DIY Fusion Drive on MacBookPro8,2
Yes, I know it's not supported out ot the box.
I've been trying to set up a DIY Fusion Drive on my Early 2011 MBP 15" with no luck.
I've been googling a bit and found several others reporting the same problems on the MBP8,2. Seems this setup works on most Mac's, just not this model. Has anyone gotten this to work with any sort of hack? Please share your experience.
In case you are not already aware of these resources here are some links
http://blog.macsales.com/15617-creating-your-own-fusion-drive
http://www.macworld.com/article/2014011/how-to-make-your-own-fusion-drive.html
There are others, but the most salient point from the first link is that it alleges the 2012 Mini is the only Mac that uses a version of Disk Utility capable of creating a Fusion volume. This sounds dubious to me though since I find it hard to believe CoreStorage is dependent upon a version of Disk Utility that exists only for the Mini. The only reason I mention this is that I consider OWC knowledgeable about the subject.
Without further details of how you intend to accomplish this I am curious how you justify the following comment:
The OS handles where the files go so I can use the time to work instead of managing where the files go for best performance.
We know Apple's Fusion Drive accomplishes these actions in firmware or software that exists in their new iMacs, but what resource led you to conclude this ability exists in your MacBook Pro, or anything other than the current production 2012 iMacs for that matter?
If you are certain it does, I may do it also. I like challenges too.
Similar Messages
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DIY Fusion drive not working after Mavericks install
Hi Everyone,
I had setup a DIY fusion drive on my iMac 27" Mid 2011 - installing a Samsung SSD and a new 1TB drive. Everything was working swimmingly in Mountain Lion but as soon as I upgraded to Mavericks - everything slowed down.
In speed test I get an average write speed of 70 MB/s and a read of about 100MB/s...
Did I do something wrong? I installed Mavericks via the App Store.
Thanks.
MartinDid you ever figure this out? I have a similar experience (read below) and wanted to know if anything you learned helped?
Hi all. I have a 3.2GHz i5 w 24 GB of Ram. Purchased in January 2014.
My good friend helped me install a DIY Fusion. I purchased a 256GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD and he did the work to "fuse" it with the regular 1TB HD the iMac came with. It is attached via USB 3.0 in an OWC case.
Originally, after being set up - Black Magic Speed tests benched it at 250-350 write and 500-650 read. I'm not a techie, but spent enough time to know that is pretty smoking and well above a typical disk hard drive.
Well, now it is down to 70-80 write and 180-250 read. The imac still boots in less than 25 seconds, so I don't feel the system is slow. (and it certainly blazes next to the first generation aluminum iMac I had before - a 2008 model). But I am concerned at deterioration of speed and really thought the extra investment would have led to faster sustained speeds.
So my questions are:
* Does anybody have any ideas why this is happening?
* Any idea what the fix is? I'm hoping not to have to start over.
* Any ideas whether it would have been better just to keep the 256 a boot drive for OS & apps, and leave the 1TB for media? I almost did this and wonder if it would have simplified things or led to better performance.
* Any idea where to go from here?
BTW, I know a little about TRIM, but I think my friend said the Samsung will handle that itself.
Lastly, you can probably tell I know a bit ABOUT this stuff, but not much on HOW to do it. So regular maintenance and upkeep is not my strong suit.
Thanks in advance for comments & suggestions.
Jake -
DIY Fusion Drive Problem (8,2)
Hey,
I wanted to go a step further and create my own DIY Fusion Drive. I had no problems installing the new ssd (128gb Samsung 840 Pro) instead of the hdd (standard mac hdd) and moving the hdd to the place where the optical drive has been.
I then proceeded to boot from a recovery USB Stick runing the mountain lion recovery partition on it. I configured both of these drives without any problems and finally created my Fusion Drive (visible in disk utility).
But here are things getting worse. My original plan was to recover from a TimeMachine Backup i created right before I started working on the Fusion Drive. But no, it said an error occured and I should restart the PC. After googling this error a little bit (and trying the recovery over and over again, different attempts to repair the time machine, which doesn't seemed to be broken etc.), I came up with the idea that my TimeMachine data could be corrupted and a whole backup is not possible. No problem I thought to myself.
You just try to install Mountain Lion fresh with your Recovery USB Stick and then get one or two folder from your backup that you need. But nope, installing Mountain Lion aborted with an error too while checking if my MacBook would fit the installation or something.
Last try: Cmd+R to start internet recovery. Downloaded the whole thing. Now I was able to reinstall LION fresh on my system (which of course would be the basic installation since my macbook came with Lion). Problem is: Lion doesn't know anything about Fusion Drive and I couldn't select any drive to install it on.
Right now I'm really thinking about installing the os on the ssd alone, what I didn't want to do. But I'm not seeing a possiblilty to get the system back up and running they way I wanted it to.
Now it's on you guys. My last hope. Do you have any ideas on how to fix this problem? I read so many guides and neither of them came up with the problems I have. They just say "and after configurating your fusion drive, you just install moutain lion again and you're good" :|
Thank you very much,
MrMützeI just tried what would happen if a delete the Fusion drive again. I was able to start the installation process of LION to my SSD, but Mountain Lion still aborted with an error while evaluating my system. So it shouldn't be a problem associated with the FusionDrive.
