Fusion Drive and regular HD

[BookEmDanno]

Just got a late 2012 MacMini, quad core i7 with 1TB HD. I decided later to have the Fusion drive option. I read here that the Fusion drive is actually 2 physical devices. Given that fact, is it even possible to have both the 1TB HD and Fusion drive in the MM together?

Regards and Mahalo.

 

[gnasher729]

Just got a late 2012 MacMini, quad core i7 with 1TB HD. I decided later to have the Fusion drive option. I read here that the Fusion drive is actually 2 physical devices. Given that fact, is it even possible to have both the 1TB HD and Fusion drive in the MM together?

Regards and Mahalo.

A Fusion drive _combines_ two drives, usually an SSD drive and a HD, so that the combination gives you the speed of the SSD drive (most of the time), and the cheap space of the HD.

You can add an SSD drive to the MacMini, and then you can combine the SSD and HD drive to turn them into _one_ Fusion drive. There are instructions for both somewhere on MacRumors. If you wanted a Fusion drive (SSD + HD combined) plus a separate HD, that would be three drives, and doesn't fit into a MacMini. For example, if you want another HD to do backups, you'll need an external drive.

 

[opinio]

Just got a late 2012 MacMini, quad core i7 with 1TB HD. I decided later to have the Fusion drive option. I read here that the Fusion drive is actually 2 physical devices. Given that fact, is it even possible to have both the 1TB HD and Fusion drive in the MM together?

Regards and Mahalo.

The Fusion (half SSD half HDD) drive will use the 1TB drive. You can have a maximum two 9.5mm thick 2.5" drives (standard laptop drive) in the MM. You can't have a 1TB as well as a Fusion drive (1 SSD and 1 HDD) as that would be three drives (if that is what you are saying).

You need a kit to put the second drive (SSD) in. The kit will have the sata ribbon, mount screws and some tools. See OWC for example or ifixit i think also has a kit.