Apple's New Fusion Drive Works on Older Macs

[John.B]

Originally Posted by jcrandall

Updated this morning, no problems rebooting after the update.
160GB intel SSD and Apple original 500GB running as Fusion drive on mac mini 2011.

Has the 10.8.3 Disk Utility been updated to support Fusion drives?

[mogens]

Originally Posted by John.B

Has the 10.8.3 Disk Utility been updated to support Fusion drives?

Someone who has updated on older machines, with or without FD, please check the vers.

[hfg]

Originally Posted by mogens

Someone who has updated on older machines, with or without FD, please check the vers.

I have a 2011 Mac Mini which I updated to 10.8.3. The Disk Utility shows as Ver. 13 (444) after the update.

I have a SSD and Hard Disk (non-Fusion) in this Mini, and the updated Disk Utility is not attempting or suggesting that I repair the Fusion drive. This was a DIY addition since the Mini did not come with SSD or Fusion drive. I have, however, had this Mini configured as a DIY Fusion several times in the past, so if there are any "hidden markings" stored on the disk which might trigger the Fusion repair, they are not doing so.


-howard

[John.B]

Originally Posted by hfg

I have a 2011 Mac Mini which I updated to 10.8.3. The Disk Utility shows as Ver. 13 (444) after the update.

I have a SSD and Hard Disk (non-Fusion) in this Mini, and the updated Disk Utility is not attempting or suggesting that I repair the Fusion drive. This was a DIY addition since the Mini did not come with SSD or Fusion drive. I have, however, had this Mini configured as a DIY Fusion several times in the past, so if there are any "hidden markings" stored on the disk which might trigger the Fusion repair, they are not doing so.

Thanks for posting that. 10.8.2 shows Ver. 13 (430).

[mogens]

I'm a little confused now After I've been running my DIY FD a couple of months now, I wonder if I'm actually running a "cold fusion" FD.
I'm on a Late 2009 i7 iMac with a 2TB HD and a Samsung 830 256GB SSD.
I created my FD on 10.8.2 using the terminal, and everything seems to work fine (or is it?). I have a full Superduper backup, so the question is if it's worth giving the method mentioned in the link below a try?
He states that only the full 10.8.3 installer will give you the necessary software to create and run a "real" FS. (I've upgraded to 10.8.3, but that shouldn't make a difference)
Any opinions?

http://blog.macsales.com/17624-os-x-...-equipped-macs

[hfg]

Originally Posted by mogens

I'm a little confused now After I've been running my DIY FD a couple of months now, I wonder if I'm actually running a "cold fusion" FD.
I'm on a Late 2009 i7 iMac with a 2TB HD and a Samsung 830 256GB SSD.
I created my FD on 10.8.2 using the terminal, and everything seems to work fine (or is it?). I have a full Superduper backup, so the question is if it's worth giving the method mentioned in the link below a try?
He states that only the full 10.8.3 installer will give you the necessary software to create and run a "real" FS. (I've upgraded to 10.8.3, but that shouldn't make a difference)
Any opinions?

http://blog.macsales.com/17624-os-x-...-equipped-macs

There have been several discussions on here regarding the accuracy of that particular blog post. I am a big fan of OWC and enjoy their technical information articles and videos, but I have seen other links from last fall which demonstrated with extensive testing that the Fusion drive was, in fact, moving the data blocks around as anticipated with the standard released version of OS X 10.8.2 & .3 at that time.

The included "Disk Utility" app in the 10.8.3 App Store release did not attempt to repair a Fusion compatible system (SSD and HD) as did the slightly newer build "shipped" version that came with the Mini and later the iMac with factory Fusion drives. However, that seemed to be a function of the App itself, not the underlying corestorage commands available from Terminal (which the DU App would use to repair the oem Fusion).

I felt I could tell the difference when loading something which was on the hard disk as opposed to resident on the SSD. After using the DIY Fusion systems for awhile, it seemed to me that my actively used programs and data did not seem to have any access lag, where first-time access had a slight delay. I always built my DIY Fusion drives with a larger SSD than Apple shipped in their products, so most of my day-to-day usage was hopefully on the SSD full time.

[mogens]

Thanks. I'll give it a try. No big deal to do a migration from my Superduper clone.
Do I have to split/erase etc. my old DIY fusion drive before creating the new one from the USB stick, or can I just jump to the terminal and start creating the new FS drive following the instructions?

[hfg]

Originally Posted by mogens

Thanks. I'll give it a try. No big deal to do a migration from my Superduper clone.
Do I have to split/erase etc. my old DIY fusion drive before creating the new one from the USB stick, or can I just jump to the terminal and start creating the new FS drive following the instructions?

Well ... if you want to do it totally per their instructions, I would start from scratch to be sure:

You will have to go into terminal and split the current Fusion drive (2 terminal commands) which will revert back to 2 separate, formatted drives ... then re-build the Fusion drive just as you did the first time.

[mogens]

Originally Posted by hfg

Well ... if you want to do it totally per their instructions, I would start from scratch to be sure:

You will have to go into terminal and split the current Fusion drive (2 terminal commands) which will revert back to 2 separate, formatted drives ... then re-build the Fusion drive just as you did the first time.

Now I've split and recreated a Fusion Drive from a fresh copy of the 10.8.3 ML installer and installed a fresh copy of ML 10.8.3.
I still get 2 identical HDs to boot from when I start with the alt key like before (a lot of reports about this). Everything works fine (like before)
Going to do a migration tonight, hopefully I can do a compare/test when the migration has finished tomorrow morning.
Can't figure out why 2 HDs show up? Maybe it has something to do with apples special firmware, they use in their SSDs?
I'm on a late 27" 2009 iMac.

[hfg]

Originally Posted by mogens

Now I've split and recreated a Fusion Drive from a fresh copy of the 10.8.3 ML installer and installed a fresh copy of ML 10.8.3.
I still get 2 identical HDs to boot from when I start with the alt key like before (a lot of reports about this). Everything works fine (like before)
Going to do a migration tonight, hopefully I can do a compare/test when the migration has finished tomorrow morning.
Can't figure out why 2 HDs show up? Maybe it has something to do with apples special firmware, they use in their SSDs?
I'm on a late 27" 2009 iMac.

I also have 2 drive icons at the "alt key" startup and selecting either one will boot the computer normally. You should only see a single Fusion drive when in OS X, including in the Preferences/StartUpDisk menu.

Sounds like your installation is working normally ...


-howard

[mogens]

Originally Posted by hfg

I also have 2 drive icons at the "alt key" startup and selecting either one will boot the computer normally. You should only see a single Fusion drive when in OS X, including in the Preferences/StartUpDisk menu.

Sounds like your installation is working normally ...


-howard

Startup time is about the same, but my Blackmagic disk test results are now much better (could be the fresh install or the migration). To be honest, the overall difference is hard to tell/feel. My advice: don't bother until there's 100% proof that this 10.8.3 trick works

[eljonco]

Originally Posted by toke lahti

Nobody tried?

Yes, tried it, 10.7.x does not work. You will get an error. You NEED 10.8. Then it works.
MacBook Pro 2008 (ie. thin caddy, SATA<->PATA interface caddy, HDD in caddy, SSD in original HDD bay).

[fillz]

Originally Posted by fillz

Anyone with a Macbook Pro 8,2 up to trying with 10.8.3?

Bumping this ^