-
Slow boot up on 2012 Mac mini with DIY fusion drive
Hello everyone, I bought a Mac mini (2012) 2 months ago with a stock 500GB HDD.
I added another SSD to make a DIY fusion drive, and everything is working fine, except that I'm experiencing a very slow boot up.
I have confirmed both by information from the OS and some tests with command line tools, that the fusion drive itself is a success and absolutely working fine.
The slow boot up happens on cold boot only (a reboot does not have such problem).
Symptom: the Mac mini is stuck on the gray blank screen for about 40 seconds, and then finally shows up the apple logo.
Everything after this is pretty fast and fine.
I have tried the following methods and none of them seems to help:
1. Go Preferences -> Startup Disk, select the Machintosh HD. (Suggested by Apple in the Fusion Drive FAQ)
2. Verify the whole disk along with the partition with Disk Utility.
3. Reset NVRAM by holding Command+Option+P+R during boot up.
4. Reset SCM/PMU.
Does anyone have an idea on the cause of my problem?
Best regards and thank you.If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Step 1
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Enter "BOOT_TIME" (without the quotes) in the search box. Note the timestamps of those log messages, which refer to the times when the system was booted. Now clear the search box and scroll back in the log to the last boot time when you had the problem. Select the messages logged after the boot, during the time something abnormal was happening. Copy them to the Clipboard (command-C). Paste into a reply to this message (command-V).
For example, if the problem is a slow startup taking three minutes, post the messages timestamped within three minutes after the boot time, not before. Please include the BOOT_TIME message at the beginning of the log extract.
If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don’t post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. In most cases, a few dozen lines are more than enough.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Important: Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.
Step 2
Still in Console, look under System Diagnostic Reports for crash or panic logs, and post the entire contents of the most recent one, if any. In the interest of privacy, I suggest you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header of the report, if present (it may not be.) Please don’t post shutdownStall, spin, or hang logs — they're very long and not helpful. -
Disk Utility error when verifying DIY fusion drive
Hi,
It has been a while since I had to post a problem, but I need others advice on this if you can help. When 10.8.3 came out I installed an M4 512gb ssd in my main drive bay of 2008 unibody aluminium macbook and put a 1tb spinner in the optibay. Created a fusion drive, migrated data and all has been great. Decided to run disk utility today to check for any errors as I had a sleep issue with the 10.8.4 update which I ended up solving by changing the sleep settings in terminal - the issue had caused a few forced shutdowns. I have Disk Utitliy Version 13 (450). The Fusion drive is shown as the logical volume group followed by the volume disk. When I run a verify disk on the volume itself it is all ok:
Verifying volume “Cybernet”
Checking storage systemChecking volume.
disk0s2: Scan for Volume Headers
disk1s2: Scan for Volume Headers
disk0s2: Scan for Disk Labels
disk1s2: Scan for Disk Labels
Logical Volume Group 0DAE76E1-A325-4925-902F-1015B270B84C spans 2 devices
disk0s2+disk1s2: Scan for Metadata Volume
Logical Volume Group has a 2170 MB Metadata Volume with double redundancy
Start scanning metadata for a valid checkpoint
Load and verify Segment Headers
Load and verify Checkpoint Payload
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Incorporate 6 newer non-checkpoint transactions
Load and verify Virtual Address Table
Load and verify Segment Usage Table
Load and verify Metadata Superblock
Load and verify Logical Volumes B-Trees
Logical Volume Group contains 1 Logical Volume
Load and verify 309877EC-EA53-443C-A75C-63C159B04EF3
Load and verify 5388E543-6974-4251-BDBD-FA850C121897
Load and verify Freespace Summary
Load and verify Block Accounting
Load and verify Live Virtual Addresses
Newest transaction commit checkpoint is valid
Load and verify Segment Cleaning
The volume 0DAE76E1-A325-4925-902F-1015B270B84C appears to be OK.
Checking file systemPerforming live verification.
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking extents overflow file.
Checking catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking catalog hierarchy.
Checking extended attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
The volume Cybernet appears to be OK.
When I run it on the LVG it comes up as:
Verifying partition map for “M4-CT512M4SSD2 Media”
Checking prerequisites
Checking the partition list
Checking for an EFI system partition
Checking the EFI system partition’s size
Checking the EFI system partition’s file system
Checking all HFS data partition loader spaces
Checking Core Storage Physical Volume partitions
Checking storage system
Checking volume.
disk0s2: Scan for Volume Headers
disk1s2: Scan for Volume Headers
disk0s2: Scan for Disk Labels
disk1s2: Scan for Disk Labels
Logical Volume Group 0DAE76E1-A325-4925-902F-1015B270B84C spans 2 devices
disk0s2+disk1s2: Scan for Metadata Volume
Logical Volume Group has a 2170 MB Metadata Volume with double redundancy
Start scanning metadata for a valid checkpoint
Load and verify Segment Headers
Load and verify Checkpoint Payload
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Incorporate 40 newer non-checkpoint transactions
Load and verify Virtual Address Table
Load and verify Segment Usage Table
Load and verify Metadata Superblock
Load and verify Logical Volumes B-Trees
Logical Volume Group contains 1 Logical Volume
Load and verify 309877EC-EA53-443C-A75C-63C159B04EF3
Load and verify 5388E543-6974-4251-BDBD-FA850C121897
Load and verify Freespace Summary
Load and verify Block Accounting
Load and verify Live Virtual Addresses
Newest transaction commit checkpoint is valid
Load and verify Segment Cleaning
The volume 0DAE76E1-A325-4925-902F-1015B270B84C appears to be OK.
