Should I get Fusion Drive or just plain Flash Storage on an iMac with 5K Retina Display?

I know fusion drive is good but I don't know if the OS is put on the SSD or the mechanical hard drive. I'm leaning towards the pure flash storage put I'm not sure. Which one should I get?

If you can afford it, get the SSD, but get either the 512 GB or 1 TB storage size, if your budget allows.

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I purchased the Logitech F310 game controller for my 2011 MacBook Pro. How do I get the driver installed for it. The Disk that came with the controller is a mini disk and will not insert into my laptop.

I purchased the Logitech F310 game controller for my 2011 MacBook Pro. How do I get the driver installed for it. The Disk that came with the controller is a mini disk and will not insert into my laptop.

May not make a difference anyway. The Logitech support site does not show drivers for Mac OS for the F310:
http://www.logitech.com/en-us/support/gamepad-f310?crid=411
I'd contact their support to find out if there is a Mac driver available, and if they can either give you a web link to get it, e-mail you the software, or snail-mail you a standard-size disk with the drivers.

Just brought home newly purchased MacBook Pro 15"/Maverick/Retinal Display. To my astonishment, there is NO DVD slot! No one in the store told me about this missing feature. Intolerable, How does one install software? Insert CDs to copy for iTunes?Do I ha

Just brought home newly purchased MacBook Pro 15"/Maverick/Retinal Display. To my astonishment, there is NO DVD slot! No one in the store told me about this missing feature. Intolerable, How does one install software? Insert CDs to copy for iTunes?Do I have to purchase an external DVD drive? Is one even available? What a crock!

I’ve owned Macs since 1990 (IICX my first), mostly desktops. Having had DVD/CD drives in all my previous laptop Macs since 2001 - (2) G4 Powerbooks, A 17” Mac Book Pro - and also inspecting a friend’s year-old Mac Book Pro which had the DVD slot - unless someone told me at purchase, I had no reason to know that the Retina display version of the 15” had NO DVD drive. ANYHOW, I fully intended to buy the non-Retina display version, because it was cheaper. Unfortunately by the time I got to the Apple store they were no longer selling the non-Retina display version; all versions were ONLY with the Retina display. And the fine distinction of a DVD vs. a non-DVD drive was not pointed out. So now I have to shell out an additional $80 bucks for an external SuperDrive.

How to get fusion drive on Mac mini ?

Actually I have planned to buy a Mac mini but the problem is that I want a fusion drive one and I am not able to get that does the fusion drive one comes with 1TB Model or 500GB Model. I have visited the apples official page of India it us stating fusion drive available in features column but in Tecnical specification column it is showing one model with 500GB SSD and other one with 1TB SSD.
Or is it that fusion drive cones with both the models or we have to make custom order for that if customisation is required the how to do that in India

Call the Apple Store customer service and ask them to walk you through the steps.

Do I need to back up my iMac to an external HD? if so should I partion the drive and use it for storage as well

At a loss...

Highly recommended you have at lesat the incremental backups automated by Time Machine (the software). Time Machine makes backups so easy to setup and after that you ‘forget’ about backups as all tasks occur in the background, hourly by default.
If you use Time Capsule (the hardware) for your backups, you should not partition that drive. If you use a conventional external drive, you can consider partitioning it so that one volume is dedicated to Time Machine and one volume for example for other data purposes. When you have an external drive, you need to drag it to the Trash icon on the dock to eject the drive before you shutdown (or restart) the computer; this will ensure all data is physically written to the drive and buffers cleared. When you partition the external drive, ensure that both partitions are ejected before you shutdown.
The first time Time Machine runs, it does a full backup and can take quite a long time depending upon how much you are backing up. After that, it only backs up data that has changed and is usually very quick. At anytime, you can delete those backups and do a new full backup if you wish. It keeps old versions of everything you backup as long as you have space on the drive. When you are nearly out of space, Time Machine deletes the oldest versions of files until it has made enough room to continue backups. You’ll always have at least one complete image of all your data backed up assuming your backup volume is always larger than the data you wish to backup. If your backup disk is not large enough to hold everything, you can select files you do not wish to be backed up by Time Machine, for instance, you may have large video capture files from HDV tape that you do not need to backup because they are already on tape.

