Apple's New Fusion Drive Works on Older Macs

Thank you for your clear instructions, but ...

petterihiisila said:

I'm running it on Early 2008 Mac Pro. It essentially took those 2 commands as described in the article and now there's a drive called Fusion.

Missing parts were to figure out the disk numbers, use "diskutil list" for that. And for formatting the volume, you need the ID behind "Logical Volume" using command "diskutil cs list". Using Intel SSD and Seagate HDD, both internal. SSD is just hanging in there, I don't have a cradle.

So the commands for me were:

diskutil list (to get the disk numbers, in my case 4 and 0, #4 being the SSD)
diskutil cs create Fusion disk4 disk0 (to create a new volume, unformatted)
diskutil cs list (to find the volume ID)
diskutil cs createVolume 6B3D1709-EAF5-4E8C-B51B-3FED5EB17E00 jhfs+ Fusion 1100g (to format it)

Blue text are variables that you need to set for your system. Fusion is the name I gave for the drive.

Be careful with those disk numbers. Get them wrong and you will format the wrong disk. Disconnect your Time Machine before these commands in case things blow up.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the clearest instruction I have seen on this. However, i get the following message:

diskutil cs create Fusion disk3 disk0
Started CoreStorage operation
Unmounting disk3
Repartitioning disk3
Unmounting disk
Creating the partition map
Rediscovering disk3
Error: 22: POSIX reports: Invalid argument

Right drives. Both brand new, blank and re-formatted.

Ideas?

toke lahti said:

If Core Storage was already in 10.7, would FD also work with 10.7?
(Yep, my MP1,1 is still running SL...)

Click to expand...

Nobody tried?

subscribed

One thing I would note for anyone considering this in their MBP, avoid the WD Scorpio Blue drives. They have some annoying firmware powersave thing that seems to spin the disk up and down constantly. I think this more than anything else is the source of my frequent beach balls.

rockstarjoe said:

One thing I would note for anyone considering this in their MBP, avoid the WD Scorpio Blue drives. They have some annoying firmware powersave thing that seems to spin the disk up and down constantly. I think this more than anything else is the source of my frequent beach balls.

Click to expand...

Interesting. I have the Scorpio Black, do you know if that drive has the same issue? Though I'd assume if Fusion works as expected that wouldn't be much of an issue, since usually you'll be pulling data off the SSD (I would think).

rockstarjoe said:

One thing I would note for anyone considering this in their MBP, avoid the WD Scorpio Blue drives. They have some annoying firmware powersave thing that seems to spin the disk up and down constantly. I think this more than anything else is the source of my frequent beach balls.

Click to expand...

I experienced this with my WD750gb Scorpio Blue. Quite annoying. I have ditched it for a Samsung 1 TB along with a OWC 6 GB/s 240 gb SSD as a Fusion drive. All is good now.

Cave Man said:

I experienced this with my WD750gb Scorpio Blue. Quite annoying. I have ditched it for a Samsung 1 TB along with a OWC 6 GB/s 240 gb SSD as a Fusion drive. All is good now.

Click to expand...

Oh no... I just ordered WD Scorpio Blue.
Is this Samsung Drive you're talking about?
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-SpinP...1353096805&sr=8-1&keywords=samsung+1tb+laptop

Wong Jowo said:

Oh no... I just ordered WD Scorpio Blue.

Click to expand...

This is bad news because that's what I have in my MacBook. For my desktop, yesterday I fused an OWC 6G 240G SSD with a 2T WD Caviar Black. Very few beach balls and no problems that I can find... Currently there is still a significant amount of background R/W activity.

Computer is a late 2009 Mac Pro with SATA II, so peak performance via Blackmagic is on the order of 200 MB/s. In that program speeds decay from 200MB/s but recover cyclically. In real world computing, very slow Photoshop macros that I use for work are almost twice as fast. This is a very cost-effective upgrade.