Incorrect size for volume “Cybernet”
Problems were found with the partition map which might prevent booting
Error: Incorrect size for logical volume.
Verifying partition map for “WDC WD10JPVT-00A1YT0 Media”
Checking prerequisites
Checking the partition list
Checking for an EFI system partition
Checking the EFI system partition’s size
Checking the EFI system partition’s file system
Checking all HFS data partition loader spaces
Checking Core Storage Physical Volume partitions
Checking storage system
Checking volume.
disk0s2: Scan for Volume Headers
disk1s2: Scan for Volume Headers
disk0s2: Scan for Disk Labels
disk1s2: Scan for Disk Labels
Logical Volume Group 0DAE76E1-A325-4925-902F-1015B270B84C spans 2 devices
disk0s2+disk1s2: Scan for Metadata Volume
Logical Volume Group has a 2170 MB Metadata Volume with double redundancy
Start scanning metadata for a valid checkpoint
Load and verify Segment Headers
Load and verify Checkpoint Payload
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Incorporate 43 newer non-checkpoint transactions
Load and verify Virtual Address Table
Load and verify Segment Usage Table
Load and verify Metadata Superblock
Load and verify Logical Volumes B-Trees
Logical Volume Group contains 1 Logical Volume
Load and verify 309877EC-EA53-443C-A75C-63C159B04EF3
Load and verify 5388E543-6974-4251-BDBD-FA850C121897
Load and verify Freespace Summary
Load and verify Block Accounting
Load and verify Live Virtual Addresses
Newest transaction commit checkpoint is valid
Load and verify Segment Cleaning
The volume 0DAE76E1-A325-4925-902F-1015B270B84C appears to be OK.
Incorrect size for volume “Cybernet”
Problems were found with the partition map which might prevent booting
Error: Incorrect size for logical volume.
I got the same when I did a safe boot and when rebooted from the recovery partition.y question is, do I repair or could it damage my setup? eg is Disk Utility being accurate and it can repair the error, or is it a phantom issue that should be ignored bearing in mind it's a DIY fusion drive and it could end up getting mashed?
Thanks!Hi,
The computer's running fine since I sorted the sleep issue. No issues as far as I can tell, which is why I was surprised to see the error. What does the error actually mean - is it saying that the volume is a different size than the computer thinks it should be and therefore it'll just change a few values? In which case I suppose a repair is harmless? I just don't want to repair and then reboot to find the volume corrupted. -
Repair DIY fusion drive possible?
It seems as the mechanical drive in my DIY fusion drive setup has failed. It took forever to start the computer and the disk sounds weird. I ran the disk tool and it said that it had repaired something that was broken (can't remember what). When I restarted the computer I got a questionmark instead of an apple during startup. If I boot from an external drive I can't even find my fusioin drive in Finder. Can this be fixed or am I screwed?
You will need to reboot the machine with the DIY Fusion drive from a clone or a USB thumb drive with the Recovery HD on it. Then open Terminal and type diskutil list to view the drives. You would then need to rebuild your Fusion drive using the Terminal commands you previously used like LowLuster points out.
Using the Recovery HD would be preferred, in my opinion, because after rebuilding your Fusion drive you can Reinstall OS X from the OS X Utilities menu. -
Good evening all.
I'll try to keep this as short and simple as I can.
I have a Macmini6,2 that I installed a secondary SSD into. My plan was to use the SSD for the OS and Apps and use the stock 5200rpm drive for files and data. I used an OWC instructional video on YouTube (for those interested search YouTube for: techKNOWlogy by OWC - Keeping your System and User files on Separate Drives) and was able to get it to work.
It really does work well, sort of like a DIY Fusion drive but without the system choosing what files go on the SSD. The problem is that it doesn't play nicely with one of the programs I need for work, Avid's ProTools, and I just can't afford to have this problem.
I have Time Machine backups and I was wondering if there was a way I could "unfuse" the drives and put everything onto the SSD without having to really nuke my system and start from scratch.
Any help would be much appreciated!Yes. The way to set it up is to create a new administrator account (I called mine Boot Admin), and then install the SSD. After the SSD was in, I formatted and did a clean install of OSX onto it. When OSX asked if I wanted to transfer files from another location with migration assistant, I selected the original 5400rpm hard drive. I selected all of the options EXCEPT for the original user. So all of the Apps, files and the Boot Admin account minus my original, starting user acct.
