New fusion drive

The new fusion drive. I read here that you couldn't add an external hard drive to it. Maybe, I missunderstood it, but that dosn't make sense. Please clear this up for me. I want to get one along with a Time capsule and us my existing hard drives.

A computer with a Fusion drive has no issues with external drives. My new iMac has three connected to it. The warning you read about refers to something else.
A fusion drive doesn't have to be bought from Apple. If you have an SSD and a hard drive you can create your own. The warning you read about is that you should not pair an external drive and an internal drive to create a fusion drive because it would be too easy to disconnect the external drive accidentally which would be a minor - if not major - disaster.

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What order should I migrate files to new fusion drive in order to not clog it up with music and photos's?

My new 27" 1Tb fusion drive iMac has arrived and I am planning on setting it up over the next couple of days. I chose not to migrate my data from my old Time Machine backup as I want to start afresh so before selling my old MacBook I copied all the data I wanted to transfer onto an external drive into organised folders. I now want to import theses file to the new imac. I have a 25Gig iPhoto library, a 74Gig music folder, plus around 120Gig of video, documents, Logic Pro and Garage band files that I want to keep on the internal drive. I also have around 600Gig of iMovie files that I will keep on external scratch drives which don't need to go on the internal drive. I am not going to use migration assistant as that all went wrong last time, I will just drag the folders from the external drive on to the imac's internal drive.
Is there an order that I should import all of this when migrating to the new Fusion Drive so as not to clog up the SSD part with files that don't need to be accessed often or speedily, i.e. photos and iTunes media files? I know that the fusion software somehow sorts it all out in the background but I want to know that the type of files that will most benefit from SSD speed will live on that part of the drive.
Or, will it just sort itself out no matter what order I import?

Contact Apple's Express Lane and ask them, It's their new technology and they're responsible for providing the salient details.

Can Bootcamp run on the new fusion drives?

I'm interested in hearing from people who had a success with installing Bootcamp on the new fusion drives. I read a lot of the challenges in the beginning. i'm considering af new iMac with 1tb fusion and wont buy if I cant run the Windows Bootcamp for games.
So what are you saying?

Do computers that come with a Fusion Drive support Boot Camp?
Yes. Use the Boot Camp Assistant to create a Windows partition and install Boot Camp. The Windows partition will exist on the hard disk drive, not the Flash drive, and is not part of Fusion Drive Logical Volume Group. 3TB Fusion Drive configurations need to update to OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.3 or later to install Windows 8. See iMac (27-inch, Late 2012): Boot Camp alert with 3TB hard drive for more information.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5639

Can you attach an external HD to the new iMac with a fusion drive?

I'm trying to decide how to configure the new iMac I am going to buy. Can you attach an external HD to an iMac with a fusion drive? I'm assuming it would be fine, but since the fusion drive is new, I don't want a nasty surprise. Some of the new Mac Minis now have fusion drives, so has anyone added an external drive to it?

This was a concern expressed in this thread: Worrying reply to Apples FAQ on new Fusion Drive
However, Apple has since amended the FAQ, clarifying their earlier Fusion confusion.
Therefore I believe the answer is yes, you can add an external USB HD. If Apple would only state that explicitly in this document, it would eliminate all doubt.

Dead Fusion drive, brand new Late 2013 iMac. No status update from Apple.

Can someone let me know who I shouyld contact with regards to my below issue? I've spent hours upon hours trying to get my new iMac back from Apple store here in New York city, no success.
Purchased a new Late 2013 model 21" build-to-order iMac 3 months ago >
Hard drive partition corrupt within first month which required in store HD partition correction flash via genius bar >
HD hardware failed next month >
Genius appointment Feb 6 2014, was told new fusion drive was required and would take "2-3 days" >
7 days later I went in-store for status and was told they had no info and would call me with an update >
3 more days I go in store again after no call, still no status update >
Forced to purchase a new cheaper PC so I could keep working from home >
Now its 13-14 days later, I just spent over 2 more hours with Apple Support and still no results, now waiting for store Manager (“Matt”, W 14th St store in NYC) to call me. Its been 5 hours since my call this morning.
I have purchased a new computer as I work from home and cannot be without a computer fofr my job. This is ridiculous, I demanded a refund yet was told because I purchased from an authorized reseller (Tekserve - tekserve.com ) and not an actual Apple store, they cannot refund. Tekserve receipt states all support must go through Apple as it’s a build-to-order system. I paid over $1800 for this iMac (2.7GHZ quad core, 16gb RAM, Fusion drive etc..) a few months ago and it’s been the worst experience I’ve ever had with Apple in 7 years. Pi55ed off. Give me a new exact model iMac today OR give me a refund.
Apple employee, Look up the below repair ID, it'll have my cell phone number attached. Call me anytime with a solution. I've spent hours and hours on calls with Apple support with no results, no return calls from store manager.
Serial: D25LG******* / Repair ID R114745188

brettnyc wrote:
Thats my only option, I shall visit the store this evening and demand to see the manager.
Buying from an Authorized Apple reseller should never mean I get any less support than buying direct from Apple.
You're totally correct on both counts, when you ask to speak to the manager, even though you may be tempted to be angry the best approach to handling the situation is by being; calm, organzied and persistent. Bring all receipts, include names, times, places of who you spoke to and state your case.
I'm sure your issue will be addressed. In addition if you are in the US you can always call Apple's customer relations phone number, I believe the current number is 800-767-2775.
Good luck.
<Edited by Host>

Creating a Fusion Drive ?

Hi All,
I have a mid-2011 iMac which I plan to install a Samsung 840 Pro SSD to use as part of a Fusion Drive setup.
Typically I backup using Carbon Copy and wil be taking a backup prior to the mod.
Once the drive has been configured...... will I need to reinstall the OSX from scratch, or is it just a matter of bringing back the Backup ??
Pete

When you use CoreStorage to format the SSD and mechanical HD it will be a destructive format/paritioning so the new Fusion disk will look like one HD but in fact will be two under the hood. You should be able to use CC to restore your image as it will look like a single drive.
I'm not sure if that model iMac has a Fusion tool supplied by Apple or not. I think you have to use one of the many guides found online to manually configure the drives to be a single Fusion drive using diskutil at the command line. If I remember correctly, you'll need to boot with a thumb drive with 10.8.3 installation on it. Then go to the Terminal to configure the Fusion drive setup. Then you would have to find some way to run CC from a bootable thumbdrive, etc. I think you could boot the backup disk made with CC then run CC from it to clone to the new Fusion drive. That should work. Worse case scenario, you always could just re-install OS X on the Fusion drive and then use the Apple Migration Assistant to grab your data from the CC'd drive.
Either way, give yourself at least half a day in the event you run into issues and have to work around things.

Fusion Drive on a 2010 iMac with 2tb HDD & 256gb SSD

Hi,
well basicailly the title says it all!
I have a 2010 iMac with the 256gb SSD and 2TB HDD which to me seems like it would be great option for the Fusion Drive...
Does anyone have any ideas on how I could make the drives work like the new Fusion Drive?
I've seen the Macworld Tutorial on a DIY Fusion Drive but i'm still not sure if doing that will work in the same way as the preinstalled 2012 iMac Fusion Drive... I know that Mac OSX will treat the combined drives as one, but in terms of moving files depending upon their usage is another matter.
If the Macworld step by step is followed will Mountain Lion handle frequently used files / apps like the apple presentation states or will it just use the drives as one and not increase the performance of my machine?
Any help on this would be much appreciated, especially if anyone has followed the Macworld steps etc!
Thanks
Darren

Thanks fir the reply, I thought with the fusion drive the SSD and HDD were two seperate storage devices seen by OSX as one volume, and the software determins where the files most used will be placed and accessed from.
I've read a bit about this here;
http://macs.about.com/od/diyguidesprojects/ss/Setting-Up-A-Fusion-Drive-On-Your- Current-Mac.htm
but would be great to hear first hand experience!!
With this DIY approach it appears that the same functionality of the 2012 iMacs is achieved but simply not using the older Disk Utility, but a newer version only included on the newer models...

Fusion drive on 2011 mid Mac mini...

Hi everyone,
I understand how the new Fusion drive works. But only available on new macs.
I've been watching videos on YouTube that show how to make an ssd and hdd into one volume. And they show after the upgrade that these upgrades work. Now, I've also been hearing from other sources that it is impossible to make your own Fusion drive. That all you are doing is adding the two different drives. That the two drives don't actually don't work like I've been seeing on you tube.
I really do want to make my Mac mini into Fusion drive Mac. I don't have the funds for a new computer. I've also seen the new hybrid drives. 8gb ssd with 750 gb hhd to kind of a poor man's version of the Fusion drive.
So, I really need the advice of the experts here.
Thanks everyone,
mhh

1. Fusion Drive works on OS level, or more precisely, it lays between the physical storage and the file system, therefore there are few requirements for hardware, only you need an SSD + an HDD to make it work.
2. With the two drives properly installed, boot your mac with a recovery disk (10.8.3 and later) or with the Internet recovery (which makes sure that you have the latest recovery image), the disk utility will prompt that your drives are not working correctly and needs to be fixed. Fix it as prompted (note that your data on BOTH drives will be erased, so make a backup before doing this), and you will get a fusion drive, automatically, without any further configuration.
3. Reboot and restore from your backup, you are ready to go!
Addtionally:
1. You will need to enable the TRIM support for your SSD (it's pretty important) manually (try TRIM Enabler: http://www.groths.org/trim-enabler/ ), because OS X only provide native TRIM support for Apple stock SSDs, but not for any 3rd party ones.
2. As someone said above, the RAM capacity has little relevency with the performance of Fusion Drive.
3. Hybrid only achieves a small part (read and write caching) of what Fusion Drive provides, as the SSD part is too small. Fusion Drive stores the whole OS and other frequently accessed data almost permanently on the SSD part, which means you will have most of your job done much faster.

Enable TRIM on fusion drive?

I have recently installed a 256GB Sandisk SSD into my Mac mini and set it up, in conjunction with the existing 1TB HDD, as a single volume fusion drive (see: https://discussions.apple.com/message/24609725#24609725).
I would like to know whether it is possible to enable TRIM for the SSD while it remains integrated with the HDD as a fusion drive. If so, how can this be done?
Incidentally, the new fusion drive set-up has been outstandingly effective and an absolute breeze to set-up (once the new drive had been installed). It has been the most cost-effective upgrade imaginable for the Mac mini.

Personally, I don't feel you need TRIM enable on a Fusion drive with 3rd party SSDs. I never did when I had an Intel SSD fused.
TRIM Enabler will work on a Fusion drive, though if you feel you need it. See the bottom of the provided link.

Early 2013 Macbook Pro Retina. Fusion Drive failure?

A customer brought his early 2013 MBP in to my shop saying it wouldn't boot up. When I started it, it shows the ? folder. So, I assumed either fs corruption or physical hard drive failure. I installed Mounain Lion on an external hard drive connected to the laptop in order to access the drive (I didn't have a screwdriver for the new pentalobe screws....) Disk Utility immediately says wipe and reinstall, blah blah. So I opened up Disk Warrior and checked S.M.A.R.T. status and no errors had been logged. I attempted to rebuild the directory with DW 4.4 and it just sticks on "...searching entire drive in a final rescue attempt...." I did notice that the partition name changed from Macintosh HD to Unknown Disk sometimes. One time it said "Customer" and immediately DW found files and made a new directory. But when I attempted to write it, it gave a write error. So I installed ddrescue and attempted to make an image onto another drive. I used the rdisk device to do it. When it finished I checked the disk with hexdump on my linux box and got nothing but zeros. So I installed testdisk. When I select /dev/disk0 with testdisk it finds the partition table immediately and the files are all listed. When i select /dev/rdisk0, it finds nothing.... I am currently making another image with ddrescue using the /dev/disk0 device instead of rdisk0. I paused the rescue and checked the image fragment with hexdump and there is data in it! This is one of the new Fusion drives that Apple is using. Does anyone have an idea what could have happened here. Oh, almost forgot. The customer said he put the laptop to sleep and when he opened the lid it was frozen. He powered it off and that's when the ? folder appeared. Any input would be greately appreciated. Thanks.

He powered it off and that's when the ? folder appeared.
The flashing question mark appears when the firmware can't find the bootable volume it was assigned in System Preferences > Startup Disk.
The contents of NVRAM stores this I believe and is maintained by power from the battery, which like in PC towers is usualy maintained by the small motherboard battery, in the case of Mac's there is none.
So if he ran the battery dry the contents of NVRAM might have been lost and thus the machine doesn't know what volume to boot from.
So first thing first is to connect the machine to the MagSafe connector on a good power source not overloaded by other items. We need to make sure the machine is getting juice.
Reset the SMC
On the built-in keyboard, press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option keys and the power button at the same time.
Release all the keys and the power button at the same time.
You should let it charge up for some time.
Next reset the NVRAM
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.
Naturally at this point your going to see the Flashing question mark again.
Press and hold the power button down to force a hardware shutdown.
Locate the option/alt key on the keyboard and hold it down, now boot the machine.
What you will see is a row of icons, this is Startup Manager.
If you see the OS X Macintosh HD partition, then select it and the arrow and boot it up,
Next head to Apple Menu > System Preferences > Startup Disk and set it to the MacintoshHD, this will remind the NVRAM what your preferred boot volume is.
Reboot normally to test. Done.
If you do Startup Manager and don't see the MacintoshHD boot volume, like you only see the RecoveryHD or it shows a globe spinning and then loads Interent Recovery, then there is something seriously wrong with the drive or the machine.
Now since that is such a new machine, it's covered by Apple's one year warranty, so the owner should just take it to them.
However your can perform passive data recovery on it if they require as Apple doesn't do that.
Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive
Don't open the machine it voids warranty and AppleCare on those models.