So, this process DOES NOT appear to work with a early 2011 2GHz Macbook Pro. Here is my setup:

Early 2011 2GHz Macbook Pro
128GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD (SATA-III) attached to the main slot
500GB Toshiba 5400 HDD (SATA-II) attached to Optibay - This is the original drive with the MBP
Booting to 10.8.2 USB Key created from 10.8.2 from the App Store

Upon booting to USB key, I launched terminal and ran the following:

diskutil coreStorage create "Fusion Drive" disk0 disk1

In my setup, disk0 is the SSD, disk1 is the HDD

This processes through and creates the coreStorage LVG just fine. I can delete this group, recreate it, etc. No issues. However, after running any of the following commands:

diskutil coreStorage createVolume LVGUUID jhfs+ "Fusion HD" 100% (use the entire space)

or

diskutil coreStorage createVolume LVGUUID jhfs+ "Fusion HD" 615g (use the space minus about 10g)

or

diskutil coreStorage createVolume LVGUUID jhfs+ "Fusion HD" 499g (use space less than the HDD size)

or

diskutil coreStorage createVolume LVGUUID jhfs+ "Fusion HD" 120g (use space less than the SSD size)

One of the following will happen:

1. The entire installer will lock up at the starting of the creation of the volume.
2. The entire process will fail after waiting for the volume to appear with error 69780
3. The system will sit at the waiting for volume to appear screen without the installer actually locking up. If I cancel out and go to disk utitilty, it appears as though the volume did in fact create properly, but the truth is that it didn't.

If number 3 happens, I can attempt to install a fresh Mountain Lion onto the partition, however the installation will ultimately fail. In all cases in order to be able to boot the system at all (after attempting the volume creation), I have to remove one drive, remove the core storage volume off, then I can add the second drive back and remove the core storage volume off of it, resulting in two separate disks that I can then, reattempt to use.

At first, I thought the issue was with the USB key. However, I have gone through several USB keys, recovery partitions (I have a few sitting on some HDDs, and even a DVD created from 10.8.2) to the same result. I also tried running the commands booting to a separate 10.8.2 HDD that I have with no luck.

I noticed that someone else in this thread has posted having trouble with a 2011 early MBP. I have also read in one other place of another person with a 2011 early MBP that is getting number 2 as me so I believe that this issue may be specific to the early 2011 MBP, possibly the 15" MBP (I have read of people having success with the 17" early 2011 MBP). For reference, I have also tried this (using the same exact HDD and SDD) in my early 2008 iMac and my early 2010 Macbook (the unibody white one) and on both systems, I was able to both create the volume and install without any issues so the problem isn't the drives. I am almost certain the problem is software related (perhaps with the disk utility that is being used) as it relates to the Intel Series 6 SATA controllers. The reason I believe this is because using the same early 2011 MBP and using the same HDD/SDD, I can actually create the group and the volume using those drives so long as I connect the drives externally to my MBP using my USB enclosures. The minute I attempt to create the fusion drive with any disk that is internal, it's back to one of the 3 issues above.

From what I hear, 10.8.3 and the Mac Mini that ships with the fusion drive have a different build of Disk Utility. This may solve those issues. Also, the one other thing that I have not tried yet is installing to the drives (externally) and then swapping the drives internally. I am going to give that a shot to see. If that works, then the issue is software related and would likely be fixed. If that does not work, then it would appear that something hardware related is preventing the creation of the DIY fusion drive on early 2011 15" MBPs.

*** Update ***

So it looks like I may have been wrong here with the LVG working on the 2011 MBP via USB. I appears as though this may be a hardware related issue. The LVG that I created appears to work on every Intel Mac that I plug it into, sans my early 2011 15" MBP. With the group plugged into my MBP, the system fails to load, even to a working disk or the USB. The minute it is removed, it can load properly. My iMac (2008 and 2009) and my 2010 Macbook can read the volume just fine so there appears to be a hardware issue preventing the use of the drive with 15" early 2011's.