After all software updates, I went into the System Prefs with the Boot Admin acct and created a new user account using the same name and password as the account on the original drive. I clicked Advanced Options on the newly created acct. --> Choose --> select home folder om Original 5400rpm drive ---> hit open. So I changed the Home Directory for the acct to the other drive. Then I set the new drive to the default startup drive.
Then, I deleted the App, System and Library files off the the HDD. Likewise for the Home Folder for the acct on the SSD. Then, as a final step to clear up more space, I deleted and repartitioned the recovery disk on the SSD OS to give it maximum space.
Thanks! -
Will a DIY fusion drive work when upgraded to Mavericks?
Mavericks was exciting for all it's power, but I have noticed that a ton of pp are experiencing problems with their home-brew fusion drives when upgraded to Mavericks, is that true? And if it is, is there any fix?
Thanks!The link is for installing 10.9 on a DIY fusiondrive (though explained for a DP). It works just fine on the final release. I just had it done and is as smooth as whistle.....
http://pintofcode.com/blog/2013/8/19/mavericks-and-fusion-drive
best of luck. -
DIY Fusion drive with elgato, eyetv 3
I've got the imac 27" 2011, and I have set up a fusion drive and generally I have no issues with it.
However when watching TV (a waste of an imac i know) with elgato eyetv, it pauses every so often. Generally if you listen during this its because the main drive as reving up as its gone to sleep, I know in the system preferences I can tell it not to spin down, but that will cause the drive to eventually fail.
My questions are really to those who have a fusion drive (from the apple directly as a preinstalled build) if anyone else is running the elgato eyeTV 3 and experience anything similar?
Or to everyone else can the Fusion drive be altered so that the live TV stream gets written to the main Hard drive rather than to the SSD?
Any thoughts?The drive will fail no matter what you do with it. That is the fact of hard drives and drives in general.
So stop putting it to sleep and stop the waiting.
No it can't be altered as that is what a Fusion drive is. The System determines what data gets written to each drive not the user. If you want to make that choice then you should not be using a Fusion drive setup.
Also with ANY Fusion drive When, Not If, Either drive Fails they both fail and you are left with Nothing. Kind of like RAID 0 (Zero).
I personally would never use a Fusion drive setup. Better to have a slightly bigger SSD and a secondary spinning drive to store data on. Like moving your "i" tunes, photo and other User/library files, Doc and Downloads, to the spinner and leaving the SSD for the OS and programs. -
Hi everyone!
I have spent several hours by reading various forums but haven’t found any definitive answers.
I have a 12 Core Mac Pro with the following setup: one 1TB SATA hard drive that carries the system and applications. For the files and storage there are three 2TB SATA drives in RAID 5 controlled by Apple RAID card. I am going to install a 512 GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD drive in the optical bay and have initially planned to use it just for the system and applications, but am curious if the following is possible.
1) Is it possible to combine the RAID 5 array with the SSD and create a Fusion drive?
2) If yes, will it retain all the features of the RAID 5?
3) Should TRIM be enabled?
Thank you in advance!TRIM directly addresses the shortcomings of having only garbage collection available. SSD controller manufacturers and designers (including SandForce, the controller manufacturer for OWC's SSDs), recommends that TRIM be used with their products. So does Samsung.
For example, here's a 2011 article from OWC describing how you don't need TRIM on their SSDs and how it can in fact hurt performance or reliability.
That article has been discussed here on MacInTouch before. In my opinion it's bad advice, and inaccurate in some of its assertions. It also ignores the recommendation made by SandForce to use TRIM with their SSD controllers. But even if one were to take that article at face value, applying that advice to SSDs other than OWC's makes little sense.
The reason I'm advising against TRIM is simply that it's yet another driver-level modification of the OS, and these always carry potential risk (as all the folks with WD hard drives who lost data can attest to).
Apples and oranges comparison, for a variety of reasons. The short of it is that TRIM is supported natively in all recent versions of OS X. The tools used to enable it for third party SSDs do not add a new kernel extension; they change the setting to allow Apple's native TRIM implementation to be used with SSDs other than those factory installed by Apple.
This shows that the 840s do work slightly better with TRIM than without, but the differences are (in my opinion) trivial, a 9% increase at best.
One of the major reasons for the skepticism that exists about TRIM is that so many people, the authors of both articles you linked to included, don't understand it.
TRIM is not, strictly speaking, a performance-enhancement technology -- though it is plainly obvious that most people think it is.
Though it can, in many circumstances, improve performance, there are also circumstances under which it will provide little or no noticeable benefit. Not coincidentally, a new SSD tested fresh out of the factory packaging is unlikely to show much (if any) benefit. Or rather, TRIM is providing a real benefit for new SSDs, but that benefit doesn't become measurable in terms of benchmark performance testing until every memory cell in the SSD -- including many gigabytes of cells hidden from visibility by the SSD controller -- have been written to at least once. Writing 128 GB of files to an SSD with a nominal capacity of 128 GB won't do it, as there are several gigabytes (exact number varies depending on the model) still unwritten.
Under real-world use conditions, having TRIM disabled means eventually having noticeable write performance degradation due to write amplification. It is far greater than "9%" -- it can be a 50% or greater drop in write performance, depending on various factors. Defining "eventually" is difficult because it depends on how the SSD is used. But given enough time and write cycles, it can happen to all SSDs used without TRIM, no matter how sophisticated their garbage collection algorithms are.
