APFS and Fusion Drives

[dolphin842]

With the GM Candidate, what happens if you separate the Fusion drive into SSD and HD? With the installer automatically use APFS on the SSD for the OS install?

Yes, so long as the physical drive you're installing the OS to is all-flash, it'll use APFS. I upgraded a 2010 cMP with a Crucial MX100 SSD boot drive and HDD data drive... the GM installer auto-converted the boot SSD to APFS and left the HDD alone. The HDD was able to be converted to APFS with Disk Utility post-install.

Since the GM is keeping the option to manually upgrade HDDs, my guess is Apple withdrew Fusion Drive support for Fusion-specific reasons.

 

[msephton]

For those whose FD was converted to APFS early in the beta who do not want to have to restore, and are willing to risk being on APFS:

boot into recovery mode (hold Cmd+R during power on) and reinstall MacOS over your existing installation. This will take you to GM and maintain APFS.

 

[lunarworks]

For those whose FD was converted to APFS early in the beta who do not want to have to restore, and are willing to risk being on APFS:

boot into recovery mode (hold Cmd+R during power on) and reinstall MacOS over your existing installation. This will take you to GM and maintain APFS.

I know this is a dumb question for a long-time Mac user like myself, but this won't wipe my drive with a fresh install, will it? I've never actually used this feature for anything other than a complete recovery.

 

[ohsnap]

I know this is a dumb question for a long-time Mac user like myself, but this won't wipe my drive with a fresh install, will it? I've never actually used this feature for anything other than a complete recovery.

Yes this is a fresh install. If you use Time Machine, it will automatically replace your data and settings though.

 

[lunarworks]

Yes this is a fresh install. If you use Time Machine, it will automatically replace your data and settings though.

Ugh. No thanks. Restoring from Time Machine is an overnight slog.

I'll just wait for them to fix the bug. (Trying to upgrade from Sierra to High Sierra, having downgraded from High Sierra earlier.)

 

[msephton]

I know this is a dumb question for a long-time Mac user like myself, but this won't wipe my drive with a fresh install, will it? I've never actually used this feature for anything other than a complete recovery.

No, it will not wipe your drive unless you tell it to.

It will just install macOS in-place over your existing system. All your personal files will go untouched.

Yes this is a fresh install. If you use Time Machine, it will automatically replace your data and settings though.

You're wrong.

More info: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/ht204904

 

[pythagorasuk]

For those whose FD was converted to APFS early in the beta who do not want to have to restore, and are willing to risk being on APFS:

boot into recovery mode (hold Cmd+R during power on) and reinstall MacOS over your existing installation. This will take you to GM and maintain APFS.

Worked perfectly, thank you.

 

[lunarworks]

No, it will not wipe your drive unless you tell it to.

It will just install macOS in-place over your existing system. All your personal files will go untouched.

Ok, so, I did the install routine, went into the Recovery Partition, did the Install macOS thing, saw "Convert Drive to APFS" thing, got suspicious, checked the installer version, and it said 13.0.25. Should be 13.0.62.

I suppose that's an artifact from when I first tried to install High Sierra.

Another layer to try to figure out.

 

[Simonmiller]

Hoping someone can help! I converted my fusion drive to APFS during an earlier High Sierra beta - so following the instructions here: https://beta.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/apfsfusion was working my way through converting the drive back to HFS so I could install the GM.

I've created a bootable external drive, however when I boot up from it (to access Disk Utility to wipe the drive) the process hangs on the image of the mouse - as in the attached pic. Has anyone else had this, and if so what's the work around? Or can anyone advise? Batteries are fully charged in mouse, and the Mac does seem to detect the mouse - I just can't get past that screen.

Any help much appreciated!

 

[mailbuoy]

Hoping someone can help! I converted my fusion drive to APFS during an earlier High Sierra beta - so following the instructions here: https://beta.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/apfsfusion was working my way through converting the drive back to HFS so I could install the GM.

I've created a bootable external drive, however when I boot up from it (to access Disk Utility to wipe the drive) the process hangs on the image of the mouse - as in the attached pic. Has anyone else had this, and if so what's the work around? Or can anyone advise? Batteries are fully charged in mouse, and the Mac does seem to detect the mouse - I just can't get past that screen.

Any help much appreciated!

View attachment 719953

I had the same issue... would not recognize/connect to my track pad. I borrowed a USB mouse (not even Apple mouse!) and then everything went smoothly!

Good luck!

 

[Simonmiller]

I had the same issue... would not recognize/connect to my track pad. I borrowed a USB mouse (not even Apple mouse!) and then everything went smoothly!

Good luck!

Ah! Right will try borrowing one from work - thanks!

 

[MLVC]

From Dutch site iCulture

 

[AaronM5670]

Wrote to Craig Federighi and recieved this reply:

I too am experiencing the bug with the Magic Mouse graphic and a USB mouse isn’t working for me. Not sure what to attempt now, as I can’t boot from the ‘bootable’ USB drive.

