Late 2012 Mac Mini D.Y.O. Fusion Drive

[jjk454ss]

The directions here are better than I can write up, the only issue is thy don't make it really clear to use Carbon Copy Cloner or something similar to make the Bootable External Drive first. But after the, this is just what I did, including the terminal commands because when I let Disk Utility "fix" it, it still wouldn't work. So just ollow the steps in the guide. When the mini first tins n and asks if ou wnt to fix/repair the volume just click no/cancel and use the Terminal commands in the guide.

http://blog.macsales.com/15617-creating-your-own-fusion-drive

 

[philipma1957]

The directions here are better than I can write up, the only issue is thy don't make it really clear to use Carbon Copy Cloner or something similar to make the Bootable External Drive first. But after the, this is just what I did, including the terminal commands because when I let Disk Utility "fix" it, it still wouldn't work. So just ollow the steps in the guide. When the mini first tins n and asks if ou wnt to fix/repair the volume just click no/cancel and use the Terminal commands in the guide.

http://blog.macsales.com/15617-creating-your-own-fusion-drive

delete

 

[Designed4Mac]

delete

????????

 

[philipma1957]

????????

changed my mind about what i was going to post.

 

[Designed4Mac]

The directions here are better than I can write up, the only issue is thy don't make it really clear to use Carbon Copy Cloner or something similar to make the Bootable External Drive first. But after the, this is just what I did, including the terminal commands because when I let Disk Utility "fix" it, it still wouldn't work. So just ollow the steps in the guide. When the mini first tins n and asks if ou wnt to fix/repair the volume just click no/cancel and use the Terminal commands in the guide.

http://blog.macsales.com/15617-creating-your-own-fusion-drive

How did it all go in the end?

 

[jjk454ss]

How did it all go in the end?

Great. Followed the directions from the site I posted, restored via Internet Recovery, and everything is working great. It's nice to ave th speed back, the mini seemed slow after my MacBook with an SSD. I am going to love the speed and he storage without having to manage it myself.

 

[Designed4Mac]

Great. Followed the directions from the site I posted, restored via Internet Recovery, and everything is working great. It's nice to ave th speed back, the mini seemed slow after my MacBook with an SSD. I am going to love the speed and he storage without having to manage it myself.

Thats exactly why i'll be doing it when this bloody kit finally arrives. Went from MBA with SSD to MM with HDD. The speed difference is amazing.

Keep me updated and i'll probably be in touch when i finally get to do mine

 

[jjk454ss]

Thats exactly why i'll be doing it when this bloody kit finally arrives. Went from MBA with SSD to MM with HDD. The speed difference is amazing.

Keep me updated and i'll probably be in touch when i finally get to do mine

I'll let you know if I think of anything else important, or if I run into any issues, but everything seems great. Got most of my apps installed and thing pretty much setup how I want them.

Let me know how it goes for you, and any questions just ask.

 

[calvol]

I followed jovceata's (OP) instructions and successfully created a Fusion drive on a refurb 2011 Mac Mini with a Samsung 830 256GB SSD and the original 500MB HD. It seems to have installed the Lion properly on the SSD from a USB stick because it boots much faster now, and I have a 740GB volume (15GB reserved). Many thanks OP!!!

 

[philipma1957]

I followed jovceata's (OP) instructions and successfully created a Fusion drive on a refurb 2011 Mac Mini with a Samsung 830 256GB SSD and the original 500MB HD. It seems to have installed the Lion properly on the SSD from a USB stick because it boots much faster now, and I have a 740GB volume (15GB reserved). Many thanks OP!!!

yeah once you get them going they are pretty darn good.

 

[sfxguy]

Just finished adding a samsung 840 pro, 128gb ssd and 16 gb of ram to my 2012 mini. Took about 30 minutes fooling the video on owc's site. Was very straightforward IF you are comfortable inside of a computer.

I booted up, made a USB recover disk, booted to it, opened the terminal in recovery mode and had a fusion drive in 5 min.

It's been running hard for a day and no problems at all.

Only thing I am wondering is if its worth it to mess around with enabling trim or if it really doesn't do that much.

 

[urkel]

Im considering rolling my 256GB ssd and 2nd 750GB hdd into a fusion drive but I have a few questions:

1) Mac Mini is also my iTunes server so would. Fusion drive result in frequently played music/movies being pushed to the SSD so often that it would burn ssd cycles faster than necessary?

2) What happens if one of the drives burn out or if I want to do an upgrade of a single drive?

3) Is 256GB SSD waste of space? Apple only uses 128GB and Im not sure if having moe space would work against the whole fusion idea because infrequently used files would take up SSD space/cycles.

Fusion drives seem great but Im still trying to figure out if Fusion vs Manual File Management is better for me so thanks for any responses.