Under those same real-world use conditions, having TRIM enabled means that the SSD should almost never reach a state of having noticeable write performance degradation, as it should almost never get into a state where write amplification is happening.
I will concede that it is possible to design a lab test in such a way as to defeat the benefits provided by TRIM, but such tests do not reflect any real-world usage scenario I can imagine. Furthermore, those same contrived tests would put an un-TRIMmed drive into an equally-addled state even more quickly.
I would suggest reading through the rather lengthy previous discussions about TRIM. Here are a couple of my past posts that are most relevant to the current discussion:
A description of what TRIM is here.
I addressed some of OWC Larry's comments about TRIM use with OWC/SandForce SSDs here.
http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/harddrives/index.html#d09dec2013 -
So i've just installed a Crucial M4 128GB SSD and when i get home from work i'm putting the original HDD back in my MacBook Pro in the optical drive bay with a 'caddy' kit.
I'm considering creating a Fusion drive out of the 2 internal HDD's but before I go through with are there any risks with doing it myself? And, is it worth it?In case you are not already aware of these resources here are some links
http://blog.macsales.com/15617-creating-your-own-fusion-drive
http://www.macworld.com/article/2014011/how-to-make-your-own-fusion-drive.html
There are others, but the most salient point from the first link is that it alleges the 2012 Mini is the only Mac that uses a version of Disk Utility capable of creating a Fusion volume. This sounds dubious to me though since I find it hard to believe CoreStorage is dependent upon a version of Disk Utility that exists only for the Mini. The only reason I mention this is that I consider OWC knowledgeable about the subject.
Without further details of how you intend to accomplish this I am curious how you justify the following comment:
The OS handles where the files go so I can use the time to work instead of managing where the files go for best performance.
We know Apple's Fusion Drive accomplishes these actions in firmware or software that exists in their new iMacs, but what resource led you to conclude this ability exists in your MacBook Pro, or anything other than the current production 2012 iMacs for that matter?
If you are certain it does, I may do it also. I like challenges too. -
I have a MacBookPro 9,1 (mid-2012, non-retina) running OS X 10.8.2. Here is what I have done to my system:
Installed Windows 7 x64 Pro to a boot camp partition; installed all windows updates.
Using WinClone, save an image of this boot camp partition.
Removed optical drive and HDD.
Installed HDD in place of optical drive.
Installed SSD in place of HDD.
Booted to recovery partition, installed OS X on a flash drive.
Booted to flash drive, created fusion drive using [MacWorld's instructions](http://www.macworld.com/article/2014011/how-to-make-your-own-fusion-drive.html)
Booted to recovery partition on flash drive.
Restored system to fusion drive from a Time Machine backup. Unfortunately, it seems that because I never installed OS X on my fusion drive, I do not have a recovery partition. But that's an issue for another day.
Using Boot Camp assistant, created a boot camp partition on my HDD.
Using WinClone, restore my Windows installation from the previously created image.
Now, Windows boots to a black screen telling me that it can't find a bootable device. I have tried a few things to resolve this, all without effect:
I know that VMware Fusion has to prepare a boot camp partition in order to virtualize it, so I figured it might inadvertently fix things. Alas, while it *did* successfully boot my boot camp partition into a virtual machine, I still can't boot into Windows.
I figured I'd just try to reinstall Windows. Surprisingly, my system booted to my Windows install disc, which was in my original optical drive (which I had put in a USB case). But, Windows refused to install, giving me a an error 0x8030024. It seems the solution to this issue is to disconnect all drives but the one on which you want to install Windows, which is something I would dearly like to avoid. It would be a pain, but more than that, I'm afraid it would bork my fusion drive, even if I'm careful to never boot to OS X with the SSD disconnected.
A lot of places said that this error results from a borked MBR, and suggest using a tool like gptfdisk to rewrite it. I followed the instructions [here](https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4144252?start=0&tstart=0), but *that* didn't work either.
I am now completely at a loss as to how to proceed, and Google isn't much help either.