[Guide] Install and run Windows 7/8 from an external drive without using bootcamp (works for late 2012 iMacs with 3TB drive)

This is a copy of a post from my blog, you can also Read it on my blog...
Introduction
After I received my new iMac with a 3 TB Fusion Drive, I was disappointed when I realized that Bootcamp was not running on this model and prevented me from installing Windows on it. I wanted to take advantage of the powerful iMac hardware to play games but I couldn't.
There are a few ways of working around this limitation, but I found most of them quite complex and most of the time they required formatting the internal hard drive or repartitioning it and go for a brand new installation of Mac OS X. I was not comfortable with that.
But there is another way, and that is to install Windows on an external hard drive, using either USB or Thunderbolt. Personally I used a Lacie Rugged 1 TB drive that has both USB3 and Thunderbolt connectors. Both work very well.
This guide may interest you if:
You have an internal hard drive of more than 2TB and you can't run bootcamp at all (like late 2012 iMacs with a 3TB drive)
You have limited space or you don't want to dedicate disk space on your internal hard disk drive to a Windows installation
What this guide will make you do:
It will make you erase all your data from your external USB3/Thunderbolt hard drive
It will make you install Windows on your external USB3/Thunderbolt hard drive
It will make you install bootcamp drivers
What this will not make you do:
It will not make you modify anything on your internal Mac hard drive
It will not make you use or install the bootcamp assistant
It will not activate the Preference Pane for the default boot drive. You have to boot by pressing the ALT key to manually select your boot drive each tome you want to boot Windows.
What you'll need
An external hard drive with a USB3 and/or Thunderbolt connector. This drive will be formatted so ensure you saved your files before going further. You can use either an SSD drive or a classic hard drive.
A Windows 7 or 8 install DVD or ISO (check whether to install 32 or 64 bits versions based on your Bootcamp drivers) and the corresponding Windows serial number.
One of the following:
Mac OS X with a Windows 7 or 8 Virtual Machine (use VMWare Fusion or Parallels Desktop for example. Note: VMWare Fusion seems to have some issues with Thunderbolt and USB3. Plug your drive to a USB2 enclosure or hub to work around this -it worked for me-, or use another VM software) → Read the important note below
A PC running Windows 7 or 8 → Read the important note below
Windows AIK (free) running on your Virtual Machine or on your PC, or just the imagex.exe file (the rest of the Windows AIK package is not needed)
Download imagex.exe
Download Windows AIK (this download and installation is not required if you have already downloaded imagex.exe)
Bootcamp drivers for your Mac. You can get these either by running bootcamp from your Mac (Applications > Utilities > Bootcamp) or, if like me you have a 3TB drive and can't run bootcamp at all, use the direct download links here.
A USB stick to store your bootcamp drivers
IMPORTANT: If your Mac has a 64 bits processor, your Windows Virtual Machine on OSX, your Windows installation on your PC and your Windows DVD/ISO must also be in 64 bits!
Step by Step guide
Step 1: Get the install.wim file
If you have a Windows ISO file:
Mount the ISO
If you're on OS X: double click on the ISO file
If you're on on Windows 7: Use a software like Virtual Clone Drive (free)
If you're on Windows 8: double click on the ISO file
Open the mounted drive, then go to the "sources" folder and locate the "install.wim" file. Save this file to C:\wim\ on your Windows installation or virtual machine.
If you have a Windows DVD: open the "sources" folder on the DVD and locate the "install.wim" file. Save this file to C:\wim\ on your Windows installation or virtual machine.
IMPORTANT: If instead of a "install.wim" file, you have "install.esd", you can not continue this step by step guide. And an ESD file can not be converted into a WIM file. So you must get a version of the Windows installation DVD/ISO that has an install.wim file.
Step 2: Clean, partition and format your external hard drive
On your Windows installation or virtual machine, plug in your external hard drive (can be plugged using USB2, USB3 or Thunderbolt at this stage)
Open the command prompt in administrator mode (cmd.exe). To run it in administrator mode, right click on cmd.exe > Run as admin.
Type the following and hit enter to open the disk partitioner utility:
diskpartType the following and hit enter to list your drives:
list disk
