Let’s review which ports you are using here. The drive your system currently has is being held in the optical drive bay and the 2nd drive you are attempting to install is being mounted in the original HD bay.
So why would the optical drive bay be used instead of the original HD bay? Someone clearly had an issue with the HD bay. So instead of fixing the issue it had they got (had) an optical drive adapter to house the drive in the optical bay.
So we need to first figure out what the problem is with the original HD bay before we can address the drive its self.
I’m suspecting the HD SATA cable was giving them a hard time. It was known to be unreliable! Here’s a bit of back ground [https://beetstech.com/blog/prevent-a1278-mid-2012-hard-drive-cable-failure|Your Hard Drive Cable Is A Ticking Time Bomb]. So the first thing is getting a new cable here’s the needed part [product|IF163-041] and you do want to place a stripe of electricians tape on the upper case where the cable crosses over to help protect it from the rough surface as the article explains. Here’s the guide you’ll need to follow [guide|10379]
'''But, there is a second issue here!''' The mishandling of the cable can damage it as well. Sharp bends damage the thin foil wires within it so you don’t want to crease the cable where the cable needs to bend around a corner point instead you want to use an old BIC pen ink straw to use as a bending brake to form a nice even arc not to exceed the straws radius and don’t bend the cable at the drive connector either.
OK so we now have what we need to fix the cable issue, now lets get the drive setup. First the optical drive bay is not the best place for a HDD as unlike the HD bay it doesn’t offer crash guard protection which is when you bang your system causing the drives heads to bang into the platters. Think how an old phonograph player would skip when you banged the table it was on. This is what can lead to a damaged drive. Instead I would put a SSD into the optical bay and put the original HD back into the HD bay as it has the protection logic.
Now which drive should have the OS and apps? The fastest drive is what I would use, so if you put in a SSD then that’s the drive I would use you’ll see a HUGE improvement in performance! Otherwise, look at the spec sheets for your HDD’s which one has the higher RPM (7200) this will access data faster than the slower RPM drive (5400) sadly, not by much as the SSD though [https://pureinfotech.com/difference-5400-7200-rpm-hard-drives/|What’s the difference between 5400 & 7200 RPM Hard Drives]
If you do move the boot drive to the other bay you’ll need to alter the boot disk setting in the preferences. and you’ll need to boot up using the special startup key '''Option (⌥)''' to get to the Startup Manager to select the boot drive for the first time until you alter the preference setting.
Don’t forget! A dual HDD setup is more sensitive! So make sure you you use a sturdy table and shut the system down fully when you move about. As you want to make sure the 2nd drives heads are fully parked before moving
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=== Update (10/23/2020) ===
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Here's what I would do:
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'''Phase-1'''
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1 - Replace the HD SATA cable
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2 - Remove the HDD out of the optical drive frame
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3 - Place the HDD into the HD bay
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4 - Using '''Option''' key as I outlined above select the HDD to boot your system
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5 - Go into the System Preferences set the HDD as the boot drive.
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You should now be working like before!
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'''Phase-2'''
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1 - Install SSD into Optical drive carrier
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2 - Using Disk Utility format the SSD drive using GUID with Journaled File System (HFS+)
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3 - Download a fresh copy of the OS installer
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Here’s a bit more on why you need a new installer [https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/10/24/if-youve-got-an-old-macos-install-image-it-will-probably-stop-working-today|If you've got an old macOS install image, it will probably stop working today]. I would install Sierra as the best OS for your system. While your system can run newer versions there has been issues with them on older SATA based systems as the require using a newer file system which has troubles on SATA drives.
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Here’s a link to the needed OS installer: [https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208202|How to upgrade to macOS Sierra] jump down to Step 4, click on the blue URL link ‘Download macOS Sierra’ then double click on it to decompress the file and then double click on it again to run it! Install the OS onto your SSD.
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Follow the directions to completion, When your system restarts it should be running on the SSD (first listed on the desktop).
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'''Phase-3'''
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1 - Copy anything you want off your HDD onto your SSD. This is your only chance to get anything!