In conclusion, here is some information that you may find helpful:
$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *240.1 GB disk0
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_CoreStorage 239.7 GB disk0s2
3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 134.2 MB disk0s3
/dev/disk1
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *750.2 GB disk1
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1
2: Apple_CoreStorage 648.4 GB disk1s2
3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 650.0 MB disk1s3
4: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 100.9 GB disk1s4
/dev/disk2
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: Apple_HFS Mayfly *884.0 GB disk2
$ diskutil cs list
CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group 63DC419F-1A09-4C5B-977A-F59F79502CA1
=========================================================
Name: FusionDrive
Size: 888087773184 B (888.1 GB)
Free Space: 0 B (0 B)
|
+-< Physical Volume B1B14251-2DB3-491C-9E7A-5C2FD11881BA
| ----------------------------------------------------
| Index: 0
| Disk: disk0s2
| Status: Online
| Size: 239713435648 B (239.7 GB)
|
+-< Physical Volume D0BA2837-514D-4620-8E1D-26D18137CA94
| ----------------------------------------------------
| Index: 1
| Disk: disk1s2
| Status: Online
| Size: 648374337536 B (648.4 GB)
|
+-> Logical Volume Family 736A8900-FE9C-4342-A932-EDC35444774C
Encryption Status: Unlocked
Encryption Type: None
Conversion Status: NoConversion
Conversion Direction: -none-
Has Encrypted Extents: No
Fully Secure: No
Passphrase Required: No
|
+-> Logical Volume B4997853-59F8-4480-BB48-3481B2F2A123
Disk: disk2
Status: Online
Size (Total): 884000030720 B (884.0 GB)
Size (Converted): -none-
Revertible: No
LV Name: Mayfly
Volume Name: Mayfly
Content Hint: Apple_HFS
$ sudo gpt -r -vv show disk1
Password:
gpt show: disk1: mediasize=750156374016; sectorsize=512; blocks=1465149168
gpt show: disk1: Suspicious MBR at sector 0
gpt show: disk1: Pri GPT at sector 1
gpt show: disk1: Sec GPT at sector 1465149167
start size index contents
0 1 MBR
1 1 Pri GPT header
2 32 Pri GPT table
34 6
40 409600 1 GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
409640 1266356128 2 GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
1266765768 1269536 3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
1268035304 280
1268035584 197111808 4 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7
1465147392 1743
1465149135 32 Sec GPT table
1465149167 1 Sec GPT header
$ sudo fdisk /dev/disk1
Disk: /dev/disk1 geometry: 91201/255/63 [1465149168 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
Starting Ending
#: id cyl hd sec - cyl hd sec [ start - size]
1: EE 0 0 2 - 1023 254 63 [ 1 - 1268035583] *2: 07 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [1268035584 - 197111808] HPFS/QNX/AUX
3: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused
4: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unusedMy setup is very similar to your's, Ryan, on a Mac Mini5,2 and the ordering is different and Winclone was not used.
1. New Mini with internal 500GB with Mountain Lion(ML), put into an external FW enclosure, so the Mini can/could be booted using an external drive for contigency.
2. Replaced internal stock HDD (500Gb/5400rpm) with SSD/HDD (256Gb SSD/1TB 5400rpm).
3. Installed W7 x64 on 64GB partition on HDD, which was a single-partition drive to begin with.
4. The remaining HDD partition and the entire SSD was put into a Fusion drive.
5. Using Command-R, new ML installed on Fusion HD.
Here is what I currently have...(Disk0 - SSD, Disk1- 1TB HDD, Disk2 - Fusion, Disk3 - External FW).
diskutil list
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *256.1 GB disk0
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_CoreStorage 255.7 GB disk0s2
3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 134.2 MB disk0s3
/dev/disk1
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk1
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1
2: Apple_CoreStorage 934.5 GB disk1s2
3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 650.0 MB disk1s3
4: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 64.9 GB disk1s4
/dev/disk2
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: Apple_HFS Fusion HD *1.2 TB disk2
/dev/disk3
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk3
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk3s1
2: Apple_HFS Rescue HD 371.8 GB disk3s2
3: Apple_HFS Leopard HD 31.9 GB disk3s3
4: Apple_HFS Snow Leopard HD 31.9 GB disk3s4
5: Apple_HFS Lion HD 31.3 GB disk3s5
6: Apple_Boot Lion Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk3s6
7: Apple_HFS Mountain Lion HD 31.3 GB disk3s7
8: Apple_Boot Mountain Lion Recove... 650.0 MB disk3s8
diskutil cs list
CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group A8C00490-0E14-401F-AB69-59F37724E8C4
=========================================================
Name: Fusion
Size: 1190201270272 B (1.2 TB)
Free Space: 0 B (0 B)
|
+-< Physical Volume 4772013B-5520-4801-9BE5-BCAEF4AEDAB3
| ----------------------------------------------------
| Index: 0
| Disk: disk0s2
| Status: Online
| Size: 255716540416 B (255.7 GB)
|
+-< Physical Volume A679A101-3C78-4A59-B5EE-A4339210CFAD
| ----------------------------------------------------
| Index: 1
| Disk: disk1s2
| Status: Online
| Size: 934484729856 B (934.5 GB)
|
+-> Logical Volume Family 5EF5C7CA-0B9C-4169-82A1-41C84F206672
Encryption Status: Unlocked
Encryption Type: None
Conversion Status: NoConversion
Conversion Direction: -none-
Has Encrypted Extents: No
Fully Secure: No
Passphrase Required: No
|
+-> Logical Volume 1512657C-ED13-4B31-82C6-7AECBBCA7F98
Disk: disk2
Status: Online
Size (Total): 1185508581376 B (1.2 TB)
Size (Converted): -none-
Revertible: No
LV Name: Fusion HD
Volume Name: Fusion HD
Content Hint: Apple_HFS
sudo gpt -r -vv show disk1
gpt show: disk1: mediasize=1000204886016; sectorsize=512; blocks=1953525168
gpt show: disk1: Suspicious MBR at sector 0
gpt show: disk1: Pri GPT at sector 1
gpt show: disk1: Sec GPT at sector 1953525167
start size index contents
0 1 MBR
1 1 Pri GPT header
2 32 Pri GPT table
34 6
40 409600 1 GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
409640 1825165488 2 GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
1825575128 1269544 3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
1826844672 126679040 4 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7
1953523712 1423
1953525135 32 Sec GPT table
1953525167 1 Sec GPT header -
XT750Gb + SATA II 128Gb SSD DIY Fusion Drive setup in Early 2011 MBP
So I have these two drives- a Momentus XT750Gb Hybrid Drive, and a 128GB SSD. I had planned on using them as separate drives, with the 128SSD in the optical bay, but recently I've been reading about Fusion Drives, and I was wondering if anyone had used this configuration in a Macbook Pro. I realize that the hybrid nature of the XT750Gb means that it is optimized for use as a boot drive, but is there any reason why it shouldn't be used as outlined above? I plan on making a clean install, and I realize I'll have to get into terminal, although I'm not overly happy about that- this is not my area of expertise at all-
If anyone has any observations or opinions, I'd be glad to hear them-
I've searched for this particular topic, but nothing specific has come up-
Thank you-
joeThank you-
I think SATA II speeds might be adequate for my needs- much faster than the stock HDD, and the OS, Program and file handling capabilities of the Fusion Drive setup might be worth it. I guess I'll just have to try it, see if it works at all...
