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JedNZ

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 6, 2015
651
249
Deep South
I'm looking for recommendations for my drive set up on my cMP 4,1>5,1.

My current boot drive is 1TB NVMe (500GB used/500GB available), and my User accounts are on a FusionDrive HFS+ consisting of a 2TB NVMe and a 2TB HDD (3.5TB used/500GB available). Both NVMe drives are in an Ableconn PEXM2-130 Dual PCIe in PCIe Slot 2, with the HDD in one of the direct connect SATA II bays. I'm running macOS Sonoma (I'm considering upgrading to macOS Sequoia). I also have a 4TB HDD for Time Machine, a W11 SSD, OCLP is on another HDD, a Mojave SSD and a backup Mojave SDD, and a working macOS Sequoia SSD (for testing). I have no spare SATA II bays or PCIe slots. I do have an external dual bay SATA III USB 3.0 dock which I connect to my PCIe USB 3 card (3x 3.0 USB-B, 2x USB C). OCLP is configured with Innie so my PCIe drives are all seen as internal.

I have one major issue with the User accounts on the FusionDrive which is stirring me to change things and upgrade my drive arrangement – iCloud Drive does not work for any of the User accounts on the FusionDrive (HFS+), including my primary User account. I have posted the issue here, but I haven't be able to find a solution for this (ChatGPT was very useful but hasn't come up with a solution). iCloud Drive does work for the User accounts on the boot NVMe drive though, so is this a FD issue, or more specifically a FD HFS+ issue?

I'm thinking of purchasing an additional 4TB HDD (or 4TB SSD) and creating a new FusionDrive with the 2TB NVMe and whatever 4TB I chose to get (for 6TB of storage) rather than having the boot drive and Users separated like I do currently. I'm hoping this will fix my iCloud Drive issues. The extra drive space will future proof my User data needs for a while.

I have some specific questions I need advice/guidance with (I have spent some time searching the forums and the internet but can't find answers to my specific questions).

Q1: Can I create a FusionDrive that is formatted as APFS (as opposed to my current HFS+ set up)? Some says APFS FusionDrives are flakey, some say it's not possible and they must be HFS+.
Answer: Yes. I booted into Recovery an used Disk Utility to "Convert to APFS". It took a few hours (3.5TB of data) and it successfully converted the FD from HFS+ to APFS. What I didn't expect was that iCloud Drive immediately reconnected, and I can also toggle the "Optimise Mac Storage" option in Settings > iCloud. Hugely happy with that.
Q2. Is it also possible to convert a HFS+ FD to APFS non-destructively? The option to convert HFS+ to APFS is in Disk Utility, however it's greyed out and I don't know if it's not possible, or if it is possible but there's something preventing this for some reason.
Answer: As per Q1, I successfully converted an HFS+ FD into a APSF FD non-destructively - all my data is intact.
Q3. Is it possible to create a Fusion Drive with a 2TB NVMe and a 4TB Sata III SSD? Would this be better option to a 2TB NVMe and a 4TB HDD? A HDD is half the price of a SSD, so I need confirmation a NVMe+SSD FD is possible.
Q4. Can a Fusion Drive be used as a Time Machine, and can it be formatted APFS versus HFS+? Some say TM has to be HFS+. I'm thinking of using the repurposed 1TB NVMe drive with my current 4TB HDD Time Machine to make 5TB of TM storage.
Q5. I only buy Western Digital hard drives now because I've been bitten with Seagate HDDs in the past. Will a WD Red or Purple or Gold or Enterprise HDD work in a Fusion Drive with a 1TB NVMe? I've always used WD Black Edition HDDs for FDs, but aren't sure on whether the other coloured models will work. I've also read about some HDDs not fitting the cMP drive sleds - is this becasue of the capacity (e.g. do the HDD screw mounts differ on certain sizes and above?) or is the actual model type were the screw mounts don't align on the drive sleds (e.g. for Red, Purple, Gold or Enterprise)?

I appreciate any guidance, but place extra value on working real world experiences rather than theoretical suggestions.

Updates in Red.
 
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