Chosen Solution
Later today, my sata drive cable will arrive from iFixit. (Thanks guys) In the meantime I’ve read all the posts about this machine and learnt a huge amount…thank you all. Mrs Poppy has gifted me her ‘old’ MacBook Pro 2012 13”. Gawd bless’er. (Mint, with very few hours and even only 24 cycles on the battery.) I’ve maxed out the ram and the new ssd is in an external caddy with fresh Mojave downloaded from Apple…and some of my apps, photos and music. It will principally be plugged into my hi-fi as a music source. All working nicely so far. Just waiting on the new cable for the transplant. My twist on the dozens of drive cable questions already posted, is: This machine was built in January 2016. Was the Sata III revision cable being installed as standard by Apple then? (It was bought direct from Apple as a refurb) And is the iFixit cable the thick version of the sata II…or the same spec as the Sata III cable that Apple eventually ended up installing? Thanks for a hugely enjoyable and informative resource.
Your system should have the newer rev of the cable SATA III (6.0 Gb/s) rated. Even still you could have a worn cable as described here Your Hard Drive Cable Is A Ticking Time Bomb So you should place a stipe of electricians tape on the uppercase to help protect it. While that’s the basics, mis-handling of the cable is a common issue where people damage it! You don’t want any creases in the cable. If you see any then you should replace it!