Of course, the speed gain is important, but perhaps only if long term reliability is maintained-
Thanks again-
j -
Maverick upgrade with a DIY Fusion Drive slow performance
I combined my SSD drive and regular drive into a Fusion drive. Since then I getting the spinning beach ball periodically when doing simple tasks. Any suggestions?
Hardware Information:
iMac (27-inch, Mid 2010)
iMac - model: iMac11,3
1 2.8 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 4 cores
12 GB RAM
Video Information:
ATI Radeon HD 5750 - VRAM: 1024 MB
System Software:
OS X 10.9.1 (13B42) - Uptime: 4 days 13:57:40
Disk Information:
ST2000DM001-9YN164 disk1 : (2 TB)
EFI (disk1s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
disk1s2 (disk1s2) <not mounted>: 2 TB
Boot OS X (disk1s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB
OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5680H
OWC Mercury Electra 3G SSD disk0 : (120.03 GB)
EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
disk0s2 (disk0s2) <not mounted>: 119.69 GB
Boot OS X (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 134.2 MB
USB Information:
Apple Internal Memory Card Reader
Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Western Digital My Passport 0730 500.07 GB
EFI (disk3s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
Fusion Clone (disk3s2) /Volumes/Fusion Clone: 499.73 GB (114.11 GB free)
Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
Apple Inc. Built-in iSight
FireWire Information:
Thunderbolt Information:
Kernel Extensions:
org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv (4.3.6)
org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB (4.3.6)
org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt (4.3.6)
org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetAdp (4.3.6)
Problem System Launch Daemons:
[failed] com.apple.wdhelper.plist 3rd-Party support link
Problem System Launch Agents:
Launch Daemons:
[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist 3rd-Party support link
[loaded] com.bombich.ccc.plist 3rd-Party support link
[loaded] com.crashplan.engine.plist 3rd-Party support link
[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist 3rd-Party support link
[loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist 3rd-Party support link
[loaded] com.oracle.java.JavaUpdateHelper.plist 3rd-Party support link
[loaded] org.cindori.AuthHelper.plist 3rd-Party support link
[loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx.plist 3rd-Party support link
[not loaded] org.virtualbox.startup.plist 3rd-Party support link
Launch Agents:
[loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist 3rd-Party support link
[loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.startx.plist 3rd-Party support link
User Launch Agents:
[loaded] com.crashplan.javacheck.plist 3rd-Party support link
[loaded] com.ecamm.printopia.plist 3rd-Party support link
[not loaded] org.virtualbox.vboxwebsrv.plist 3rd-Party support link
User Login Items:
Flux
iTunesHelper
Arq Agent
Dropbox
Cinch
CrashPlan menu bar
Trim Enabler
Box Sync
Internet Plug-ins:
SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.6 3rd-Party support link
FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 11.9.900.170 - SDK 10.6 3rd-Party support link
Flash Player: Version: 11.9.900.170 - SDK 10.6 Outdated! Update
QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 7 Update 51 3rd-Party support link
Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9
Audio Plug-ins:
BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.9
AirPlay: Version: 1.9 - SDK 10.9
AppleAVBAudio: Version: 2.0.0 - SDK 10.9
iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3 - SDK 10.9
3rd Party Preference Panes:
Flash Player 3rd-Party support link
Java 3rd-Party support link
Printopia 3rd-Party support link
Bad Fonts:
None
Old Applications:
/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MERP2.0
Microsoft Error Reporting: Version: 2.2.9 - SDK 10.4 3rd-Party support link
Microsoft Ship Asserts: Version: 1.1.4 - SDK 10.4 3rd-Party support link
Duplifinder: Version: 2.1.1 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
/Users/[redacted]/Downloads/Duplifinder.app
Solver: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
/Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Office/Add-Ins/Solver.app
/Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Office
Microsoft Graph: Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
Microsoft Database Utility: Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
Microsoft Office Reminders: Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
Microsoft Upload Center: Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
My Day: Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
SyncServicesAgent: Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
Open XML for Excel: Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
Microsoft Alerts Daemon: Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
Microsoft Database Daemon: Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
Microsoft Chart Converter: Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
Microsoft Clip Gallery: Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
/Applications/Microsoft Office 2011
Microsoft PowerPoint: Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
Microsoft Excel: Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
Microsoft Outlook: Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
Microsoft Word: Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
Microsoft Language Register: Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
/Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Additional Tools/Microsoft Language Register/Microsoft Language Register.app
Microsoft AutoUpdate: Version: 2.3.6 - SDK 10.4 3rd-Party support link
/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MAU2.0/Microsoft AutoUpdate.app
Time Machine:
Skip System Files: NO
Mobile backups: ON
Auto backup: YES
Volumes being backed up:
Destinations:
1 TB BACKUP [Network] (Last used)
Total size: 930.87 GB
Total number of backups: 25
Oldest backup: 2014-01-20 07:57:24 +0000
Last backup: 2014-01-22 11:06:18 +0000
Size of backup disk: Excellent
Backup size 930.87 GB > (Disk size 0 B X 3)
Time Machine details may not be accurate.
