The plot thickens. After doing a Time Machine restore for an hour, the setup process asked me to set up a new user account (???) so I did. Then when I got to the desktop, none of my files transferred over. None. I called Apple and they said to run Migration Assistant manually, which I am doing now. They said that Migration Assistant works with Fusion Drives, so that was not the problem. Or so I hope. Not as painless as I had hoped...
Oh, Disk Utility shows one volume named Macintosh HD, with 1.12 gigs of storage. There is no indication of SSD.
This is exactly what I thought (my post on page 1 of the thread). Someone else mentioned that there must be an index that specifies which file is stored where, SSD or HDD, and that file is backed up by Time Machine. So, when one runs the Time Machine restore, the index file specifies where to place the files being restored. The problem is that if you try to restore from a Time Machine backup made on a non-fusion drive to a Fusion Drive, that index file does not exist in the Time Machine backup. Hence, the problems with the restore process. These new Macs equipped with Fusion Drives must come with the newer version of Migration Assistant that is Fusion-Drive compatible. It probably places applications known to OS X to the SSD drive when restoring from an older Time Machine backup. User data is most likely restored to the HDD, and some of it will be moved to the SSD during the first days/weeks/months of using a Fusion-Drive equipped Mac.
As for the shipment speed, here’s the shipping record of my Mac Mini 2.6 GHz i7 with Fusion Drive:
- 11/01/2012
8:49 am: Delivered
7:59 am: On FedEx vehicle for delivery
7:55 am: At local FedEx facility
6:28 am: At destination sort facility
4:10 am: Departed FedEx location, MEMPHIS, TN
12:00 am: Arrived at FedEx location, MEMPHIS, TN
10/31/2012 - Wednesday
11:11 pm: International shipment release - Import MEMPHIS, TN
10:21 pm: In transit CHEK LAP KOK HK
3:49 pm: In transit LANTAU ISLAND HK
2:20 pm: Left FedEx origin facility SHENZHEN CN
9:15 am: Picked up SHENZHEN CN
12:36 am: Shipment information sent to FedEx
So, it literally took 36 hours 34 min for my Mac Mini to get to my house in North Carolina from the factory in Shenzhen, China. This is nothing short of amazing inventory management and delivery speed on Apple’s and FedEx part. I did pay an extra $13 or so for expedited shipping, but the speed with which it was delivered is just mind blowing.