*** Update 2 ***

Ok, so I can now confirm that there is something hardware related that is causing the issue with the early 2011 15" MBP. It may possibly have something to do with the whole EFI SATA thing. Essentially, I created a fusion drive on another mac (my 2010 Macbook) via USB and was able to boot to that volume on both my iMac's (2008 and 2009) and my Macbook. The minute I attempt to boot that volume from the Macbook Pro, all boot attempts fail. The system can see the disks from the options menu, but it does not actually boot the drive. The minute I pull the drives out and stick them into another Mac, they boot just fine. So, for right now at least, if you have a early 2011 MBP 15", you may be out of luck trying to do this.

tezgno, on your early 2011 MBP are the two SATA ports different protocols? I remember when that model first came out the main bay was III and the optical bay was II. From your post I'm not sure if that's your case, or if the drives themselves are just different.

If the ports themselves are different, I'd bet that's what's causing the hardware issues. Fusion probably has issues with the different SATA protocols.

In your iMacs and MacBook, are you using one drive internally and the other externally, or both externally? And on your MBP have you tried using one drive internally and one externally, or both externally (couldn't tell from your post)?

On my MBP, the sata ports are the same protocol (the Intel 6 Chipset with both ports being 6Gbps). As for the drive combinations, on the MBP, I tried every combination (SSD internal/HDD external, SSD internal/HDD internal, SSD external/HDD external) sans putting the SSD in the bay as there is a known issue with SATA III devices being put in the bay port for the MBP. In every case, it was the same result. The minute the system saw both drives, the entire system stopped responding completely. I even installed the OS on the fusion setup and inserted the drives, same failed process.

In the iMac and Macbook, I also did every one of those combinations and every one of them worked without any issue. In fact, I have my 2010 Macbook setup and working right this very moment (no errors or issues at all). I did the same thing on my iMac (not a permanent setup) with one internal and one external (the iMac has only one SATA connection internally) and that worked as well, so the issue is definitely with the Macbook Pro. It will likely be addressed and fixed because Apple has stated that you should be able to pull out a fusion drive in an existing fusion setup and plug it into another Mac for transfer or recovery purposes. However, when it gets addressed and when it gets fixed is up in the air.

Hello,

@tezgno:

I am running the same setup as you do
-MacBook Pro Early 2011
-Disk0 = 128GB Samsung SSD 840 Pro
-Dsik1 = 1TB WDC WD10JDVT
-Boot-USB Stick mit ML
and I am running into the same issue as you do.

I really seems that this issue is related to he MacBook Pro Early 2011. To find this out it took me two days.

Masch

Hi,
I'm also running the same combo, an get the same error :/ MBP Early 2011 but with a 6Gbps and a 3Gbps Sata Connector! FYI to get into the EFI (whats doen't work with the USB Installer) to fix the issue with FD and to format and partion the SSD and HDD you can use CMD+R via Internet Revovery, so you don't have to build your Disks into another Mac!

Greetz
Max

Hey volks,

there is one guy on a German forum who had the same issue with FusionDrive and the MacBook Pro early 2011 as do have.

He solved the problem by exchanging his HDD to an Hitatchi HDD.

http://www.mactechnews.de/forum/discussion/DIY-Fusion-Drive-310782.html?page=2#Comments

Very last post on page 2

Masch

Hello,

the user in the German Forum has got a MBP 8,1 which is a 13".
I have got a MBP 8,2 whichbis a 15"

Which do you have?

Masch

Hi,

I have a 8.2, so 15 inch MBP. I have a Hitachi HDD and it doesn't work. Do you know if you have two 6gbps SATA Ports or a 6 and a 3gbps?

However it looks like thats makes no difference as tezgno have a newer one with two 6gbps SATA Ports and I have a 6 and 3...

