Apple's New Fusion Drive Works on Older Macs

[Jjaro]

Originally Posted by Xace

Thank you for your report. Please let us know if you encounter any problem with your setup. Let's see if there are more successes with the 2.2 and 2.3 Ghz Early 2011 versions.

I AM having a problem, one that seems to be very common: I cannot install Windows without reinstalling the stupid Superdrive installed (fortunately, I kept it (just in case) in an external enclosure). I have tried lots of different things, but in order for it to be "officially" recognized by the computer. As in, for me to be able to boot using Windows using the "option" key.

I am pretty darn pissed about this. Why, for the life of me, Apple doesn't allow modification OF A COMPUTER THAT I OWN AND PAID A PREMIUM FOR makes me VERY angry (and I've been an Apple user since I like 9; first one was the Fam's 12 Mhz LCII!).

Anywho, so I've tried formatting the SSD first, but then, when I create a Logical Group using only the partition I want to put Mac OS X on, the installer refuses to want to install Mountain Lion. Anyone have any answers for this? Maybe I can't use the SSD, but only the larger HDD for my Windows partition?

[Jjaro]

Originally Posted by mogens

" but I have no idea if there is any easy way to test if this set-up is working the way a Fusion Drive is supposed to? ie. smartly rearranging all my files on the SSD/HDD.

I have exactly the same setup and wonder the same. We need to compare the DIY fusiondrive with a "real" apple fusiondrive using the same cloned harddrive setup doing the same operations, to be shure they work the same way. My FUD seems snappy , but I' m not getting the speeds seen on the 2012 mac mini. Maybe because my drive is three quarter full?[/QUOTE]

Although it certainly appears to be doing just that, as my boot time was less than 15 seconds (before the aforementioned problem, which I am trying to fix now).

[hfg]

Originally Posted by Jjaro

I AM having a problem, one that seems to be very common: I cannot install Windows without reinstalling the stupid Superdrive installed (fortunately, I kept it (just in case) in an external enclosure). I have tried lots of different things, but in order for it to be "officially" recognized by the computer. As in, for me to be able to boot using Windows using the "option" key.

I am pretty darn pissed about this. Why, for the life of me, Apple doesn't allow modification OF A COMPUTER THAT I OWN AND PAID A PREMIUM FOR makes me VERY angry (and I've been an Apple user since I like 9; first one was the Fam's 12 Mhz LCII!).

Anywho, so I've tried formatting the SSD first, but then, when I create a Logical Group using only the partition I want to put Mac OS X on, the installer refuses to want to install Mountain Lion. Anyone have any answers for this? Maybe I can't use the SSD, but only the larger HDD for my Windows partition?

I have created a DIY Fusion drive with a larger SSD partitioned so Windows is on the SSD and the remaining OS X partition is joined with the hard disk as a Fusion drive and it is working fine on a Mac Mini. You can find my posts on these forums for more details.

Good luck...

-howard

[spotsphill]

Anyone know whether the DIY Fusion Drive can be done with a Late 2008 13" MacBook? I did it for my Early 2011 13" MacBook Pro and it has worked out amazingly; now I want to embark on speeding up my wife's computer. I haven't been able to find any sites that list which models this technique works for.

Thanks!

[gdourado]

From what I read here, lot's of problems running a DIY fusion drive on the early 2011 15 mbp...
How about the late 2011 2.2 i7 15 inch?
Any problems? Anyone has a fusion running on one?

Cheers!

[Cave Man]

Originally Posted by gdourado

From what I read here, lot's of problems running a DIY fusion drive on the early 2011 15 mbp...
How about the late 2011 2.2 i7 15 inch?
Any problems? Anyone has a fusion running on one?

Cheers!

I have the late 2011 15" MBP with a 120 gb OWC SSD and 1 TB Samsung as a fusion drive and it seems to work just fine.

[hfg]

Originally Posted by spotsphill

Anyone know whether the DIY Fusion Drive can be done with a Late 2008 13" MacBook? I did it for my Early 2011 13" MacBook Pro and it has worked out amazingly; now I want to embark on speeding up my wife's computer. I haven't been able to find any sites that list which models this technique works for.

Thanks!

It is dependent on which version of OS X you are running. The Fusion functionality is in OS X 10.8.2, previous versions may not function properly, or at all. The hardware shouldn't be a problem if it runs OS X 10.8.2 properly.

----------

Originally Posted by Cave Man

I have the late 2011 15" MBP with a 120 gb OWC SSD and 1 TB Samsung as a fusion drive and it seems to work just fine.

I have it running fine as well on a late 2011 15" MBPro with 256GB Crucial M-4 SSD and the original 750GB 7200rpm drive mounted in an OptiBay.

[Cozmo85]

Is there a way to verify my fusion drive is working. I setup the drive under 10.8.2 then booted off a USB stick and did a clean 10.8 install, detected it as one volume fine. I didn't realize till after that it was gm release I installed and not 10.8.2. I have 10.8.2 now but when I do about this Mac and click storage it doesn't say hard drive plus flash storage, should it or is that only on new macs with fusion setup from the factory?

