drive up as the internal drive and do nothing with the drive that was in the MBP. No need to clone anything.

The correct answer is that the old drive/system should have been updatable. At the very least there should have been a message stating why the old drive wouldn't work. The Apple store Genii weren't even aware of the issue.

Jun 27, 2012 9:46 AM in response to davidfromsummerfield

See, the issue is not your old drive or the new MB.

The issue is that your old drive might not have the right driver for the new sandy bridge chipset your new MB is using which I why I suggested you clone it.

I'm not quite sure if there is a way around this.

Good luck though, I hope you get it sorted out.

CSerpent

Level 1

22 points

Jun 27, 2012 9:47 AM in response to davidfromsummerfield

Ok, I have the solution - shall post it shortly!

Jun 27, 2012 9:55 AM in response to Bimmer 7 Series

Thanks for the replies.

Mine is up and running fine but I had to update(?) the system using my MacPro because the MBP would allow the reinstall.

I even have BootCamp running now.

CSerpent

Level 1

22 points

Jun 27, 2012 12:19 PM in response to davidfromsummerfield

This is how I fixed it, this scenario is based on an existing MBP 17 and new MBP 13 connected through a FW800 cable.

1) Perform Internet Recovery (Cmd-Opt-R at power on) on the MBP13 existing Lion partition, let it go through to reboot.

2) At reboot, go into target mode on the MBP13, connect the 2 MBPs through FW and power on the MBP17 holding Opt.

3) Boot the Mac OS X Install partition (ie your existing Mac HD partition) and complete Lion setup.

4) Again at reboot, boot your Mac HD partition and run through software update.

5) Power down MBP17 once complete, reboot MBP13 and Mac HD partition should boot.

6) Run Software Update on MBP13 - and you should be complete!

Jul 8, 2012 1:16 PM in response to davidfromsummerfield

I have same problem. What can I do to replace hdd? Now a haven't my older MBP, only HDD

Jul 8, 2012 4:06 PM in response to davidfromsummerfield

David can you go into more detail about how you solved this problem? Cserpent is way too difficult for me. I bought a new 2012 Mbp and wanted to transfer my 750gb hard drive from my mbp2010 and got the same problem u did

Jul 9, 2012 6:54 AM in response to davidfromsummerfield

I'm an administrator for an office with 100 Mac's. I had a user who needed a replacement laptop because of hardware issues. The standard protocol is to swap the HD's from the old MacBookPro8,2 model into the new MacBookPro9,1 model that I just ordered. I do this all the time with other models of MacBookPro's, as it saves me a ton of administration time not having to image or setup a new drive. Plus our drives are bootcamped so I don't have to hassle with cloning or bootcamp setup again.

To my surprise this no longer works. When I boot the new MacBookPro9,1 model I get the circle with a slash. So I tried to boot from one of my 6 different external drives ... none of them boot on this new model.

I made a dmg of the new MacBookPro9,1 model and cloned that to an external drive and booted off of it. That tells me you can boot the new models off external drives and that the ports are working. It also tells me there is a firmware issues preventing existing HD's and external drives from booting the newer MacBookpro's, much the way the first gen MacBookAir's wouldn't boot from external drives because they had a specialized version of the OS installed.

This is going to create a ton of work for me. I now have to create a new image based off this MacBookPro9,1 model. And when I switch users laptops I can no longer swap drives. I'll have to use migration assistant to pull over their mac user account. winclone their current Bootcamp partition. Bootcamp the new drive, and winclone their existing bootcamp partition back over. So from 20 mintues to several hours of transfering and cloning ... I hope to at least find a work around. If I do I'll post it here.

Jul 9, 2012 12:36 PM in response to Mikejonesgr

The way I did the "update" so the old drive would work in the new MBP involves having another computer. It may work with just one but I couldn't get results.

To begin, both drives must be available on the MBP (one installed and one connected by FW).

Startup by holding the option key and then choose the "restore" drive. When you are asked to choose which drive to restore, select your old drive. It will then go through the restore download process.

Once that is complete the computer will restart and try to boot from the old drive to install the updated system. In my case I got the ⊘ again. I then connected that drive to my other computer (MacPro) and again held down the option key to startup. My old drive then showed the "restore" partition as "Install". I selected that and the drive went through the update process and it works fine in either computer now. This wasn't something I planned. I just tried some things that finally worked for me. I have no idea if it will solve anyone else's problem.

When 10.7.5 is released it should make this process simple again because the new version on App Store will then include the drivers for the new laptops.

Good luck.

Jul 11, 2012 12:04 PM in response to davidfromsummerfield

Just tried this solution. Took a while - to download the Lion installer, then run the installer, but it worked like a charm. Thanks!

Jul 13, 2012 4:51 AM in response to davidfromsummerfield

Your data remained on the drive during the restore? Or it's safer back them up on another drive?

I wanna try during the week-end, otherwise my new MBP remains unusable eating for 10.7.5 or Mountain Lion

Tks for your solution

Jul 13, 2012 4:55 AM in response to Mac Frank

My Data was untouched but there was a new "Home" or user folder created on the drive.You can use or delete either one but make sure the one you keep has all your docs, music, etc. I always make a backup using CC Cloner before I do anything global to my drives.

Hope this helps.

Jul 13, 2012 5:00 AM in response to davidfromsummerfield

I have the original hd, a TimeMachine copy and another hd cloned using SuperDuper. Hope it's enough. Tks for yr replay

Jul 14, 2012 2:03 PM in response to davidfromsummerfield

Ok, I did it last night

Download the recovery took about four hours (not very fast connection here ...)

The new install was done via USB because my old MB (first unibody late 2008) has no FW.

Now my old hd is on and works perfectly.

One last question: changing HD Does not invalidate the guarantee?

At the Apple store where I bought it, they say they're not sure user can change HD ...

Reading comments here above it seems possible

Thanks again

can I replace the hard drive on a mid 2012 MacBook Pro?