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2 - Use Disk Utility to reformat your HDD like we did before using GUID with Journaled File System (HFS+)
Let’s review which ports you are using here. The drive your system currently has is being held in the optical drive bay and the 2nd drive you are attempting to install is being mounted in the original HD bay.
So why would the optical drive bay be used instead of the original HD bay? Someone clearly had an issue with the HD bay. So instead of fixing the issue it had they got (had) an optical drive adapter to house the drive in the optical bay.
So we need to first figure out what the problem is with the original HD bay before we can address the drive its self.
I’m suspecting the HD SATA cable was giving them a hard time. It was known to be unreliable! Here’s a bit of back ground [https://beetstech.com/blog/prevent-a1278-mid-2012-hard-drive-cable-failure|Your Hard Drive Cable Is A Ticking Time Bomb]. So the first thing is getting a new cable here’s the needed part [product|IF163-041] and you do want to place a stripe of electricians tape on the upper case where the cable crosses over to help protect it from the rough surface as the article explains. Here’s the guide you’ll need to follow [guide|10379]
'''But, there is a second issue here!''' The mishandling of the cable can damage it as well. Sharp bends damage the thin foil wires within it so you don’t want to crease the cable where the cable needs to bend around a corner point instead you want to use an old BIC pen ink straw to use as a bending brake to form a nice even arc not to exceed the straws radius and don’t bend the cable at the drive connector either.
OK so we now have what we need to fix the cable issue, now lets get the drive setup. First the optical drive bay is not the best place for a HDD as unlike the HD bay it doesn’t offer crash guard protection which is when you bang your system causing the drives heads to bang into the platters. Think how an old phonograph player would skip when you banged the table it was on. This is what can lead to a damaged drive. Instead I would put a SSD into the optical bay and put the original HD back into the HD bay as it has the protection logic.
Now which drive should have the OS and apps? The fastest drive is what I would use, so if you put in a SSD then that’s the drive I would use you’ll see a HUGE improvement in performance! Otherwise, look at the spec sheets for your HDD’s which one has the higher RPM (7200) this will access data faster than the slower RPM drive (5400) sadly, not by much as the SSD though [https://pureinfotech.com/difference-5400-7200-rpm-hard-drives/|What’s the difference between 5400 & 7200 RPM Hard Drives]
If you do move the boot drive to the other bay you’ll need to alter the boot disk setting in the preferences. and you’ll need to boot up using the special startup key '''Option (⌥)''' to get to the Startup Manager to select the boot drive for the first time until you alter the preference setting.
Don’t forget! A dual HDD setup is more sensitive! So make sure you you use a study table and shut the system down fully when you move about. As you want to make sure the 2nd drives heads are fully parked before moving
+
Don’t forget! A dual HDD setup is more sensitive! So make sure you you use a sturdy table and shut the system down fully when you move about. As you want to make sure the 2nd drives heads are fully parked before moving
Let’s review which ports you are using here. The drive your system currently has is being held in the optical drive bay and the 2nd drive you are attempting to install is being mounted in the original HD bay.
So why would the optical drive bay be used instead of the original HD bay? Someone clearly had an issue with the HD bay. So instead of fixing the issue it had they got (had) an optical drive adapter to house the drive in the optical bay.
So we need to first figure out what the problem is with the original HD bay before we can address the drive its self.
I’m suspecting the HD SATA cable was giving them a hard time. It was known to be unreliable! Here’s a bit of back ground [https://beetstech.com/blog/prevent-a1278-mid-2012-hard-drive-cable-failure|Your Hard Drive Cable Is A Ticking Time Bomb]. So the first thing is getting a new cable here’s the needed part [product|IF163-041] and you do want to place a stripe of electricians tape on the upper case where the cable crosses over to help protect it from the rough surface as the article explains. Here’s the guide you’ll need to follow [guide|10379]
'''But, there is a second issue here!''' The mishandling of the cable can damage it as well. Sharp bends damage the thin foil wires within it so you don’t want to crease the cable where the cable needs to bend around a corner point instead you want to use an old BIC pen ink straw to use as a bending brake to form a nice even arc not to exceed the straws radius and don’t bend the cable at the drive connector either.