The 2 drives are joined I just want to know if I can verify fusion is working.

[hfg]

Originally Posted by Cozmo85

Is there a way to verify my fusion drive is working. I setup the drive under 10.8.2 then booted off a USB stick and did a clean 10.8 install, detected it as one volume fine. I didn't realize till after that it was gm release I installed and not 10.8.2. I have 10.8.2 now but when I do about this Mac and click storage it doesn't say hard drive plus flash storage, should it or is that only on new macs with fusion setup from the factory?

The 2 drives are joined I just want to know if I can verify fusion is working.

That sounds normal. It seems that the new Macs label it that way.

[Wicked1]

essentially a Fusion drive is similar to what Seagate sells but they call it a Hybrid drive.

Just not as much ssd on the hybrid, and works the same? NO?

[hfg]

Originally Posted by Wicked1

essentially a Fusion drive is similar to what Seagate sells but they call it a Hybrid drive.

Just no as much sad on the hybrid, and works the same? NO?

no...


There are many threads here you should read for a better understanding of the Fusion drive.

[irex01]

I try to create fusion drive with samsung ssd 128GB on 6G/s SATA (disk0) and HHD 1TB on 3G/s SATA(disk1). i'm able to create logical volume from command

diskutil cs create "name" disk0 disk1

but endup with error -69780 "unable to create a new CoreStorage Logical Volume" when i try to create corestorage volume from command

diskutil coreStorage createVolume LVG UUID jhfs+ "name" 100% or 1TB . Could anyone help me out

My system is asus p8z77-v lk with i7 3770 and ati 6850


thankyou so much

[hfg]

Originally Posted by irex01

I try to create fusion drive with samsung ssd 128GB on 6G/s SATA (disk0) and HHD 1TB on 3G/s SATA(disk1). i'm able to create logical volume from command

diskutil cs create "name" disk0 disk1

but endup with error -69780 "unable to create a new CoreStorage Logical Volume" when i try to create corestorage volume from command

diskutil coreStorage createVolume LVG UUID jhfs+ "name" 100% or 1TB . Could anyone help me out

My system is asus p8z77-v lk with i7 3770 and ati 6850


thankyou so much

What are you using for "LVG UUID" and "name"?

You might show the output of your diskutil list and diskutil cs list commands. Cut & Paste from your terminal window.


This may help as well...

How to create a Fusion drive:
http://www.macworld.com/article/2014...ion-drive.html


-howard

[irex01]

Originally Posted by hfg

What are you using for "LVG UUID" and "name"?

You might show the output of your diskutil list and diskutil cs list commands. Cut & Paste from your terminal window.


This may help as well...

How to create a Fusion drive:
http://www.macworld.com/article/2014...ion-drive.html


-howard

The "LVG UUID" is the string of logical volume group which is obtained after doing

diskutil cs create " name" disk0 disk1 [enter]

where name is a name for logical volume
disk0 is location of ssd
disk1 is location of hhd
thing's doing fine up to this point

but when i try to create coreStorage, it says error -69780

here is from terminal


-bash-3.2# diskutil list
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *128.0 GB disk0
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS Untitled 127.7 GB disk0s2
/dev/disk1
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk1
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1
2: Apple_HFS Untitled 999.9 GB disk1s2
/dev/disk2
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: FDisk_partition_scheme *16.0 GB disk2
1: Apple_HFS INSTAD 16.0 GB disk2s1
/dev/disk3
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: untitled *524.3 KB disk3
/dev/disk4
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: untitled *524.3 KB disk4
/dev/disk5
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: untitled *524.3 KB disk5
/dev/disk6
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: untitled *524.3 KB disk6
/dev/disk7
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: untitled *524.3 KB disk7
/dev/disk8
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: untitled *6.3 MB disk8
/dev/disk9
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: untitled *2.1 MB disk9
/dev/disk10
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: untitled *1.0 MB disk10
/dev/disk11
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: untitled *524.3 KB disk11
/dev/disk12
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: untitled *524.3 KB disk12
/dev/disk13
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: untitled *1.0 MB disk13
-bash-3.2# diskutil cs create "Fusion Drive" disk0 disk1
Started CoreStorage operation
Unmounting disk0
Repartitioning disk0
Unmounting disk
Creating the partition map
Rediscovering disk0
Adding disk0s2 to Logical Volume Group
Unmounting disk1
Repartitioning disk1
Unmounting disk
Creating the partition map
Rediscovering disk1
Adding disk1s2 to Logical Volume Group
Creating Core Storage Logical Volume Group
Switching disk0s2 to Core Storage
Switching disk1s2 to Core Storage
Waiting for Logical Volume Group to appear
Discovered new Logical Volume Group "315CF079-28B9-49A9-A06B-01D4451F44EA"
Core Storage LVG UUID: 315CF079-28B9-49A9-A06B-01D4451F44EA
Finished CoreStorage operation
-bash-3.2# diskutil coreStorage createVolume 315CF079-28B9-49A9-A06B-01D4451F44EA jhfs+ "Macintosh FD" 100%
Started CoreStorage operation
Error: -69780: Unable to create a new CoreStorage Logical Volume
-bash-3.2# diskutil cs list
CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group 315CF079-28B9-49A9-A06B-01D4451F44EA
=========================================================
Name: Fusion Drive
Size: 1127552614400 B (1.1 TB)
Free Space: 1123586883584 B (1.1 TB)
|
+-< Physical Volume 84DB35FE-C3B4-4D8A-839D-FBBC02EAB4C0
| ----------------------------------------------------
| Index: 0
| Disk: disk0s2
| Status: Online
| Size: 127691702272 B (127.7 GB)
|
+-< Physical Volume E01D3AFF-19F0-4AE3-98DF-D2191AFE3260
----------------------------------------------------
Index: 1
Disk: disk1s2
Status: Online
Size: 999860912128 B (999.9 GB)
-bash-3.2# diskutil corestorage createvolume 315CF079-28B9-49A9-A06B-01D4451F44EA jhfs+ "Macintosh FD" 100%
Started CoreStorage operation
Error: -69780: Unable to create a new CoreStorage Logical Volume
-bash-3.2#

