Hard Drive Replacement
13" MACBOOK PRO MID 2012 - Version 10.10.5 (14F2511)
Where can I find hard drive info, so I can purchase one for replacement
MacBook Pro, iOS 10.3.3
Question marked as
0023841 wrote:
I'm in the United States. Yes, instructions would be very helpful.
Thank you for all your help
Cool. I make no assumptions because people post here from all over the world. I personally have this one, but there are similar ones to it. I don't necessarily care for Best Buy, but they're everywhere. This particular capacity is only available at Best Buy, and I've seen it in a store, while others may need to be ordered. You don't have to buy from any of these places, but they're just suggestions for what to look for and their approximate prices.
If you want to get a hard drive, my favorite is the 7200 RPM 1 TB HGST Travelstar (the 7K1000). It spins at 7200 RPM rather than the more common 5400 RPM, so it read/writes data faster. I've had two of them over the years (would have been three) and they're a solid performer.
Another possibility is Seagate's FireCuda. It's kind of a hybrid drive with an SSD front end and a hard drive for bulk storage. All data is supposed to be stored on the hard drive portion, but it uses a small SSD to speed up commonly accessed data.
The tools you'll need are a #00 Phillips and a T6 Torx screwdriver. You can find them at specialty electronics stores as well as some hardware/home improvement stores. This kit would have the ones you need:
Husky Precision Screwdriver Set (7-Piece)-67123H - The Home Depot
Whatever drive you get, make sure that it's no thicker than 9.5mm. That's what will fit in the drive bay. Your original drive was probably 7mm thick. As long as it fits in there, it doesn't really matter if it's "too thin" as it's held in place by the drive mounting screws.
Here are the instructions I used. You can also check OWC (Macsales) for their guides. They use a "spudger" to pry off the battery connector, but I've used the screwdriver on a Swiss Army knife. You need to remove 10 screws on the bottom case cover and undo two captive screws on the mounting bracket to pull it off. Once you have the drive connector off, you need to transfer the mounting screws to your new drive. You can also buy those screws. The screws basically become pins to hold the drive in place.
MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Mid 2012 Hard Drive Replacement - iFixit
Most people would use an external enclosure to transfer the data. You have options, but my preferred way is to copy over the data using cloning software (Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper!) from the internal to the external drive. Then once it's cloned, the drive can be tested to see if it properly boots by holding down option during powerup, and then selecting the clone to boot from.
Here are examples of enclosure sold on Amazon:
