Upgrading a MacBook Pro a1278 (late 2011)

[bobesch]

That's more or less what I had in mind.
The two USB sticks are really necessary? I just watched a video tutorial for the OCLP patcher and they used a single one.

Yep, you can use a single one, but that will work on only the kind of MacBook(Pro) You've built it for.
First create the macOS-installer-stick, then bless the installer-stick with the OCLP-EFI-Boot.
The OCPL-BootStick needs only a tiny amount of space. So if You have any spare old USB-Sticks around, I'd build separate BootSticks (in my case I upgraded different Macs: mid2012 15"MBP9,1; 2013 11"MBA; 2012 13"MBP ...)

 

[pacoMo]

Yeah, that's what they did. I think I'm all set, just have to wait to everything to arrive.
I'll let you all know how it goes. Thank you!

 

[Amethyst1]

When (if ever) PortMultiplierSupport starts on intel MacBooks?

It's surprisingly hard to find definite info on this, but it looks like port multiplier support is... lacking on Intel chipsets, so I wouldn't count on it.

 

[iModFrenzy]

Win10 is EOL in late 2025. I didn't try Win11 yet.
If You need BigSur or higher for some special App/task, then a single Win10-installation is not an option.
I'd not recommend to install macOS and Win10 onto a single drive, since the drive requires to be converted to hybrid-mode with mixed GPT/MBPR-partition-scheme (GPT for macOS and MBR for Win10). Add OCLP to that mix, and sooner or later you might end up in a hassle.

Like with @iModFrenzy 's dream machine of thread #11 I'd swap the optical drive for a second SSD if You consider a dual-boot machine with Win10 and macOS.
But bear in mind, that, as he said, Windows must be installed onto the drive sitting in the HDD-bay to be bootable (while macOS or Linux can be booted from both positions: HDD-bay or optical-bay).
And check the speed of the SATA-connections of your MBP first (Apple-menu/About this Mac/SystemInformation/SATA): the HHD-bay will certainly run at 6Gb/s, but the optical drive might be limited to 3Gb/s, which means, that the transfer-rates of macOS running from the position of the optical drive are cut half. That might make performance of OCLP Monterey even worse. (The mid2012 15" MBP9,1 has 6Gb/s-SATA3 ad both ports, so hopefully Your 2011 MBP too ...)

If you have spare place on a future SSD, You might install a backup-system at the very end of the SSD. For that purpose You'll have to create 3 (or 4) real partitions (all APFS) in the right order:
P1a: OCPL-Ventura; (P1b: Data); P2(60GB): Patched_Mojave(also for 32bit-support); P3(16GB): patched Mojave-Installer
(Mind the right order: P2 can be removed and fused with P1, but not with P3; P3 can be removed and fused with P2, but not with P1.)

Just wanted to add the following. OP since you have a 13" you might be able to share the same drive for windows and MacOS. Im using Windows in Legacy/BIOS mode as the 9,1 EFI isn't perfect(BSOD if I attempt to install Intel HD drivers, GT650M works fine though). Since you don't have 2 graphics cards, EFI would likely be fine. I'd say give it a shot and see how it goes, worst case scenario is it doesn't work well and you just claim the partition space back for MacOS.

Saw the AMM shots and wanted to join in.

 

[theMarble]

OP since you have a 13" you might be able to share the same drive for windows and MacOS. Im using Windows in Legacy/BIOS mode as the 9,1 EFI isn't perfect(BSOD if I attempt to install Intel HD drivers, GT650M works fine though). Since you don't have 2 graphics cards, EFI would likely be fine. I'd say give it a shot and see how it goes, worst case scenario is it doesn't work well and you just claim the partition space back for MacOS.

Yes, also a UEFI installation can be done on supported machines, which does include the 2011 and 2012 MBP.
That should work much better than a BIOS/MBR install.

 

[pacoMo]

I’d put the new SSD in an external USB enclosure first, clone the HDD using SuperDuper! (it’s free and I’ve been using it for years), then install the SSD internally.

I discovered that you can clone the HDD to the SSD using the disk utility. Any reason why you suggested SuperDuper?

 

[theMarble]

I discovered that you can clone the HDD to the SSD using the disk utility. Any reason why you suggested SuperDuper?

Modern (post-El Capitan) Disk Utility can be very buggy/glitchy at times. I've had clones and disk restores fail often with it.

Compare that to SuperDuper (of which I used for years) and Carbon Copy Cloner (my current cloning tool of choice), both of which I can trust will work properly without bugs.

 

[pacoMo]

I see, thank you for the explanation!

 

[iModFrenzy]

Yes, also a UEFI installation can be done on supported machines, which does include the 2011 and 2012 MBP.
That should work much better than a BIOS/MBR install.

It’s a 50/50 shot on how it’ll work. The 2011 and 2012 use the EFI standard, they’re not UEFI certified. Hence why my 9,1 has issues with it.

BIOS/Legacy is how Apple intended it so that will always be the reliable option.