[bikemd]

Originally Posted by irex01

My system is asus p8z77-v lk with i7 3770 and ati 6850

I think that's your problem right there. It is one thing to try a DIY Fusion Drive using an older Mac. It is totally new territory and another level of complexity to try to create a Fusion Drive using what is a Hackintosh with non-Apple hardware. Don't know if you will be successful with that.

[hfg]

Are you running OS X 10.8.2 on that Hackintosh?

After a quick read of your session, it looks like you are doing everything right. And after the error, it appears that it did create a fusion drive, although the name is different. You might try searching for information on that error number.

And bikemd is correct, the system may be the problem. I haven't seen reports here of anyone creating a fusion drive on non-Apple hardware ... yet.

[irex01]

oh, maybe that. thank you

[Cozmo85]

Interesting thing happened, i had a homemade fusion drive setup in my iMac but had to change the ssd out for a different model. So i changed out the ssd and booted off a flash drive i made from a 10.8.2 download from yesterday off the app store. Went to disk utility (this is with a new blank ssd and the hard drive from the old fusion drive). Disk utility noticed the original ssd was swapped out, offered me the option to fix, and it rebuilt my fusion drive with the new ssd. Installing 10.8.2 on my new fusion drive now.

it does not save any data but i did not have to do anything in terminal to get a new fusion drive going.

[gdourado]

Does the DIY fusion work on a 2010 21.5 3.06 i3 iMac with an SSD on the optical drive slot?

Cheers

[Tech198]

Apple ring out fusion drive (a *new* "praise the lord" kind of moment) ya right.....

And some smart ass gets it to work on older Macs ..... No surprise..


Lesson for Apple to learn is ......... Even if they "try" and retrict stuff, guess what.... we'll always get round it if thats what people want...

So really, this "walled-gaden" is trimmed...

(looks ugly now too) ....

[KnightWRX]

Originally Posted by Tech198

Lesson for Apple to learn is ......... Even if they "try" and retrict stuff, guess what.... we'll always get round it if thats what people want...

So really, this "walled-gaden" is trimmed...

(looks ugly now too) ....

Wait what ? What makes you think Apple tried to restrict anything here ? Not publicly documenting a feature is not restricting it, it's just not documenting it. What does this have to do with "walled-gardens" exactly ?

You're obviously confused, step away for a moment.

[Tech198]

Originally Posted by KnightWRX

Wait what ? What makes you think Apple tried to restrict anything here ? Not publicly documenting a feature is not restricting it, it's just not documenting it. What does this have to do with "walled-gardens" exactly ?

You're obviously confused, step away for a moment.

If I was referring to the Fusion drive, I would have said it ....

[KnightWRX]

Originally Posted by Tech198

If I was referring to the Fusion drive, I would have said it ....

You did say it. And if you weren't talking about it, then you're even more confused than I thought you were. This thread is about using Core Storage to build a volume that operates like the new Fusion drive.

[Wicked1]

what happens when either the ssd or hdd fail in a Fusion drive, you lose everything, so basically make sure you have good backups after you fuse the drives before proceeding.

[jowie]

Originally Posted by Wicked1

what happens when either the ssd or hdd fail in a Fusion drive, you lose everything, so basically make sure you have good backups after you fuse the drives before proceeding.

My thoughts exactly. Fusion drive is the equivalent of RAID 0, which effectively doubles the failure rate. I would've much preferred a RAID 1 style implementation (in the sense of the flash space being a duplicate rather than the only version of the data), providing redundancy and therefore allowing for SSD failure.