HOW CLOSE CAN BEHRINGER TRUTH B2031A SPEAKERS BE TO A 2013 IMAC WITH FUSION DRIVE?

How close can you put studio speakers (specifically Behringer truth b2031a) to a 2013 imac? I know the speakers are sheilded but is it still safe right next to the computer? Will the fusion drive inside or a external be affected by the speakers? Anyone who has knowledge or experience in this topic your information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

This was a concern expressed in this thread: Worrying reply to Apples FAQ on new Fusion Drive
However, Apple has since amended the FAQ, clarifying their earlier Fusion confusion.
Therefore I believe the answer is yes, you can add an external USB HD. If Apple would only state that explicitly in this document, it would eliminate all doubt.

Boot up time on fusion drive mini

My brand new fusion drive Mac mini boots up in about 50 seconds. That seems extremely long compared to all the online reviews that say more like 15 seconds is typical.
I had an iMac and used Migration Assistant to bring everything over to the Mini. Could something have happened during the migration that would cause me not to enjoy the benefits of the SSD for boot up?
Is there something I can move/delete/check to make sure I get the most of the fusion drive? It is a 2.6 I7 with 16GB of Ram
Thanks,
Mike

Hello, good questions/post!
One way to test is to Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, Test for problem in Safe Mode...
PS. Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive
Reboot, test again.
If it only does it in Regular Boot, then it could be some hardware problem like Video card, (Quartz is turned off in Safe Mode), or Airport, or some USB or Firewire device, or 3rd party add-on, Check System Preferences>Accounts>Login Items window to see if it or something relevant is listed.
Check the System Preferences>Other Row, for 3rd party Pref Panes.
Also look in these if they exist, some are invisible...
/private/var/run/StartupItems
/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons
/Library/LaunchDaemons
And/or...
Open console in Applications>Utilities, check the system log for the date/time of the last regular boot for clues.

3rd party software on Fusion Drive?

Hi guys,
am planning to buy iMac Late 2012 27 inch with 1tb Fusion Drive and heard that some of 3rd party software don't work with fusion drive. So what is 3rd party software and does it work with 27 inch iMac with 1tb Fusion Drive?
Thanks, Enes
Message was edited by: Enesbkoca, Yep :) And sorry for the below comment!

Enesbkoca wrote:
Hi guys,
am planning to buy iMac Late 2012 27 inch with 1tb Fusion Drive and heard that some of 3rd party software don't work with fusion drive. So what is 3rd party software and does it work with 27 inch iMac with 1tb Fusion Drive?
Thanks, Enes
Message was edited by: Enesbkoca, Yep And sorry for the below comment!
In this case 3rd party software is software not provided by Apple.
It was suspected--before the units were available for test--that some disk utilities wouldn't work properly with the new fusion drives. While that may be the case, all software I have and use just works with my 27" and the 3TB fusion drive. I can't imagine that the 1TB would be different. The only disk related software I use is the built in Disk Utility and the third party software SuperDuper!, and sometimes Onyx. All work fine.
Other disk utilities may or may not work, but a simple Google search will probably give the answer for any specific piece of software.

Fusion drive upgrade

I've a iMac from spring 2011 and was wondering if there is a possibility to upgrade to the new fusion drive.

JHWPGH wrote:
I do not know whether you will be able to upgrade. However, a fusion Drive is not the same as a hybrid drive. A hybrid drive uses the solid state storage as a temporary cashe.
That is not true of the Seagate Hybrids (most of the hybrids are Seagates) The SSD section is (semi) permanent. Regularly used files live on the SSD, less regularly used ones may be moved back to the HDD to make room for new files. This not a cache, it is the same method used by the Fusion Drive, (but with more SSD space there is less moving of files). The Hybrid also have a cache, it is 32MB or 64MB of Ram, located on the drive as part of the drive controller, it is a true cache (read/write) using a variant of the LRU algorithm.

Can I configure Mac Mini with Fusion drive AND a secondary internal 1tb HD?

I am about to order an new Mac Mini, and would like to have the speed of the new fusion drive, but would also like to have the option of adding a secondary internal 1TB hard drive.
I know I can add an external HD, but I really like the increased speed, and access times of an internal HD.
Secondly, since I am about to make this purchase, I am curious if there is any word on the street about any dramatic upgrades or changes to the Mini due to come out at the June conference, or in the fall?
Thanks for the input.
Mark

The only clue you really have about possible upgrades, is to look at the product cycle in the past.
The average product cycle for the Mac Mini is 381 days, the last upgrade was 209 days ago, so it's not very likely we'll see a major update in june.
you can look at product cycles of mac mini (and apple products in general) on this page:
http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#Mac_Mini
keep in mind this is a website based on rumors, only Apple knows.

New fusion drive

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