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It’s a Mid 2012 13" 8 GB memory, Intel HD graphics 2.9 GHz Intel Core i7. I have 300 GB of unused space remaining. If I do a complete system recovery, what will happen to all of my software that I bought afterpurchasing computer? Will it all Just reinstall itself? For $90 at walmart, I just bought a 2 TB back up disk. I did a complete backup and it took 17 hours to complete. I used to use Just Cloud as a back up, online and when I saved all of the applications and went to download them, all it downloaded was a jpg icon for the program I thought I was saving! It boots up, but slowly and then after every time I hit Enter, the color wheel spins for about 25 to 40 seconds and this is usually for everything except surfing the web, Basically any software I use, cause the spinning color wheel, Apple support worked with me for two month and over 3 hours for free and I just gave up. I will try any know fix and perhaps there is a way to send back to back and just have them put in a new drive. Update (12/12/2017) I used to use Just Cloud as a back up, online and when I saved all of the applications and went to download them, all it downloaded was a jpg icon for the program I thought I was saving! The same happened to me. I was using just cloud as well and Instead of getting my programs restored, all I got was an Icon in the form of a jpeg. Their prices were too high and also consuming a ton of bandwidth making my cable bill go up. On top of that, they want you to pay a premium to download more mbps. If you don’t upgrade, then it is a real slow and cumbersome back-up. I am going to perform the same repair with the cable and hard drive. Louis Rossman (Mac Repair Shop on YouTube), also said the same thing was wrong, over the phone. Mine is a 2012 MacBook Pro. Hope you got yours repaired. I don’t want a new one. I like my cd drive and all of the different ports that it has.

Sounds like they missed the problem! While your drive is low on free space, your issue is not a software issue its a bad HD SATA cable (and you likely also want a new drive unless you can free up space). If you review the other systems like yours here you see a pattern of this problem! Follow this IFIXIT guide: MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Mid 2012 Hard Drive Cable Replacement and you’ll need this part: MacBook Pro 13" Unibody (Mid 2012) Hard Drive Cable - Apple P/N 923-0104 You’ll want to place some electrical tape where the cable crosses the uppercase as the aluminum abrades the cable causing issues. You’ll also don’t want to over bend the creases as the wires inside or fragile. Once you’ve replaced the cable you’ll need to reformat the drive as often the lower level structures get corrupted (the beachball issue). I would take the time to put in a new drive. I would recommend a SSHD like this one: Seagate FireCuda. I need to go to work now so I’ll follow up on what to do to prep your drive when I get a chance. Update (04/13/2019) OK once you get a new SATA cable and I gather you’re replacing the drive. we need to create a bootable USB thumb drive OS installer as being the easiest way. You could also try using your original grey disks that came with the system but it will be a older version of OS and then you need to do the OS upgrades which will take a bit of time. Going with the version of OS you have or the newest version thats best for your system is what I would do using the bootable OS installer. Follow this guide to create the OS installer How to create a bootable macOS Sierra installer drive I strongly recommend sticking with Sierra as the highest version for your system as High Sierra has issues on the older SATA based systems, and Mojave is technically not supported. Here’s the guide you’l want to use MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Mid 2012 Hard Drive Replacement and here’s the kit which gives you everything you need 1 TB SSD Hybrid 2.5" Hard Drive