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Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

22

Time Required

                          10 - 30 minutes

Sections

5

  • Lower Case
  • 2 steps
  • Battery Connection
  • 2 steps
  • Optical Drive
  • 11 steps
  • Optical Drive
  • 1 step
  • Dual Hard Drive
  • 6 steps

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  • BackMacBook Pro 13" Unibody Mid 2012

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Introduction

What you need

Step 1

              Lower Case
  • Remove the following ten screws:
  • Three 14.4 mm Phillips #00 screws
  • Three 3.5 mm Phillips #00 screws
  • Four 3.5 mm shouldered Phillips #00 screws
  • When replacing the small screws, align them perpendicular to the slight curvature of the case (they don’t go straight down).

Remove the following ten screws:

Three 14.4 mm Phillips #00 screws

Three 3.5 mm Phillips #00 screws

Four 3.5 mm shouldered Phillips #00 screws

When replacing the small screws, align them perpendicular to the slight curvature of the case (they don’t go straight down).

1024

Step 2

  • Use your fingers to pry the lower case away from the body of the MacBook near the vent.
  • Remove the lower case.

Use your fingers to pry the lower case away from the body of the MacBook near the vent.

Remove the lower case.

Step 3

              Battery Connection
  • Use the edge of a spudger to pry the battery connector upwards from its socket on the logic board.
  • It is useful to pry upward on both short sides of the connector to “walk” it out of its socket. Be careful with the corners of the connectors, they can be easily broken off.

Use the edge of a spudger to pry the battery connector upwards from its socket on the logic board.

It is useful to pry upward on both short sides of the connector to “walk” it out of its socket. Be careful with the corners of the connectors, they can be easily broken off.

Step 4

  • Bend the battery cable slightly away from its socket on the logic board so it does not accidentally connect itself while you work.

Bend the battery cable slightly away from its socket on the logic board so it does not accidentally connect itself while you work.

Step 5

              Optical Drive
  • Use the flat end of a spudger to pry the AirPort/Bluetooth ribbon cable connector up from its socket on the logic board.

Use the flat end of a spudger to pry the AirPort/Bluetooth ribbon cable connector up from its socket on the logic board.

Step 6

Carefully pull the camera cable out of its socket on the logic board.

Pull the cable parallel to the face of the logic board. Pulling it upward may damage the logic board or the cable itself.

Step 7

  • Carefully move the AirPort/Bluetooth ribbon cable out of the way as you peel the camera cable off the adhesive securing it to the subwoofer and the AirPort/Bluetooth bracket.
  • De-route the camera cable out from under the retaining finger molded into the AirPort/Bluetooth bracket.

Carefully move the AirPort/Bluetooth ribbon cable out of the way as you peel the camera cable off the adhesive securing it to the subwoofer and the AirPort/Bluetooth bracket.

De-route the camera cable out from under the retaining finger molded into the AirPort/Bluetooth bracket.

Step 8

  • Use the tip of a spudger to pry the antenna connector closest to the logic board up from its socket on the AirPort/Bluetooth board.
  • De-route the antenna cable from under the finger molded into the AirPort/Bluetooth bracket.

Use the tip of a spudger to pry the antenna connector closest to the logic board up from its socket on the AirPort/Bluetooth board.

De-route the antenna cable from under the finger molded into the AirPort/Bluetooth bracket.

Step 9

  • Remove the following five screws:
  • Two 10.3 mm Phillips screws
  • Two 3.1 mm Phillips screws
  • One 5 mm Phillips screw

Remove the following five screws:

Two 10.3 mm Phillips screws

Two 3.1 mm Phillips screws

One 5 mm Phillips screw

Step 10

  • Pull the AirPort/Bluetooth assembly and the Subwoofer upward near the center of the side of the optical drive until they clear each other.
  • Move the AirPort/Bluetooth assembly and the subwoofer away from the top of the optical drive.

Pull the AirPort/Bluetooth assembly and the Subwoofer upward near the center of the side of the optical drive until they clear each other.

Move the AirPort/Bluetooth assembly and the subwoofer away from the top of the optical drive.

Step 11

  • Pull the right speaker/subwoofer cable out from under the retaining finger near the side of the optical drive.
  • Pull the right speaker/subwoofer cable upward to disconnect it from the logic board.

Pull the right speaker/subwoofer cable out from under the retaining finger near the side of the optical drive.

Pull the right speaker/subwoofer cable upward to disconnect it from the logic board.

Step 12

  • Use the flat end of a spudger to pry the hard drive cable connector up from its socket on the logic board.
  • Bend the hard drive cable away from the optical drive.