This will display a list of disks mounted on your computer or virtual machine. Make sure your drive is listed here before you continue.Identify the disk ID of your external hard drive. Replace # by your real external disk ID in the command below:
select disk #Clean all partitions by typing the following (warning: this will erase all data from your external drive!):
clean
Create the boot parition by typing the following followed by the enter key:
create partition primary size=350
This will create a 350MB partition on your external driveFormat the partition in FAT32 by typing the following:
format fs=fat32 quick
Set this partition to active by typing:
active
Assign a letter to mount this partition. We will use letter B in our example. If B is already used on your PC, replace B by any other available letter:
assign letter=b
Windows will detect a new drive and probably display a pop-up. Ignore that.Create the Windows installation partition using all the remaining space available on the external drive by typing the following:
create partition primary
Format the new partition in NTFS:
format fs=ntfs quick
Assign a letter to mount this partition. We will use letter O in our example. If O is already used on your PC, replace O by any other available letter:
assign letter=o
Windows will detect a new drive and probably display a pop-up. Ignore that.Exit the disk partitioner utility by typing:
exit
Step 3: Deploy the Windows installation image
Still using the command prompt in admin mode (you didn't close it, did you? ), locate the imagex.exe file mentioned in the "What you'll need" section and access its folder. In our example, we have put this file in C:\imagex\imagex.exe
Type the following and hit enter (remember to replace o: with the letter you have chosen in the previous step):
imagex.exe /apply C:\wim\install.wim 1 o:
This will take some time. The Windows installation image is being deployed to your external driveOnce done, type the following to create the boot section (remember to replace o: and b: with the letters you've chosen in the previous step):
o:\windows\system32\bcdboot o:\windows /f ALL /s b:
If you get an error message saying that you can't run this program on your PC, then most probably you are running on a 32 bits installation of windows and you're trying to deploy a 64 bits install. This means you did not read the important notes in the beginning of this guide
If you get an error message on the options that can be used with the BCDBOOT command, then it's because you're installing Windows 7, and the /f option is not supported. If that is the case, remove /f ALL from the command and retry.
Step 4: Boot from your external drive and install Windows
Plug in your external drive:
If you've done all the previous steps from a Windows PC, unplug your external drive from your PC and plug it to your Mac, either on a USB3 or a Thunderbolt port.
If you've done all the previous steps from your Mac using a Virtual Machine, ensure the external drive is plugged in to a USB3 or Thunderbolt port. Using USB2 should also work but you'll get very poor performance so I don't recommend doing that.
Reboot your Mac and once the bootup sound is over, immediately press the ALT (option) key and release it only when the boot drives selection screen appears. If you did not get the boot drives selection screen, reboot and try again. The timing to press the ALT (option) key is quite short. It must not be too early or too late.
On the boot selection screen, choose "Windows" using the arrow keys on your keyboard, then press enter.
The Windows installation starts. Follow the on-screen instructions as normal. The installation program will restart your computer one or 2 times. Don't forget to press ALT (option) right after the bootup sound, and boot on Windows again each time to continue the installation.
Step 5: Install bootcamp drivers
Once the Windows installation is complete, plug in the USB stick where you stored the bootcamp drivers (see "what you'll need" section), open it and right click on "setup.exe" and select "Run as admin". Follow the on-screen instructions.If you have an error saying that you can't run this program on this PC, obviously you have installed a 32 bits version of Windows and the bootcamp drivers for your Mac are made for a 64 bits version. You have to restart the whole guide and make sure to get a 64 bits version of Windows this time!
Once the bootcamp drivers are all installed, reboot and press ALT (option) after the bootup sound to boot on Windows again. And Voilà, you have Windows installed on your USB3/Thunderbolt drive running on your Mac.
Now each time you want to boot on Windows, press and hold the ALT (option) key after the startup sound and select "Windows", then press Enter.