OK so we now have what we need to fix the cable issue, now lets get the drive setup. First the optical drive bay is not the best place for a HDD as unlike the HD bay it doesn’t offer crash guard protection which is when you bang your system causing the drives heads to bang into the platters. Think how an old phonograph player would skip when you banged the table it was on. This is what can lead to a damaged drive. Instead I would put a SSD into the optical bay and put the original HD back into the HD bay as it has the protection logic.
Now which drive should have the OS and apps? The fastest drive is what I would use, so if you put in a SSD then that’s the drive I would use you’ll see a HUGE improvement in performance! Otherwise, look at the spec sheets for your HDD’s which one has the higher RPM (7200) this will access data faster than the slower RPM drive (5400) sadly, not by much as the SSD though [https://pureinfotech.com/difference-5400-7200-rpm-hard-drives/|What’s the difference between 5400 & 7200 RPM Hard Drives]
If you do move the boot drive to the other bay you’ll need to alter the boot disk setting in the preferences. and you’ll need to boot up using the special startup key '''Option (⌥)''' to get to the Startup Manager to select the boot drive for the first time until you alter the preference setting.
Don’t forget! A dual HDD setup is more sensitive! So make sure you you use a study table and shut the system down fully when you move about. As you want to make sure the 2nd drives heads are fully parked before moving
Let’s review which ports you are using here. The drive your system currently has is being held in the optical drive bay and the 2nd drive you are attempting to install is being mounted in the original HD bay.
So why would the optical drive bay be used instead of the original HD bay? Someone clearly had an issue with the HD bay. So instead of fixing the issue it had they got (had) an optical drive adapter to house the drive in the optical bay.
So we need to first figure out what the problem is with the original HD bay before we can address the drive its self.
I’m suspecting the HD SATA cable was giving them a hard time. It was known to be unreliable! Here’s a bit of back ground [https://beetstech.com/blog/prevent-a1278-mid-2012-hard-drive-cable-failure|Your Hard Drive Cable Is A Ticking Time Bomb]. So the first thing is getting a new cable here’s the needed part [product|IF163-041] and you do want to place a stripe of electricians tape on the upper case where the cable crosses over to help protect it from the rough surface as the article explains. Here’s the guide you’ll need to follow [guide|10379]
-
But, there is a second issue here! The mishandling of the cable can damage it as well. Sharp bends damage the thin foil wires within it so you don’t want to crease the cable where the cable needs to bend around a corner point instead you want to use an old BIC pen ink straw to use as a bending brake to form a nice even arc not to exceed the straws radius and don’t bend the cable at the drive connector either.
+
'''But, there is a second issue here!''' The mishandling of the cable can damage it as well. Sharp bends damage the thin foil wires within it so you don’t want to crease the cable where the cable needs to bend around a corner point instead you want to use an old BIC pen ink straw to use as a bending brake to form a nice even arc not to exceed the straws radius and don’t bend the cable at the drive connector either.
OK so we now have what we need to fix the cable issue, now lets get the drive setup. First the optical drive bay is not the best place for a HDD as unlike the HD bay it doesn’t offer crash guard protection which is when you bang your system causing the drives heads to bang into the platters. Think how an old phonograph player would skip when you banged the table it was on. This is what can lead to a damaged drive. Instead I would put a SSD into the optical bay and put the original HD back into the HD bay as it has the protection logic.
Now which drive should have the OS and apps? The fastest drive is what I would use, so if you put in a SSD then that’s the drive I would use you’ll see a HUGE improvement in performance! Otherwise, look at the spec sheets for your HDD’s which one has the higher RPM (7200) this will access data faster than the slower RPM drive (5400) sadly, not by much as the SSD though [https://pureinfotech.com/difference-5400-7200-rpm-hard-drives/|What’s the difference between 5400 & 7200 RPM Hard Drives]
If you do move the boot drive to the other bay you’ll need to alter the boot disk setting in the preferences. and you’ll need to boot up using the special startup key '''Option (⌥)''' to get to the Startup Manager to select the boot drive for the first time until you alter the preference setting.