 

[Simonmiller]

Wrote to Craig Federighi and recieved this reply:

I too am experiencing the bug with the Magic Mouse graphic and a USB mouse isn’t working for me. Not sure what to attempt now, as I can’t boot from the ‘bootable’ USB drive.

I got my drive back to OS journaled using disk utility from internet recovery mode but then had the prohibitory icon appear every time I tried to install High Sierra. Three calls to Apple Support couldn’t resolve it so in the end they asked me to take it into an Apple store. They had no idea what the problem was but managed to get High Sierra up and running again.
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I got my drive back to OS journaled using disk utility from internet recovery mode but then had the prohibitory icon appear every time I tried to install High Sierra. Three calls to Apple Support couldn’t resolve it so in the end they asked me to take it into an Apple store. They had no idea what the problem was but managed to get High Sierra up and running again.

Ps using a USB mouse - I could never get past that screen on the bootable installer.

 

[AaronM5670]

I got my drive back to OS journaled using disk utility from internet recovery mode but then had the prohibitory icon appear every time I tried to install High Sierra. Three calls to Apple Support couldn’t resolve it so in the end they asked me to take it into an Apple store. They had no idea what the problem was but managed to get High Sierra up and running again.

My AppleCare policy expired some time ago, do you think they’ll still be able to help? Taking a 27” iMac to the Apple store would be an absolute last resort for me.

 

[Simonmiller]

My AppleCare policy expired some time ago, do you think they’ll still be able to help? Taking a 27” iMac to the Apple store would be an absolute last resort for me.

Well I didn’t have AppleCare on mine and they were keen to help. But you may not have the same problem I did. My sticking point was the prohibitory icon appearing when trying to install High Sierra again after reverting my fusion drive back to the original file format.

I’d boot up from Internet Recovery Mode, reformat your drives back to Mac OS extended then see if High Sierra will then install from Internet Recovery. You might be luckier than me!

PS Taking my 27” iMac in was a bit of a nightmare! Was worried I was going to drop it all the way from the car park to the store and back again!

 

[AaronM5670]

The Macintosh HD partition has now completely disappeared, so I’m not sure how to get it back. Connecting with a USB Keyboard and mouse removed the issue of not being able to boot from USB

 

[physwizz]

Hoping someone can help! I converted my fusion drive to APFS during an earlier High Sierra beta - so following the instructions here: https://beta.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/apfsfusion was working my way through converting the drive back to HFS so I could install the GM.

I've created a bootable external drive, however when I boot up from it (to access Disk Utility to wipe the drive) the process hangs on the image of the mouse - as in the attached pic. Has anyone else had this, and if so what's the work around? Or can anyone advise? Batteries are fully charged in mouse, and the Mac does seem to detect the mouse - I just can't get past that screen.

Any help much appreciated!

View attachment 719953

Yes. I see this in my High Sierra boot USB. I deal with it by plugging in a wireless minimouse. I have found that a Sierra boot USB doesn't have this issue. I also found that the Sierra boot USB is better for partitioning an external USB as well.

 

[dlbmacfan]

This may be a dumb question, but can you upgrade to High Sierra and not switch to APFS on your Fusion Drive? Is there a recent to not upgrade the OS until the Fusion Drive problem is fixed?

 

[dianeoforegon]

I de-fused my fusion iMac and am very happy with the result. I was able to format the SSD 120GB drive to APFS and install High Sierra. I use the 1TB rotational drive for my Documents, Downloads, Movies, Music, Pictures.

Obviously, you have to have a complete backup first. The de-fuse process will erase all data.

I have approx 70GB free on the SSD drive. Mail in the User's Library and Applications take the majority of the space used. I keep very little on my internal Desktop.

 

[Simonmiller]

This may be a dumb question, but can you upgrade to High Sierra and not switch to APFS on your Fusion Drive? Is there a recent to not upgrade the OS until the Fusion Drive problem is fixed?

High Sierra doesn’t currently convert fusion drives to APFS. That was a feature in betas but it was removed in the final release. Support for fusion drives being converted to APFS will be coming in a later High Sierra release.

So if you’ve never converted your fusion drive to APFS (by running a High Sierra beta) you’ll be fine upgrading now - your fusion drive will stay exactly as it is file format wise.
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The Macintosh HD partition has now completely disappeared, so I’m not sure how to get it back. Connecting with a USB Keyboard and mouse removed the issue of not being able to boot from USB

Hmmm. Not sure what’s happened there. Might need to call Apple support or see if someone else on here can help. Good luck!

 

[AaronM5670]

Everything seems to be working fine now. If you get stuck on the Magic Mouse/Keyboard screen after booting from your USB drive, instead connect both a USB Keyboard and Mouse. Erase your Macintosh HD partition in Disk Utility, restart and then it should be possible to reinstall High Sierra and restore from your Time Machine backup. Very glad I didn't have to take mine into the Apple Store..needless to say this is the last time I'm installing any beta software on my Apple devices.