Use the flat end of a spudger to pry the hard drive cable connector up from its socket on the logic board.

Bend the hard drive cable away from the optical drive.

Step 13

  • Use the flat end of a spudger to pry the optical drive connector up from its socket on the logic board.

Use the flat end of a spudger to pry the optical drive connector up from its socket on the logic board.

Step 14

  • Remove the three 2.7 mm Phillips screws securing the optical drive to the upper case.

Remove the three 2.7 mm Phillips screws securing the optical drive to the upper case.

Step 15

  • Pull the optical drive upward from its edge closest to the display and remove it from the upper case.

Pull the optical drive upward from its edge closest to the display and remove it from the upper case.

Step 16

              Optical Drive
  • Pull the optical drive cable away from the optical drive.
  • Be sure to pull on the connector, not the cable itself.
  • Remove the two black Phillips #0 screws securing the small metal mounting bracket. Transfer this bracket to your new optical drive or hard drive enclosure.

Pull the optical drive cable away from the optical drive.

Be sure to pull on the connector, not the cable itself.

Remove the two black Phillips #0 screws securing the small metal mounting bracket. Transfer this bracket to your new optical drive or hard drive enclosure.

Step 17

              Dual Hard Drive
  • Remove the plastic spacer from the optical bay hard drive enclosure by pressing in on one of the clips on either side and lifting it up and out of the enclosure.

Remove the plastic spacer from the optical bay hard drive enclosure by pressing in on one of the clips on either side and lifting it up and out of the enclosure.

Step 18

  • Make sure that the hard drive connectors are facing down before placing it into the enclosure.
  • Gently place the hard drive into the enclosure’s hard drive slot.
  • While firmly holding the enclosure in place with one hand, use your other hand to press the hard drive into the enclosure connectors.

Make sure that the hard drive connectors are facing down before placing it into the enclosure.

Gently place the hard drive into the enclosure’s hard drive slot.

While firmly holding the enclosure in place with one hand, use your other hand to press the hard drive into the enclosure connectors.

Step 19

  • Once the hard drive is snug, reinsert the plastic spacer while holding the hard drive against the bottom of the enclosure.

Once the hard drive is snug, reinsert the plastic spacer while holding the hard drive against the bottom of the enclosure.

Step 20

  • Use two Phillips #1 screws to secure the drive to its enclosure.

Use two Phillips #1 screws to secure the drive to its enclosure.

Step 21

  • Attach the optical drive bracket to the new enclosure with two Phillips #0 screws.
  • Reconnect any cables you have removed from the original optical drive onto the optical bay enclosure.

Attach the optical drive bracket to the new enclosure with two Phillips #0 screws.

Reconnect any cables you have removed from the original optical drive onto the optical bay enclosure.

Step 22

  • Don’t ditch that drive! You can still use your optical drive externally with the help of our SATA Optical Drive USB Cable.
  • Align the cable’s SATA connector with the drive’s port and plug in securely.
  • Plug the USB connector into your laptop and your optical drive is ready for use.

Don’t ditch that drive! You can still use your optical drive externally with the help of our SATA Optical Drive USB Cable.

Align the cable’s SATA connector with the drive’s port and plug in securely.

Plug the USB connector into your laptop and your optical drive is ready for use.

To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.

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Landon McKee - Mar 25, 2015

Reply

Has anyone else noticed their Macbook booting and responding slightly slower with this duel-hard drive setup? I first swapped out my main hard drive for a SSD and the computer felt amazingly quick. I then replaced the optical drive with another SSD for additional storage and backup and ever since then the computer has felt slightly more sluggish in general. I suppose the CPU now has to constantly communicate to the second SSD where it could mostly ignore the optical drive before. Has anyone else noticed this?

chicle - Dec 15, 2015

Just fixed that issue:

Put the new SSD where the old HD used to be. Put the old HD where the optical drive used to be.

I found that the ports in the motherboard inside the mac have different speeds. The HD port is 6mb/s and the optical drive is 3mb/s.

Zarkex - Jan 5, 2018

Are you sure its MB/S that would be horribly slow.

nshourds - Jan 29, 2018

I am seriously considering replacing my old HDD with a SSD instead of using a dual drive. Would you recommend still adding a dual drive with new SSD/ old HDD or just replacing the HDD with an SSD. I like having an optic drive, although not necessary. I am looking from the point of utility and practicality. Cheers!

Gary Altonot - Jun 3, 2020

Zarkex is correct. The transfer speed for SATA 3 is not 6MB/s it is 6GB/s.