 

[xlii]

Im considering rolling my 256GB ssd and 2nd 750GB hdd into a fusion drive but I have a few questions:

1) Mac Mini is also my iTunes server so would. Fusion drive result in frequently played music/movies being pushed to the SSD so often that it would burn ssd cycles faster than necessary?

2) What happens if one of the drives burn out or if I want to do an upgrade of a single drive?

3) Is 256GB SSD waste of space? Apple only uses 128GB and Im not sure if having moe space would work against the whole fusion idea because infrequently used files would take up SSD space/cycles.

Fusion drives seem great but Im still trying to figure out if Fusion vs Manual File Management is better for me so thanks for any responses.

1. Yes, but don't worry about burning ssd cycles. Movies & Songs would get written to the SSD so slowly that your SSD will be an antique before the number of writes would become an issue.

2. You absolutely need a backup of all your data. If one of the disks in the fusion drive fails all your data is likely lost as fusion drives moves blocks (pieces of a file) not files around. So part of a file can be on the SSD and another part of the file can be on the HDD.

3. Your 256 GB SSD is not a waste of space. Many users are using 256 GB and 512 GB SSD as part of their fusion array. It will work just fine. You will put about 252 GB of data on your SSD and if you write more data to it the OS will start to move data off of the SSD and on to the HDD. The software tries to keep a 4 GB buffer on the SSD.

I've had mine running since November 2012 and have had no issues with it. The most important thing you need to do before, during, and after is to have a backup of all your data.

 

[urkel]

Thanks for the info. Two more questions though.

1) Are the results from Disk Speed Test meaningful anymore now thats its a fusion drive?

I made a fusion drive of a 256GB Crucial SSD and a 750GB WD Black 7200rpm. Disk Speed Test used to clock the SSD at 150MB/s write and 480MB/s read but now its testing at 66MB/s write 100MB/s read.

2) Does fusing two drives increase the chances of data loss?

With two separate drives (SSD=My OS, important files, Aperture library / HDD=Infrequent files, iTunes Library) then when theres drive failure I only have to worry about losing one drive but with a fusion drive if one fails they both fail.

Thanks again for help. Im okay with the decreased speeds but I just want to know what level to set my paranoia to.

 

[philipma1957]

Thanks for the info.

One more question though. Are the results from Disk Speed Test meaningful anymore now thats its a fusion drive?

I made a fusion drive of a 256GB Crucial SSD and a 750GB WD Black 7200rpm. Disk Speed Test used to clock the SSD at 150MB/s write and 480MB/s read but now its testing at 66MB/s write 100MB/s read.

the speed test don't mean much. those numbers show me that test is only testing your hdd part of the fusion drive.


use xbench it just says f you

use aja it won't start

use disk speed test it won't start, but copy to it from a fast external and look out.

all my tests are a 1.5 diy fusion uses a 500gb samsung ssd a 1tb hitachi apple.

I am booting with a promise pegasus r6 using a 4th clone osx to boot. all my tests on the internal fusion failed ( normal) I used the external boater and that causes the failure. but when I copied a 70gb file from an external raid0 to the internal fusion the entire copy was a 275MB. It would have been faster but my external raid0 reads at 280Mb tops. thus it writes to the fusion at 275Mbs. If I wanted to use 3 4th hdds in a raid0 I could make copies back and forth to the diy fusion at 380Mbs to 420Mbs.

I can do a copy of a folder with 15 18gb files or 270gb before the system slows this is due to the bigger ssd. more often then not I pull files off the fusion to the raid0.

the last speed test show what the raid0 2x 4tb can read and write. around 250 both read and write. this limits my copy speeds to and from the fusion.

 

[Mike in Kansas]

the speed test don't mean much. those numbers show me that test is only testing your hdd part of the fusion drive.


use xbench it just says f you

use aja it won't start

use disk speed test it won't start, but copy to it from a fast external and look out.

all my tests are a 1.5 diy fusion uses a 500gb samsung ssd a 1tb hitachi apple.

I am booting with a promise pegasus r6 using a 4th clone osx to boot. all my tests on the internal fusion failed ( normal) I used the external boater and that causes the failure. but when I copied a 70gb file from an external raid0 to the internal fusion the entire copy was a 275MB. It would have been faster but my external raid0 reads at 280Mb tops. thus it writes to the fusion at 275Mbs. If I wanted to use 3 4th hdds in a raid0 I could make copies back and forth to the diy fusion at 380Mbs to 420Mbs.

I can do a copy of a folder with 15 18gb files or 270gb before the system slows this is due to the bigger ssd. more often then not I pull files off the fusion to the raid0.

the last speed test show what the raid0 2x 4tb can read and write. around 250 both read and write. this limits my copy speeds to and from the fusion.

