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Hi WilliamG...

I believe you can use Terminal "Diskutil" commands to do anything that Disk Utility would do for the things you mentioned above. The Terminal will not try to force a Fusion re-join as Disk Utility seems to do (Apple needs to stop that action in the next public release).

Here is some documentation about "DiskUtil" you may want to look over, you can also get brief help from within terminal by just typing the command with no options and it will show you what options are available.

DiskUtil Manual Page from Mac Developer Library:

http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man8/diskutil.8

Thank you. I'm pretty useless at command lines, but that will be helpful. :)

And yes, Apple needs to disable this "red" in Disk Utility if I choose to override it.
 
SSD for gaming

Hi there,

first of all thank you for the great posts!

So I was wondering if you could unfuse and then use about 80 GB of the SSD for Windows and also a few games and the rest of the SSD for OSX.

Or is it only possible to install the operating system Windows without leaving additional space for games?

Manuel
 
Hi there,

first of all thank you for the great posts!

So I was wondering if you could unfuse and then use about 80 GB of the SSD for Windows and also a few games and the rest of the SSD for OSX.

Or is it only possible to install the operating system Windows without leaving additional space for games?

Manuel

If the SSD was larger you could do that. However, Apple only offers a 128GB SSD with the Fusion Drive options which isn't large enough. If you took 80GB for Windows and consider that Fusion uses 4GB for a disk buffer, that only leaves 44GB for the OS X part of Fusion! This would pretty much eliminate the benefits of the Fusion technology.

I have built DIY Fusion drives with both 256GB and 512GB SSDs and allocated a 100GB partition on the SSD for Windows BootCamp, and the remaining SSD space for OSX Fusion and it works fine. You just need a larger SSD!

You can also put your Windows on an external Thunderbolt SSD. There are several threads here for doing that.
 
Hello Howard,

thanks for the reply. I don't want to refuse, I just think it would be nice to also have a fast booting OSX, that's all.

I thought about that too, but won't Thunderbolt be a bit of a bottle neck in terms of speed?

Have a nice Sunday!

Manuel
 
Hello Howard,

thanks for the reply. I don't want to refuse, I just think it would be nice to also have a fast booting OSX, that's all.

I thought about that too, but won't Thunderbolt be a bit of a bottle neck in terms of speed?

Have a nice Sunday!

Manuel

My external Thunderbolt SSD on Seagate GoFlex are working well with Windows and OS X and approach the speeds of internal use. If you create a dual drive RAID-0 SSD via Thunderbolt it will exceed the internal single drive rate.

If all you want is fast boot for OS X plus a fast Windows boot, you could create that with the Fusion drive as you suggest (within the size limits). However, I would be more inclined to totally break the Fusion drive and keep them separate. Then create your dual-OS on the SSD, and put everything else on the hard disk. Just be careful that Disk Utility doesn't try to force them back together again as a Fusion drive.


-howard
 
Hey, so this is an odd one.....

I have a 1TB fusion iMac, and something bad just happened..

I boot from a Thunderbolt 256GB SSD.
I split the 1TB Fusion into the 120GB SSD and the 1TB internal hard drive.

I then installed Windows 7 on the 120GB SSD. No issues.

I then split the 1TB internal into two parts: A 500GB HFS partition for OS X, and a 500GB ExFAT partition for Windows games etc, but to be readable by OS X.

I used Parallels Windows 7 to download a game to the ExFAT partition while in OS X. I then rebooted into Boot Camp to play the game, and... um... the drive wasn't found at all.

I then rebooted into OS X, and the ExFAT partition has been renamed "disk2s3" and is not readable.

What on earth happened?!
 

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Hey, so this is an odd one.....

I have a 1TB fusion iMac, and something bad just happened..

I boot from a Thunderbolt 256GB SSD.
I split the 1TB Fusion into the 120GB SSD and the 1TB internal hard drive.

I then installed Windows 7 on the 120GB SSD. No issues.

I then split the 1TB internal into two parts: A 500GB HFS partition for OS X, and a 500GB ExFAT partition for Windows games etc, but to be readable by OS X.

I used Parallels Windows 7 to download a game to the ExFAT partition while in OS X. I then rebooted into Boot Camp to play the game, and... um... the drive wasn't found at all.

I then rebooted into OS X, and the ExFAT partition has been renamed "disk2s3" and is not readable.

What on earth happened?!

That is odd ... perhaps Disk Utility trying to "repair things"? They really need to put an option switch on that activity.

Perhaps you should format it for FAT from within Windows if you are able to see it in the Windows Disk Manager Tool.
 
That is odd ... perhaps Disk Utility trying to "repair things"? They really need to put an option switch on that activity.

