Macbook Pro 2012 No Macintosh Hd

I'm trying to refurb my son's old MacBook that hasn't been used for a few years. It didn't boot so I got into disc utility with the intention of repairing the disc or erasing the OS to start again. Unfortunately Macintosh HD is not appearing so I can't do this. I'm happy to put a new SSD in and increase the RAM to 16. Would replacing the SSD fix the problem or is there likely to be another more expensive problem? Thanks in advance.

 

I am no expert on Macs but I guess the hardware must be identical in most ways with a normal laptop.

With this in mind, and before spending any money on new parts, I would want to confirm that the existing hw (aside from the hard disk) are operational by booting with a Linux distro. Plenty of info on this on YouTube, etc.

If that works then at least you know that the MacBook is working and that any time and money spent will be for a purpose

Good Luck

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I've started looking it up.