Are you saying the Xbench and Disk Speed Test won't run on your DIY Fusion? I "fused" my internal SSD with an external FW 800 drive and both of those tests can run on my FD. Or am I misunderstanding you? Are you booting off of a "non Fusion disk" but still have an FD array?

 

[philipma1957]

Are you saying the Xbench and Disk Speed Test won't run on your DIY Fusion? I "fused" my internal SSD with an external FW 800 drive and both of those tests can run on my FD. Or am I misunderstanding you? Are you booting off of a "non Fusion disk" but still have an FD array?

I was booting from an external it is 1 drive in a 6 bay unit. It is a 4tb hitachi hdd. That is my booter for this test.

The fusion is completely in the quad mini.

I can make all the bench tests work on the fusion or not work. It depends on setting's for the fusion drive. Since the fusion drive is a different user and different password then the external booter drive it is not allowed to be written on, by the 3 different tests. I am prepping the machine for a sale So I set the fusion driver it to a different user.

I was able to copy the large folder to it. by authenticating it with a password from the external booter.

There are a lot of complex settings that just f up the bench testing. The only good test in my example was the copy if the raid0 folder of about 72gb.

 

[xlii]

Thanks for the info. Two more questions though.

1) Are the results from Disk Speed Test meaningful anymore now thats its a fusion drive?

I made a fusion drive of a 256GB Crucial SSD and a 750GB WD Black 7200rpm. Disk Speed Test used to clock the SSD at 150MB/s write and 480MB/s read but now its testing at 66MB/s write 100MB/s read.

2) Does fusing two drives increase the chances of data loss?

Thanks again for help. Im okay with the decreased speeds but I just want to know what level to set my paranoia to.

To answer question #2 I'm no statistician but if you use 2 drives in fusion or use them as 2 separate drives... the odds of either one of them failing should be the same in either case.

Once again you should always back up all of your data.

 

[philipma1957]

To answer question #2 I'm no statistician but if you use 2 drives in fusion or use them as 2 separate drives... the odds of either one of them failing should be the same in either case.

Once again you should always back up all of your data.

Thanks for the info. Two more questions though.

1) Are the results from Disk Speed Test meaningful anymore now thats its a fusion drive?

I made a fusion drive of a 256GB Crucial SSD and a 750GB WD Black 7200rpm. Disk Speed Test used to clock the SSD at 150MB/s write and 480MB/s read but now its testing at 66MB/s write 100MB/s read.

2) Does fusing two drives increase the chances of data loss?

With two separate drives (SSD=My OS, important files, Aperture library / HDD=Infrequent files, iTunes Library) then when theres drive failure I only have to worry about losing one drive but with a fusion drive if one fails they both fail.

Thanks again for help. Im okay with the decreased speeds but I just want to know what level to set my paranoia to.

To back up a fusion you need

A) Time Machine on external drive a
B) A Sunday morning clone on external drive b
C) A Wednesday mooring clone on external drive c

BTW ;

THE BACKUP plan is a standard way to backup any mac with or with fusion.

 

[Fishrrman]

"2) Does fusing two drives increase the chances of data loss?
With two separate drives (SSD=My OS, important files, Aperture library / HDD=Infrequent files, iTunes Library) then when theres drive failure I only have to worry about losing one drive but with a fusion drive if one fails they both fail."

The fact that you're even thinking about this suggests (at least to me) that you'd be better off maintaining two "separate" drive volumes, instead of going for a "fused" drive.

This is exactly why I see the "fusion concept" as something that looks great at the beginning, but could become the source of major problems further on down the road.

When a fusion setup fails, even data recovery software may not be able to recover files from the [formerly fused but now "broken"] two individual drives.

Since you obviously have the savvy to manage two drive icons, and put files where _you_ want them to go, I think you'd do better to ignore fusion and just "keep control" over the drives yourself.

I normally keep _seven_ drive volumes mounted on the desktop (partitions created from just two physical drives), and I know where stuff is supposed to go on all of them….

 

[philipma1957]

"2) Does fusing two drives increase the chances of data loss?
With two separate drives (SSD=My OS, important files, Aperture library / HDD=Infrequent files, iTunes Library) then when theres drive failure I only have to worry about losing one drive but with a fusion drive if one fails they both fail."

The fact that you're even thinking about this suggests (at least to me) that you'd be better off maintaining two "separate" drive volumes, instead of going for a "fused" drive.

This is exactly why I see the "fusion concept" as something that looks great at the beginning, but could become the source of major problems further on down the road.

When a fusion setup fails, even data recovery may not be able to recover files from the [formerly fused but now "broken'] two drives.