Let’s review which ports you are using here. The drive your system currently has is being held in the optical drive bay and the 2nd drive you are attempting to install is being mounted in the original HD bay.
So why would the optical drive bay be used instead of the original HD bay? Someone clearly had an issue with the HD bay. So instead of fixing the issue it had they got (had) an optical drive adapter to house the drive in the optical bay.
So we need to first figure out what the problem is with the original HD bay before we can address the drive its self.
-
I’m suspecting the HD SATA cable was giving them a hard time. It was known to be un reliable! Here’s a bit of back ground [https://beetstech.com/blog/prevent-a1278-mid-2012-hard-drive-cable-failure|Your Hard Drive Cable Is A Ticking Time Bomb]. So the first thing is getting a new cable here’s the needed part [product|IF163-041] and you do want to place a stripe of electricians tape on the upper case where the cable crosses over to help protect it from the rough surface as the article explains. Here’s the guide you’ll need to follow [guide|10379]
+
I’m suspecting the HD SATA cable was giving them a hard time. It was known to be unreliable! Here’s a bit of back ground [https://beetstech.com/blog/prevent-a1278-mid-2012-hard-drive-cable-failure|Your Hard Drive Cable Is A Ticking Time Bomb]. So the first thing is getting a new cable here’s the needed part [product|IF163-041] and you do want to place a stripe of electricians tape on the upper case where the cable crosses over to help protect it from the rough surface as the article explains. Here’s the guide you’ll need to follow [guide|10379]
But, there is a second issue here! The mishandling of the cable can damage it as well. Sharp bends damage the thin foil wires within it so you don’t want to crease the cable where the cable needs to bend around a corner point instead you want to use an old BIC pen ink straw to use as a bending brake to form a nice even arc not to exceed the straws radius and don’t bend the cable at the drive connector either.
OK so we now have what we need to fix the cable issue, now lets get the drive setup. First the optical drive bay is not the best place for a HDD as unlike the HD bay it doesn’t offer crash guard protection which is when you bang your system causing the drives heads to bang into the platters. Think how an old phonograph player would skip when you banged the table it was on. This is what can lead to a damaged drive. Instead I would put a SSD into the optical bay and put the original HD back into the HD bay as it has the protection logic.
Now which drive should have the OS and apps? The fastest drive is what I would use, so if you put in a SSD then that’s the drive I would use you’ll see a HUGE improvement in performance! Otherwise, look at the spec sheets for your HDD’s which one has the higher RPM (7200) this will access data faster than the slower RPM drive (5400) sadly, not by much as the SSD though [https://pureinfotech.com/difference-5400-7200-rpm-hard-drives/|What’s the difference between 5400 & 7200 RPM Hard Drives]
If you do move the boot drive to the other bay you’ll need to alter the boot disk setting in the preferences. and you’ll need to boot up using the special startup key '''Option (⌥)''' to get to the Startup Manager to select the boot drive for the first time until you alter the preference setting.
Let’s review which ports you are using here. The drive your system currently has is being held in the optical drive bay and the 2nd drive you are attempting to install is being mounted in the original HD bay.
-
So why would the optical drive bay be used instead of the original HD bay? Someone clearly had an issue with the HD bay. So instead of fixing the issue it had got (had) an optical drive adapter to house the drive in the optical bay.
+
So why would the optical drive bay be used instead of the original HD bay? Someone clearly had an issue with the HD bay. So instead of fixing the issue it had they got (had) an optical drive adapter to house the drive in the optical bay.
So we need to first figure out what the problem is with the original HD bay before we can address the drive its self.
