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Creating fusion drive, worth it or waste of time?

StellarVixen

StellarVixen

macrumors 68040
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Mar 1, 2018
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Alright, so here is the thing, I have one 128 GB SSD and 1TB HDD. I was thinking of creating a “Fusion Drive” out of two. Am I gonna gain anything by making this? Or should I just keep them separate.


Thank you in advance.
 
StellarVixen said:
Alright, so here is the thing, I have one 128 GB SSD and 1TB HDD. I was thinking of creating a “Fusion Drive” out of two. Am I gonna gain anything by making this? Or should I just keep them separate.


Thank you in advance.
Click to expand...

I‘ve toyed with DIY Fusion drives, I like them in lieu of expensive large SSD...yes, for some the upgrade cost Apple charges for 1-2TB SSD/NVME upgrades is not affordable. For many others, cracking open an iMac is not feasible to install a third party part. On the other hand, it’s an highly cost effective upgrade for old mac mini’s.

Rather than retype it all over I’ll link my old post regarding the subject...

forums.macrumors.com

SSD Vs Fusion Drive iMac

A gimmick? Hardly... No, far from it, it is not a marketing gimmick. It's an algorithmic technology that has been in use for some time now. Apple is the first to employ it at the consumer level, but data centers have used it for quite some time to manage data. In those applications its known...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com
 
hobowankenobi said:
I would not go Fusion. I would set up the SSD as the boot drive, and keep data on the HD.

I like to know exactly where my files are in case there are any issues, or for any troubleshooting. Fusion (and other Hybrids) tend to locate files based on use, so...that can get tricky if things go bad on a drive.
Click to expand...
+1, the fusion element of a two drive set up is over engineering to solve a non-problem IMO.
 
StellarVixen said:
Alright, so here is the thing, I have one 128 GB SSD and 1TB HDD. I was thinking of creating a “Fusion Drive” out of two. Am I gonna gain anything by making this? Or should I just keep them separate.


Thank you in advance.
Click to expand...

To be honest you can pick up a 1TB External SSD for around £100 / $100 these days. Given that it is relatively inexpensive I would just get a 1TB SSD and not bother with tying to create a fusion drive. In creating a fusion drive you have two potential points of failure in one logical drive, so I would not recommend it.
 
James Craner said:
To be honest you can pick up a 1TB External SSD for around £100 / $100 these days. Given that it is relatively inexpensive I would just get a 1TB SSD and not bother with tying to create a fusion drive. In creating a fusion drive you have two potential points of failure in one logical drive, so I would not recommend it.
Click to expand...

No, I don’t need anymore storage. I have all the storage I need with one 512 GB SSD, 128 GB SSD and 1TB HDD.


System is on 512 GB drive, so other drives are mostly used for data and media. I just wanted to make one volume out of two, and thought that maybe Fusion drive might be a good idea.
 
Do you have a backup hard disk ? If not then I would get the 1TB SSD and use your 1TB HDD as a backup drive for Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner. I know its only a 1TB HDD, but at least you can make sure your data is backed up, if you don't already have a backup device.
 
James Craner said:
Do you have a backup hard disk ? If not then I would get the 1TB SSD and use your 1TB HDD as a backup drive for Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner. I know its only a 1TB HDD, but at least you can make sure your data is backed up, if you don't already have a backup device.
Click to expand...

So far, I am only using Time Machine for backing up system volume.
 
I enjoyed my homemade Fusion Drives for the last 8 years, never failed me on multiple computers and drive combinations. They make a fairly decent boost for exactly $0. I say - if you have a backup, you can safely go for one.
 
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I have used a DIY Fusion drive on an iMac and a Mac mini. It’s currently a 3TB Fusion, and it’s awesome. We have a 4TB Time Machine backup drive.

Our family didn‘t want the hassle of wondering which drive had which files. This was a good solution for us, and it is very fast.
 
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