Hi i'm trying to follow your guide, I installed windows 8 on bootcamp to do it planning to remove it after the operation is done, but i get stuck at part 3: every command i give to imagex i get a pop-up ftom windws asking how do I want to open this kind of file install.wim and imagex does nothing, what do i have to do to stop those pop-ups?

I just wanna buy a new iOS device and I'm confused between the iPod touch 5th generation, iPhone 4s 8GB, iPad 4th generation 16GB and iPad mini with the retina display 16GB model. Please help me figure out.

I have an iPhone 4s 16GB Model and I've been using it for about more than an year now. The reason I wanna get a new iOS device is because my 4s has got lots of scratches now and it's ambient light sensor seems not to work properly. Apparently, another reason is that the iLife and iWork suit are not free for me as my device is older and new devices get those softwares for free.
I thought to go with a new iPhone 4s again but the problem is that new 4s come with only 8GB of storage and they don't support AirDrop. So next, I thought to go with an iPod touch 5th gen because of its jaw-dropping design, bigger screen, more storage and AirDrop support. Because iPod touch is phone-less iPhone and they come at affordable price, I can also buy any cheap cell phone like moto e to replace my current iPhone 4S.
Another options that I thought a little bit on, is iPad 4th Gen and iPad mini with Retina display 16GB.
Now, should I just stick with my current 16GB iPhone 4s, or get a new one.
Or should I buy an iPod touch 5th gen and moto e (since iPod can't make phone calls)
Or should I go with one of the two iPad models that I aforementioned.
Awaiting your valuable suggestions.
Thank you!

Found one on best buy
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Belkin+-+Grip+Neon+Glo+Case+for+Apple%26%23174%3B+iP od%26%23174%3B+touch+5th+Generation+-+Pink/1331013.p?id=1219050712926&skuId=1331 013
by Belkin, so a place to start.
They're a lot more expensive, but Griffin has some of their 'survivor' cases with sealed ports, so you could cover up the ones you don't need.
If best buy isn't an option for you, at least there's a manufacturer to look for.

If I buy an external hard drive for my new MacBook Pro with the retina display, can I play The Sims 3 on it?

Hi!
I recently bought the new MacBook Pro with the new retina display, but since it does not have a dvd/cd drive, I was going to buy an external one. I think I will be able to use it to watch dvds, but can I also play the computergame The Sims 3 on it? If not is there anything else I can do?
Thank you!

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
You can try formatting the external drive on your eMac using Disk Utility and choosing a well-known format > http://pondini.org/OSX/DU1.html. It's quite possible that your new iMac would be able to read it, but first, tell us which formats Disk Utility lists.
If you have those songs in iTunes, simply go to Music folder and copy the iTunes folder to the external drive. Then, connect it to the iMac and copy the iTunes folder to Music folder.
If they are not in iTunes, copy your songs to the external drive. Then, connect it to your new iMac, open iTunes and drag the songs into it

How do I get Photoshop to retain desktop preferences with a Retina display?

I use PS Creative Cloud mostly in Windows and on a Macbook with a Retina 13.3 screen.
When I first open an image from bridge/raw converter in my Macbook Retina the image is displayed in the lower right part of the screen. To get to a usable desktop I have to click view/screen mode/full screen mode with menu bar. Subsequent images opened from bridge/raw converter open in a correctly configured desktop. I have tried to save my preferred desktop settings under several different names but PS does not retain the settings even though that desktop setting shows a check mark next to it and is listed in the top right box as the chosen workspace.
I presume I am missing something simple as this must be a common issue.

What version of photoshop are you using?
On newer versions of photoshop cs4-cc, it's usually Window>Application Frame

Does anyone's arm/shoulder/wrist get sore or tired from the angle of using or playing with their Apple Watch?m

HI. My arm seems to be fatigued already from the angle at which I have to look at or use my apple watch. Just wondering if anyone else is experiencing this?

mine gets sore/tired after only like 10 seconds. that's why they came up with this whole glances thing lol. if you're going got be doing anything intensive then rest your arm on something or hold something with your watch hand

Amzing.. just replace my 7 year old imac with a new 27 "iMac and last night realised there is no built in drive for DVD., Amzing.. just replace my 7 year old imac with a new 27 "iMac and last night realised there is no built in drive for DVD.