I’m suspecting the HD SATA cable was giving them a hard time. It was known to be un reliable! Here’s a bit of back ground [https://beetstech.com/blog/prevent-a1278-mid-2012-hard-drive-cable-failure|Your Hard Drive Cable Is A Ticking Time Bomb]. So the first thing is getting a new cable here’s the needed part [product|IF163-041] and you do want to place a stripe of electricians tape on the upper case where the cable crosses over to help protect it from the rough surface as the article explains. Here’s the guide you’ll need to follow [guide|10379]
But, there is a second issue here! The mishandling of the cable can damage it as well. Sharp bends damage the thin foil wires within it so you don’t want to crease the cable where the cable needs to bend around a corner point instead you want to use an old BIC pen ink straw to use as a bending brake to form a nice even arc not to exceed the straws radius and don’t bend the cable at the drive connector either.
OK so we now have what we need to fix the cable issue, now lets get the drive setup. First the optical drive bay is not the best place for a HDD as unlike the HD bay it doesn’t offer crash guard protection which is when you bang your system causing the drives heads to bang into the platters. Think how an old phonograph player would skip when you banged the table it was on. This is what can lead to a damaged drive. Instead I would put a SSD into the optical bay and put the original HD back into the HD bay as it has the protection logic.
Now which drive should have the OS and apps? The fastest drive is what I would use, so if you put in a SSD then that’s the drive I would use you’ll see a HUGE improvement in performance! Otherwise, look at the spec sheets for your HDD’s which one has the higher RPM (7200) this will access data faster than the slower RPM drive (5400) sadly, not by much as the SSD though [https://pureinfotech.com/difference-5400-7200-rpm-hard-drives/|What’s the difference between 5400 & 7200 RPM Hard Drives]
If you do move the boot drive to the other bay you’ll need to alter the boot disk setting in the preferences. and you’ll need to boot up using the special startup key '''Option (⌥)''' to get to the Startup Manager to select the boot drive for the first time until you alter the preference setting.
Let’s review which ports you are using here. The drive your system currently has is being held in the optical drive bay and the 2nd drive you are attempting to install is being mounted in the original HD bay.
So why would the optical drive bay be used instead of the original HD bay? Someone clearly had an issue with the HD bay. So instead of fixing the issue it had got (had) an optical drive adapter to house the drive in the optical bay.
So we need to first figure out what the problem is with the original HD bay before we can address the drive its self.
I’m suspecting the HD SATA cable was giving them a hard time. It was known to be un reliable! Here’s a bit of back ground [https://beetstech.com/blog/prevent-a1278-mid-2012-hard-drive-cable-failure|Your Hard Drive Cable Is A Ticking Time Bomb]. So the first thing is getting a new cable here’s the needed part [product|IF163-041] and you do want to place a stripe of electricians tape on the upper case where the cable crosses over to help protect it from the rough surface as the article explains. Here’s the guide you’ll need to follow [guide|10379]
But, there is a second issue here! The mishandling of the cable can damage it as well. Sharp bends damage the thin foil wires within it so you don’t want to crease the cable where the cable needs to bend around a corner point instead you want to use an old BIC pen ink straw to use as a bending brake to form a nice even arc not to exceed the straws radius and don’t bend the cable at the drive connector either.
OK so we now have what we need to fix the cable issue, now lets get the drive setup. First the optical drive bay is not the best place for a HDD as unlike the HD bay it doesn’t offer crash guard protection which is when you bang your system causing the drives heads to bang into the platters. Think how an old phonograph player would skip when you banged the table it was on. This is what can lead to a damaged drive. Instead I would put a SSD into the optical bay and put the original HD back into the HD bay as it has the protection logic.
Now which drive should have the OS and apps? The fastest drive is what I would use, so if you put in a SSD then that’s the drive I would use you’ll see a HUGE improvement in performance! Otherwise, look at the spec sheets for your HDD’s which one has the higher RPM (7200) this will access data faster than the slower RPM drive (5400) sadly, not by much as the SSD though [https://pureinfotech.com/difference-5400-7200-rpm-hard-drives/|What’s the difference between 5400 & 7200 RPM Hard Drives]
If you do move the boot drive to the other bay you’ll need to alter the boot disk setting in the preferences. and you’ll need to boot up using the special startup key '''Option (⌥)''' to get to the Startup Manager to select the boot drive for the first time until you alter the preference setting.
Reference: [https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201255|Mac startup key combinations]