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Mid 2012 model, A1278 / 2.5 GHz i5 or 2.9 GHz i7 processor.

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First time Upgrade difficulty

I have the macbook ( purchased from ebay) and tools. I have purchased a Crucial 500Gb SSD. I wiped current HDD and reinstalled Catalina…..Firstly in preparation I tried to set up a USB installer but have failed. I have tried various methods and I am unable to find the installer in applications. As this will be starting afresh with no data that needs backing up am I overcomplicating things. yesterday I had some v helpful responses regarding how to use the HDD in tandem with the SSD. I was told that it would be better to leave the HDD where it is and install the SSD in the optical drive. Any thoughts and if so how do I manage the 2 drives

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Not sure how you failed in setting up the USB installer. But there might be an easier way for you at this point.

Just pull the HDD out and place the SSD in the HD bay. Restart your system and using Internet recovery install macOS again this time on your SSD. Move the SSD into the optical bay, reinstall your HDD in the HD bay and using the Option (⌥) key select your SSD as the boot drive, then go into your system preferences to alter the Startup Disk setting to the SSD. That will make sure you are booting from the SSD. Now you can reformat your HDD so its fully available as a data drive or leave the system files on it.

Reference: Mac startup key combinations

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7 Comments:

Thanks Dan, me neither. the ssd should arrive tomorrow

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When I switched on for the first time disk utility simply asked which drive I wanted as the start up. Simple. Thanks a lot

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@onions - Don't forget to accept the answer if you're set - Thanks!

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Sorry 1 last question. how do I make the ssd writable as I want to utilise it as much as possible and use the HDD for archiving old files/photos etc

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You'll use Disk Utility to format the drive to GUID and a journaled file system then launch the OS installer you have on the installer drive you setup. Or just go back to the App Store to download the installer again. Or access the installer from here: How to get old versions of macOS

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James will be eternally grateful.
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