Mid-2012 MBP upgrade to SSD, then partition to run both Mavericks and Catalina

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware

I have a mid 2012 15" MBP (MD103LL/A - MacBookPro9,1) and want to do the following:

1) Upgrade to the fastest SSD it can take. (I believe  it has a SATA interface at 6GBs)

2) Partition the new SSD and install Catalina in one and then backup my existing HD to it.


My questions are:

1) when shopping for a HD, some sites don't list an Apple and PC section, they are all lumped in together. Can I use a SATA (6GBs) SSD if its listed in the PC SSD section?

2) Will my machine take a 2TB drive? (if not, a 1TB is more than enough).

3) Will Mavericks (10.9.5) work with a 2TB drive?

4) What is the fastest SATA drive that will work in my computer?

Software:

1) If I install a new SSD, how do I download Catalina to it if I don't have OSX installed already?

2) How would I install OSX 10.9 5 on the other partition? Does using time machine to transfer my backup to it do this or do I have to i install 10.9.5 first, then back up my old HD to this partition?


Thanks to all who reply.


Comments

  • Reply 1 of 2
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,310moderator
    sc_markt said:

    I have a mid 2012 15" MBP (MD103LL/A - MacBookPro9,1) and want to do the following:

    1) Upgrade to the fastest SSD it can take. (I believe  it has a SATA interface at 6GBs)

    2) Partition the new SSD and install Catalina in one and then backup my existing HD to it.


    My questions are:

    1) when shopping for a HD, some sites don't list an Apple and PC section, they are all lumped in together. Can I use a SATA (6GBs) SSD if its listed in the PC SSD section?

    2) Will my machine take a 2TB drive? (if not, a 1TB is more than enough).

    3) Will Mavericks (10.9.5) work with a 2TB drive?

    4) What is the fastest SATA drive that will work in my computer?

    Software:

    1) If I install a new SSD, how do I download Catalina to it if I don't have OSX installed already?

    2) How would I install OSX 10.9 5 on the other partition? Does using time machine to transfer my backup to it do this or do I have to i install 10.9.5 first, then back up my old HD to this partition?

    Thanks to all who reply.

    You can buy a standard PC SSD, generally stick to the main brands like Samsung, Crucial, WD, SanDisk.

    https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Inch-Internal-MZ-76E2T0B-AM/dp/B0786QNSBD
    https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-MX500-NAND-SATA-Internal/dp/B078C515QL

    The 2TB drive will work fine in your machine. The fastest drive it takes is SATA 6Gbps (which is 750MB/s). In the real-world, they perform around 500MB/s.

    It's best to clone to the drive using software like Carbon Copy Cloner but if you install a bare drive, you can get the system from the network ( http://osxdaily.com/2014/12/14/reinstall-os-x-mac-internet-recovery/ ). Internet recovery is quite slow so use the other methods if possible.

    If you already have Mavericks on the internal, you can use Disk Utility to partition it as GUID partition map and split it into the partitions you want. This can be done by putting the drive into an external enclosure:

    https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Tool-free-Enclosure-Optimized-EC-UASP/dp/B00OJ3UJ2S

    Then you can clone the internal over to each partition or use Time Machine to restore to them. You can test they are bootable by holding alt at startup. Then install the drive and upgrade one partition to Catalina.
  • Reply 2 of 2
    sc_marktsc_markt Posts: 1,401member
    Marvin, thank you so very much! Much appreciated!  : )
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