Since you obviously have the savvy to manage two drive icons, and put files where _you_ want them to go, I think you'd do better to ignore fusion and just "keep control" over the drives yourself.

I normally keep _seven_ drive volumes mounted on the desktop (partitions created from just two physical drives), and I know where stuff is supposed to go on all of them….

I used to go the route of 2 or 3 eternal hdds with 3 partitions each .


I like my current method better diy fusion, but down the road fusion will be a thing of the past as 1tb ssds will arrive in

May/June.


http://www.bing.com/search?q=crucia...ghc=4&pq=crucial+m500&sc=1-12&sp=-1&sk=&gts=2


when a 960Gb ssd drops at under 600usd

fusion will be less important. right now mac mall has the 500gb samsung for 280



http://www.macmall.com/p/Samsung-Portable/Removable-Drives/product~dpno~9427890~pdp.iaeefcb

prices and sizes just a bit lower then this will end fusion in 2 years max.

not that i would do this but 4x samsung 500gb at 280 is 2tb for 1120 put in this case


http://www.macmall.com/p/Promise-Drive-Cases-And-System-Enclosures/product~dpno~9453066~pdp.iagjgii

1500 usd for monster speed. 3 videos on the promise j4


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFD6CJPLCGE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onYmQ-kfEyI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eRLufvuMJE

 

[urkel]

The fact that you're even thinking about this suggests (at least to me) that you'd be better off maintaining two "separate" drive volumes, instead of going for a "fused" drive.

This is exactly why I see the "fusion concept" as something that looks great at the beginning, but could become the source of major problems further on down the road.

When a fusion setup fails, even data recovery may not be able to recover files from the [formerly fused but now "broken'] two drives.

Since you obviously have the savvy to manage two drive icons, and put files where _you_ want them to go, I think you'd do better to ignore fusion and just "keep control" over the drives yourself.

I normally keep _seven_ drive volumes mounted on the desktop (partitions created from just two physical drives), and I know where stuff is supposed to go on all of them….

You nailed all the reasons why I bailed on the Fusion drive... kinda. My MBP13 dual drive (SSD+HDD) is my main machine and after fusing them together I decided that I'd rather manually manage them. But my Mac Mini (2012) I decided to fuse just because its the family machine so I dont manage it much.

 

[Mike in Kansas]

"2) Does fusing two drives increase the chances of data loss?
With two separate drives (SSD=My OS, important files, Aperture library / HDD=Infrequent files, iTunes Library) then when theres drive failure I only have to worry about losing one drive but with a fusion drive if one fails they both fail."

The fact that you're even thinking about this suggests (at least to me) that you'd be better off maintaining two "separate" drive volumes, instead of going for a "fused" drive.

This is exactly why I see the "fusion concept" as something that looks great at the beginning, but could become the source of major problems further on down the road.

When a fusion setup fails, even data recovery may not be able to recover files from the [formerly fused but now "broken'] two drives.

Since you obviously have the savvy to manage two drive icons, and put files where _you_ want them to go, I think you'd do better to ignore fusion and just "keep control" over the drives yourself.

I normally keep _seven_ drive volumes mounted on the desktop (partitions created from just two physical drives), and I know where stuff is supposed to go on all of them….

Why even bother futzing around with data recovery? That's a risky proposition regardless of losing 1 drive or 2. Just keep multiple backups of your FusionDrive array just like you would keep multiple backups of independently-managed drives. Using FusionDrive sure makes backups simpler - just clone 1 drive and have a TM backup of 1 drive, instead of 1,2 or 7 drives.

 

[mimizone]

problem with fusion drive

Hi all,
I followed the steps to create a Fusion drive on a brand new Mac Mini.
but ran into problems

- booted the original drive, update Mac OSX to 10.8.2
- made a Carbon Copy clone on an external drive
- installed the additional SSD
- booted from the clone on USB port
- launched disk utility and launch the Fix
- Disk utility froze after the FD is created, killed it.
- formatted the FD on the command line
- rebooted on the recovery partition (the boot was very slow from now on)
- did a mac os x reinstallation via the internet
- the install stops after 1h-1h30 or so, saying it can't download all the additional components to install OS X (the internet is plug properly and it doesn't complain about that)

My SSD is a Vertex 3 128GB, the drive is the Hitachi 1TB coming with the Mac Mini.

Any clue what went wrong?

and also I can't figure out how to delete the Fusion drive, even from the command line. It complains it is mounted, but it can't be unmounted.

 

[mimizone]

Quick note, I successfully deleted the fusion drive by disconnecting the ssd from the board, reboot in the clone, unmount the internal hd in diskutil, delete the core storage volume via the command line, recreate a partition.

I am now restoring the clone copy to the internal hd until I figure out why the fusion didn't work.

Of you have any tips, they are very welcomed