I don't know if any of you have a Crucial M4, but I think the problem with Fusion Drive is associated with the Firmware Flash Problem of the M4 and the MBP Early 2011. Could be that the SATA Ports have different numbers and start at 1 instead at 0. So a EFI Update could be a solution, but this are just presumptions

Max

Same issue here with early 2011 MBP 15" both ports 6gbps, I can create a fusion drive externally connected to the laptop but installer locks up and mountain lion boot becomes unresponsive with anything so long as an FD is present in the system.... I had to use Internet recovery which still for me boots lion to be able to wipe the FD.... Internally I get the -69780 error.... Really wanted to give this a go but oh well... I have a 500gb stagnate momentus XT (ODD slot) and a Kingston Hyperx 120gb ssd in the main slot..

Transeau said:

I have been unable to duplicate these results.
I have a MacbookPro8,2 and an iMac 11,1. Both with a 240GB SSD and a 1TB HDD.

Both have the same data on them, about 400G total. I have yet to see anything showing that the data is being moved.

Click to expand...

Well, you _shouldn't_ see anything

I think what happens right now is that there is 236 GB on your SSD, 166 GB on your hard drive, and only when you read something that is on the hard drive then the OS will decide that the data should be on the SSD, move it to the SSD, and move something else from SSD to HD.

gnasher729 said:

Well, you _shouldn't_ see anything

I think what happens right now is that there is 236 GB on your SSD, 166 GB on your hard drive, and only when you read something that is on the hard drive then the OS will decide that the data should be on the SSD, move it to the SSD, and move something else from SSD to HD.

Click to expand...

It's more likely keeping track of recent activity counts for the files and moving active ones to the SSD. A single read of a file shouldn't trigger the overhead of migrating it to the SSD.

Hey,

I managed to setup a FusionDrive on my MBP early 2011 15". Therefore, I used the target disk mode via firewire and ran the procedure from another MBP.

The FusionDrive shows up on the other MBP and I can write to it etc.

Rebooting the MBP from my Recovery USB Stick shows the FusionDrive as well, however, the actual partition is grey, so that I cannot access it to install ML.

Any ideas?

Masch

Hey,

I was able to install ML also via the Target Disk Mode, however the machine does not start.

The Diskutil from the Recovery USB Stick shows the Fusion Drive correctly and 11GB are in usage from the ML installation. The actual partition is no longer grey.

Any ideas

Masch

maschbaer said:

Hey,

I was able to install ML also via the Target Disk Mode, however the machine does not start.

Click to expand...

First of all, thanks to all of you who are sharing your results trying to make it work with early 2001 MBP.

Does the MBP boot with just the SSD drive in either the main bay or the optibay?

Could the solution be to use older (slower) SSD drives?

Hey,

in my MBP Early 2011 15" the SSD works like a sharme on both bays.

As soon as the logical Volume drive comes into play, the whole thing stops working.


Masch

I wanted to buy an SSD and something like a data doubler in order to create a DIY Apple Fusion drive for my Early 2011 13" MBP (MacBookPro8,1). From what I'm reading here and on the OWC site, there might be hardware incompatibility when utilizing a 6Gb/s SSD with the data doubler.

I was looking to buy this Intel SSD to run in my main drive bay and put my stock HDD in the optical bay with the data doubler. Would this work with my current setup (see pictures)?




Thanks!

spotsphill said:

I wanted to buy an SSD and something like a data doubler in order to create a DIY Apple Fusion drive for my Early 2011 13" MBP (MacBookPro8,1). From what I'm reading here and on the OWC site, there might be hardware incompatibility when utilizing a 6Gb/s SSD with the data doubler.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Yes, I believe that will work best since then you will be using the SATA III for the SSD and SATA II for the HDD. And it appears that everyone with the Early 2011 MBP issues have the 15" (8,2) model, not your 13" model.

I have a Mid 2010 15" MBP (6,2) that I'll be setting up my FD on this weeks, as soon as my optical bay adapter arrives from Honk Kong. I don't foresee having any issues based on what I've read, but I'll post up after it's completed and (hopefully) working.