Perhaps you should format it for FAT from within Windows if you are able to see it in the Windows Disk Manager Tool.

I've now formatted the dead partition of the disk as NTFS instead of ExFAT, I somehow feel safer that way. (Windows saw the partition as RAW, meaning it somehow got reverted... - very odd). I I also downloaded the trial of Paragon NTFS 10, which gave me instant/transparent access to the NTFS partition of the drive through Parallels, and I can read/write without any issue. This is after I tried MacFUSE and NTFS-3G, which didn't work and gave me all sorts of errors...

I'm probably going to buy Paragon NTFS 10, if it continues to work.

I am a bit irritated with Apple and the Disk Utility BS. It's really frustrating. It's also bizarre that just one half of the 1TB disk got messed up. My HFS 500GB partition was fine, as was the Windows 7 install on the SSD portion of the fusion drive.

My only wonder with regards Paragon NTFS 10 is whether I can uninstall it and reinstall it on another machine with the same serial number.. I'm swapping this iMac out for some "dirt" in the panel, and so I don't know what will happen then... I only get a 10-day trial, and likely the replacement iMac will take longer.

*sigh*... it's never easy.
 
Do you guys think updating to 10.8.3 will create trouble for un-fused Fusion drives? I've had no problems whatsoever with the setup as it is. Anything to lead us to believe the update will want to muck about with the partitions?
 
So help me understand, if I get unfused and installed, when in OS X, if I open Disk Utility to format a Flash Drive, will it try to refuse my hdds and mess everything up?
 
Do you guys think updating to 10.8.3 will create trouble for un-fused Fusion drives? I've had no problems whatsoever with the setup as it is. Anything to lead us to believe the update will want to muck about with the partitions?

I really, really, REALLY hope not. :(
 
Is it possible to unfuse then wipe the HDD with a secure erase pass from disk utility or terminal?
 
Thanks. Can I use the DOE 3-pass from Terminal?

Good question... Here's the list of options available in Terminal:



Usage: diskutil [quiet] <verb> <options>, where <verb> is as follows:

list (List the partitions of a disk)
info[rmation] (Get information on a specific disk or partition)
listFilesystems (List file systems available for formatting)
activity (Continuous log of system-wide disk arbitration)

u[n]mount (Unmount a single volume)
unmountDisk (Unmount an entire disk (all volumes))
eject (Eject a disk)
mount (Mount a single volume)
mountDisk (Mount an entire disk (all mountable volumes))

enableJournal (Enable HFS+ journaling on a mounted HFS+ volume)
disableJournal (Disable HFS+ journaling on a mounted HFS+ volume)
moveJournal (Move the HFS+ journal onto another volume)
enableOwnership (Treat as exact User/Group IDs for a mounted volume)
disableOwnership (Ignore on-disk User/Group IDs for a mounted volume)

rename[Volume] (Rename a volume)

verifyVolume (Verify the file system data structures of a volume)
repairVolume (Repair the file system data structures of a volume)

verifyDisk (Verify the components of a partition map of a disk)
repairDisk (Repair the components of a partition map of a disk)

verifyPermissions (Verify the permissions of a Mac OS X volume)
repairPermissions (Repair the permissions of a Mac OS X volume)

eraseDisk (Erase an existing disk, removing all volumes)
eraseVolume (Erase an existing volume)
reformat (Erase an existing volume with same name and type)
eraseOptical (Erase optical media (CD/RW, DVD/RW, etc.))
zeroDisk (Erase a disk, writing zeros to the media)
randomDisk (Erase a disk, writing random data to the media)
secureErase (Securely erase a disk or freespace on a volume)

partitionDisk ((re)Partition a disk, removing all volumes)
resizeVolume (Resize a volume, increasing or decreasing its size)
splitPartition (Split an existing partition into two or more)
mergePartitions (Combine two or more existing partitions into one)

appleRAID <verb> (Perform additional verbs related to AppleRAID)
coreStorage <verb> (Perform additional verbs related to CoreStorage)
 
If I split the 1TB Fusion, install Win7 & OSX on SSD, format hdd as NTFS. Can I boot into windows and have write access to the hdd?

I want to do a write/erase block test with HD Tune to ensure the hdd works fine before trusting it with data.
 
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If I split the 1TB Fusion, install Win7 & OSX on SSD, format hdd as NTFS. Can I boot into windows and have write access to the hdd?

I want to do a write/erase block test with HD Tune to ensure the hdd works fine before trusting it with data.

