Chosen Solution
I’m trying to replace my SSD with a Samsung 860 EVO 1TB into my MacBook Pro mid-2012, When I connected it to my system (from a USB to SATA adapter), under disk utility it appeared as “uninitialized” with location as external, connection: USB, partition map: not supported, S.M.A.R.T. Status: not supported. Please help! I just want to replace my SSD to make my Mac faster.
First thing lets get rid of SuperDuper! You don’t need it. Dismount the Disk Image. So I think you’ve got your self confused! The SATA to USB adapter is telling you its an adapter not a real SATA port so it can’t report SMART status as that’s part of the SATA standard not the USB standard. Yes! it’s confusing! But why are you fixated on SMART? Thats has nothing to do with prepping your drive. So let’s work on prepping your drive! Here’s a good guide which gets into it How to format a drive on a Mac But before we get into it we need to talk a bit about macOS’s: macOS Sierra and older require HFS+ (Journaled file system)macOS High Sierra is a bit of an odd duck! If you have a HDD it will use HFS+ if you have a SSD it will convert the file system to APFSmacOS Mojave and newer requires APFS But!! If you currently have an older OS on your system you need to use the upgrade path as besides the file system change your systems firmware also needs updating so it can recognize the newer file system. So you may need to stick with HFS+ if you are planning on using Mojave or newer. Now the Rub! I strongly recommend anyone using a SATA drive stick with Sierra as they are quite a few issues using APFS on SATA drives. If you had a newer PCIe interfaced drive I would only use APFS! So you should stick with HFS+ on your system here. Once you have the drive formatted with GUID/Journaled file system (HFS+), you’ll then need to install the OS. Ideally, you want to setup a bootable OS installer USB thumb drive following this guide: How to create a bootable macOS Sierra installer drive and here’s the needed OS installer file: How to upgrade to macOS Sierra Jump down to Step 4 and click on the Blue URL link labeled: Download macOS Sierra The reason we need this file Vs anything you might already have as the certificates your old file have expired! This one will work unlike your older file If you’ve got an old macOS install image, it will probably stop working today So there’s the full story! But wait! how do I get my stuff from my old drive over?? Very easy you’ll use Migration Assistant here’s a good write up on using it! How to transfer data to your new Mac from your old Mac