All volumes being backed up may not be listed.
Top Processes by CPU:
2% EtreCheck
1% WindowServer
1% Box Sync Monitor
0% Box Sync
0% configd
Top Processes by Memory:
737 MB iTunes
590 MB iPhoto
406 MB Arq
344 MB com.apple.MediaLibraryService
184 MB Finder
Virtual Memory Information:
3.30 GB Free RAM
4.69 GB Active RAM
2.79 GB Inactive RAM
1.07 GB Wired RAM
9.87 GB Page-ins
1.42 GB Page-outsAre you booting from your clone:
Disk Information:
ST2000DM001-9YN164 disk1 : (2 TB)
EFI (disk1s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
disk1s2 (disk1s2) <not mounted>: 2 TB
Boot OS X (disk1s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB
OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5680H
OWC Mercury Electra 3G SSD disk0 : (120.03 GB)
EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
disk0s2 (disk0s2) <not mounted>: 119.69 GB
Boot OS X (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 134.2 MB
Clinton -
Fusion drive DIY not using SSD
Hello community,
Recently I have bought a SSD drive for my Mac Mini 2012, in order to make a dual hard drive installation ready to build a DIY Fusion Drive with Disk Utility. Apparently it works well, I have installed Yosemite without any problems and been using the Mac Mini normally. The problem is that it's very slow performance when it needs to read/write from disk, I've got around 40mb/s read and 35mb/s write speeds on BlackMagic disk speed tests.
In addition, checking the installation of the drives running "diskutil list" from command line (which tells me that disk0 is the SSD and disk1 is the HDD), and the disk usage with "iostat disk0 disk1 1" I can see that the OS is not really using disk0 but disk1 for all disk operations.
I noticed that eventually disk0 has movement but 99% activity is in disk1 (HDD). I believe that the normal behavior of a Fusion Drive is using SSD mainly and HDD in second instance for "not-cached" or less used files, but I am experiencing the opposite behavior.
The model of the SSD is Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB.
Please give me any advice about this issue.
Thanks for your help.
Best regards.Thanks for your replies.
Actually the SSD it's installed in the upper bay, because I've tried to install it at the bottom but Fusion Drive seems not to work, failing disk verification and prompting me to repair disk. In the upper bay seems to work fine, but I've this this issue.
This is my "diskutil cs list" output:
Mac-mini-de-Arturo:~ Bayo$ diskutil cs list
CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group FB3EEBCC-EBDA-4F7A-9256-0AE4A854C512
=========================================================
Name: Internal Drive
Status: Online
Size: 1239058448384 B (1.2 TB)
Free Space: 0 B (0 B)
|
+-< Physical Volume 3D0A6EE0-51FE-425C-B716-89215472D2D9
| ----------------------------------------------------
| Index: 0
| Disk: disk1s2
| Status: Online
| Size: 239713435648 B (239.7 GB)
|
+-< Physical Volume 397E16F1-877B-412B-8D7D-59A5BD47661A
| ----------------------------------------------------
| Index: 1
| Disk: disk0s2
| Status: Online
| Size: 999345012736 B (999.3 GB)
|
+-> Logical Volume Family 8FEAC5E2-11F2-4FE7-B980-945A0B81463C
Encryption Status: Unlocked
Encryption Type: None
Conversion Status: NoConversion
Conversion Direction: -none-
Has Encrypted Extents: No
Fully Secure: No
Passphrase Required: No
|
+-> Logical Volume 1621B9C3-17F9-4ABC-B8FF-767FEF074A94
Disk: disk2
Status: Online
Size (Total): 1230265384960 B (1.2 TB)
Conversion Progress: -none-
Revertible: No
LV Name: Macintosh HD
Volume Name: Macintosh HD
Content Hint: Apple_HFS
and, for more info, a screenshot of my current speed test with BlackMagic:
Many thanks!
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