Why wouldn't you be able to? That's what I have. Except I split the 1TB drive into an NTFS partition and an HFS partition. Why wouldn't you be able to access an NTFS partition from Windows? :p
 
Why wouldn't you be able to? That's what I have. Except I split the 1TB drive into an NTFS partition and an HFS partition. Why wouldn't you be able to access an NTFS partition from Windows? :p

Thanks bro! I know it's a noob question but I have no idea how this fusion crap works and I'm a little skeptical about any restrictions in place by Apple.

Have you got a good replacement yet?
 
Thanks bro! I know it's a noob question but I have no idea how this fusion crap works and I'm a little skeptical about any restrictions in place by Apple.

Have you got a good replacement yet?

My current one is acceptable, but Apple has some mega, mega quality control issues with the 2012 iMac. The screen is without a shadow of a doubt the weakest link. Most people won't notice, but if you watch movies or have any darker scenes, the light bleed is pretty obvious. I was able to show the geniuses at the Apple Store the outrageous bleed on some of my replacements, and even they agreed they wouldn't want a system like that..

The one I have now is "fine." Not anywhere near as good as my old 27" 2009 iMac, but I'm tired of dealing with replacements etc, and so here I am. :)

And no worries on the fusion question. I had to ask a ton of questions about separating them myself, and while it's done and working perfectly for me, it was definitely a bit of an odd thing to do since Disk Utility won't let you do anything to do with separating the disks. You have to do it all in Terminal. Easy, but just a bit of faffing about, that's for sure.
 
Hi all,
I have a iMac 11,3 2010 with a OCZ 256 SSD and the original 1TB HDD with OSX 10.8.2 (145GB) and Win 7 110GB) installed on the SSD, the 1TB HDD split HFS+ 500GB and NTFS 500GB for data.
My question is can I keep the exciting Win7 partition and DATA HDD and make the fusion drive for OSX using OSX SSD and OSX DATA. If so can some one (Howard) please give a description or point me to link detailing how to do this ?
I get how to create the fusion part just the process to keep windows on the SSD with OSX fusion is stumping me.
Cheers
Scuzyboy ;)
 
Hi all,
I have a iMac 11,3 2010 with a OCZ 256 SSD and the original 1TB HDD with OSX 10.8.2 (145GB) and Win 7 110GB) installed on the SSD, the 1TB HDD split HFS+ 500GB and NTFS 500GB for data.
My question is can I keep the exciting Win7 partition and DATA HDD and make the fusion drive for OSX using OSX SSD and OSX DATA. If so can some one (Howard) please give a description or point me to link detailing how to do this ?
I get how to create the fusion part just the process to keep windows on the SSD with OSX fusion is stumping me.
Cheers
Scuzyboy ;)

Yes, I have done this.

Simply follow the instructions in any of the many threads here, except when entering the drive IDs, use the full Drive#Partition# for the OS X portions of the SSD and HD.
 
Thanks Howard for the quick response. So for my distil list:
:~
diskutil list
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *256.1 GB disk0
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS Macintosh SSD 145.0 GB disk0s2
3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3
4: Microsoft Basic Data Win7SSD 110.2 GB disk0s4
/dev/disk1
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk1
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1
2: Apple_HFS Macintosh Data 500.1 GB disk1s2
3: Microsoft Basic Data Win7 Data 499.8 GB disk1s3
Mine would look something like this: disk0/partition2 /disk1/partition2 ?
Sorry still learning on the job normally make guitars but love tinkering :)
 
Thanks Howard for the quick response. So for my distil list:
:~
Code:
 diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *256.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  [B][COLOR="RoyalBlue"]Apple_HFS Macintosh SSD[/COLOR][/B]           145.0 GB   [B][COLOR="Red"]disk0s2[/COLOR][/B]
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
   4:       Microsoft Basic Data Win7SSD                 110.2 GB   disk0s4
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:                  [B][COLOR="Blue"]Apple_HFS Macintosh Data[/COLOR][/B]          500.1 GB   [B][COLOR="red"]disk1s2[/COLOR][/B]
   3:       Microsoft Basic Data Win7 Data               499.8 GB   disk1s3
Mine would look something like this: disk0/partition2 /disk1/partition2 ?
Sorry still learning on the job normally make guitars but love tinkering :)

diskutil cs create Fusion disk0s2 disk1s2

diskutil cs list to obtain the lvgUUID needed below...

diskutil coreStorage createVolume lvgUUID jhfs+ MacFusion 100%



This should work for you (be sure the IDs are the same just before you do it ... they can change sometimes after reboot).

Remember, you must back up your OS X data on both drives before creating the Fusion drive, and then restore everything to the single Fusion drive when completed. The Fusion create process will format the drive as necessary and it will be ready to use after you are done.

-howard
 
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I'm hoping somebody can figure out how to get Disk Utility to work normally after separating the fusion disk setup...
 
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