For an experiment, I installed Windows 10 in UEFI/EFI mode. I was able to disable my Intel GPU but there’s still some bugs here and there. Seems like BIOS is the most stable way to go.

 

[B S Magnet]

I discovered that you can clone the HDD to the SSD using the disk utility. Any reason why you suggested SuperDuper?

Speaking on Carbon Copy Cloner, the modern versions know to also copy over/clone the hidden partitions relating to system restore, maintaining their function, and mindfulness for the APFS container method of partitioning. It’s a surefire way to make sure everything is brought over, as needed.

 

[pacoMo]

OK, I got a first problem. I successfully upgraded the RAM and cloned the HD to the SSD with Super Duper.
I then installed the new SSD and tried to boot but I can't, I only get the question mark folder.
If I connect the old HD in the USB port I can boot into the system but if I try to select the new SSD holding down the option key during the booting I can only select the old HD, the SSD just doesn't appear.
I can see it in the disk utility though, and it appears to have data in it.
Any suggestion?

 

[Amethyst1]

I can see it in the disk utility though, and it appears to have data in it.
Any suggestion?

Can you boot from the SSD if it’s in the USB case?

• If you can, I’d suspect the MBP’s SATA cable, which is somewhat known to be prone to failure on the 2011s.
• If you can’t, something may have gone wrong with the cloning. Can you post a screenshot of Disk Utility’s info on the SSD?

 

[pacoMo]

No, I cannot boot if it's connected in the USB port either.
I checked and disk utility says that the SSD is not bootable ("avviabile" in Italian). I think I'll try to clone the HD another time and see if this time everything goes well.

 

[pacoMo]

I tried a second time, but still the same problem. So I think I have to change strategy. I just need a fresh installation of high Sierra on the new SSD, considering that I will perform another fresh install when I upgrade to Monterey.
Sì I tried the "reinstall macOs" optioning in recovery mode, but I get another error, saying it's impossible to contact the server.
So, how do I install High Sierra in this SSD? Any idea?

 

[pacoMo]

I finally managed to fresh install High Sierra on the SSD. Now's time for the upgrade to Monterey.

 

[pacoMo]

And it's done! I managed to install Monterey and all the softwares that I need, and I mut say I'm really satisfied: the os is way faster and responsive, the boot time is dramatically decreased and now I can finally do some multitasking which was impossible with the old configuration.
Thank you all for your help and support, I found a great community here!
Have a nice day you all!
Paco

 

[ptrzoo]

I've ran OCLP on various machines (of which a few have been mentioned on this forum).

For a little while, I was running Monterey on my 2011 A1278. It has 12GB of RAM and a 500GB Crucial SSD. Don't expect it to be feel like a new machine. It's fast enough for typical day-to-day use (eg: browsing the web, doing some light photo editing or graphic design...) however I would not recommend doing anything graphical intensive on it (eg: video editing, gaming...).

This is because modern versions of macOS require a graphics API called Metal. To explain simply, Metal is what allows the graphics chip to better communicate with the OS. The Intel HD 3000 in the 2011 MBP does not support Metal, therefore OpenCore patches it to work. While this does get it working, you can find that graphics performance can be poor at times, depending on what you are doing. However, if watching videos on YouTube, Netflix and other similar sites is all that you will be doing, then you shouldn't encounter any problems.

Metal support starts with the Intel HD 4000, in the 2012 MacBook Pro. I personally have Ventura running with OCLP on my 2015 15" MacBook Pro, which supports Metal and I can edit 1080p video, and watch 1440p content streamed and locally just fine!

Hi,
just asking:
I own a MBP 8,2 with Snow Leopard, El Capitan and Monterey. The newest one has grafic issues but OCLP shows that all possible patches are already installed including Tera 2 for non metal.
These are like, a little slow grafic movemet as you open and close folders or change desktops, and or microphone and camera no accessable from any app.
Did you experience any of them after the installation's process?
I've tryed everything possible found on the net but nothing.
On my iMac 2011 it run just fine and both Macs have ssd + RAM updrade.
Peace

 

[B S Magnet]

Hi,
just asking:
I own a MBP 8,2 with Snow Leopard, El Capitan and Monterey. The newest one has grafic issues but OCLP shows that all possible patches are already installed including Tera 2 for non metal.
These are like, a little slow grafic movemet as you open and close folders or change desktops, and or microphone and camera no accessable from any app.

You may need to disable the dGPU (the probkematic AMD GPU) so that the Intel iGPU handles all graphics tasks.

We have a pinned thread which goes into the steps to follow to do that.

Have a look at that and let us know how it goes!

 

[ptrzoo]

You may need to disable the dGPU (the probkematic AMD GPU) so that the Intel iGPU handles all graphics tasks.

We have a pinned thread which goes into the steps to follow to do that.

Have a look at that and let us know how it goes!

Hey thanks for the reply.
Ok I'll try to do that but I'd rather do not want to disable something that is working fine on an older OS, just because I don't know how to bring everithing back in case it wouldn't be the solution I'm not so advanced
Thank you so much thou, it seems a very good solution in case the dGPU will fail.