Amazing the new 27 inch I mac has no built in dVD player. Bit like buying a brand new car and finding it doesnt have any doors.

Great analogy - particularly applicable to folks who would buy a new car without looking at it, never mind taking it for a test drive.

I just jazzed up my 2 Ghz iMac with 10.6.8, and 4 gigs of memory. I'm VERY happy with the results (fast!), but now I have a thin yellow line way over on the right side of the screen, which goes from top to bottom. This is really strange! Any input?

I'm VERY happy with the results (fast!). However, the really strange thing is this - there is now a thin yellow line, way over on the right side of the screen, which goes from top to bottom, and stays there no matter where I go or what I do. I've never seen anything like this! It was not there before I did the upgrades. Anyone out there ever heard of such a preposterous thing ~ or have any ideas on how to get rid of it?

Hello Mark,
It's going to mean a lot of reading but you should study the 'More like this' legend to your post's immediate right. >>>>>>>> plus some of the links within each.
The problem is well explored with much guidance on what to do and where to go.

Hard disk drive versus PCIe-based flash storage

I am trying to decide whether or not I want to get a regular MacBook Pro or a MacBook Pro with retina. I understand that the SSDs have less of a chance of failure (which is great because I've had a hard drive crash before) and that they run faster, but I don't know if I can deal with less storage space. If it's really worth it, I guess I would be able to fork over more for the higher storage SSDs, but I want to first know more about my options (ie, about how much stuff can I really fit onto each of the storage levels, does the storage amount go further on the SSDs, etc). Personal opinions are welcome! Thank you!

If your storage needs will fit on an SSD and you can afford it then it will speedup your Mac considerably.
Consider the size of your storage needs carefully. New rMBPs are not upgradable so you would need to live with the size of the SSD you would choose. How much storage do you use now on your Mac or PC? Are you planning to increase your media use (music, photos, movies)? Media is the biggest disk space usage for many users.
Personally, when I had a 128 GB SSD I was cramped. I upgrade to a Mac with a 256 GB SSD and now my 140 GB of used space fits OK. I have about 60 GB of music and photos and not much used for movies. I have a lot of old files going back a decade and half that I don’t bother to clean out because that would be a pain. My girlfriend uses only 60 GB and I plan to upgrade your machine to a 128 GB SSD. A 512 GB SSD would be wonderful but they are pricey.
On reliability: SSDs will survive shocks better but they have their own failure modes. I have had one fail in my Mac. So whichever way you go, backups are essential. Maintaining two backups is prudent.
13” rMBP prices: Purchasing at least 8 GB of RAM is prudent. If you count that in then a 256 GB SSD costs only $100 more.

Logic Pro 9.0.0 I'm getting lots of color wheel. This is a quadcore imac with over 800GB available on HD. 2.66GHz processor. Only Logic 9 open.

Seems like suddenly Logic is giving me lots of color wheels. When I open a project, the first click on anything will produce a color wheel and a long delay. If I audition a drum loop, I get a color wheel. Recently lost my "open recent" menu as if someone had cleared it. Logic is the only program open when I'm using it. My machine has plenty of available memory (over 800 GB on the HD). Do I need to upgrade to 9.0.2? I'm always afraid of the upgrades. Thanks.

Yes, update, not to 9.0.2, but straight to 9.1.5. Being afraid to update makes no sense when you are on a x.0.0 version, which tend to be the buggiest versions anyway; you should be afraid to be stuck too long with a .0.0 version.

I just bought a Macbook Pro 15'' with the retina display, but my webcam is extremely slow... what could be the reason?

When I'm using my webcam, for instance with FaceTime it's very slow... What can it be?

The warranty entitles you to complimentary phone support for the first 90 days of ownership.
If you bought the product in the U.S. directly from Apple (not from a reseller), you have 14 days from the date of delivery in which to exchange or return it for a refund. In other countries, the return policy may be different. If you bought from a reseller, its return policy applies.

Should I get Fusion Drive or just plain Flash Storage on an iMac with 5K Retina Display?

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