Fusion drive has died... Now what?

[dilgit]

OK. So my 3TB Fusion drive has stopped responding on my iMac 27" late 2012(details below). I reinstalled ML 10.8.3 on my external 2TB WD USB 3 drive, and I boot from there. It works just fine but not as fast as with SSD drive. Also installed Parallels 8 and Windows 7 Home Premium.
When I open Disk Utility, I see the Fusion drive grayed out. It's impossible to perform anything on that drive: partition/format - NOTHING!! When I open system report, and serial-ATA I see the Fusion drive, divided to the Samsung 128GB SSD drive(BSD Name: disk 2), and the 3TB HD drive(BSD Name: disk 0).

My question is: How can I format the Fusion drive so that I can reinstall ML on it once again?

 

[Gav2k]

You don't there is a hardware issue contact apple

 

[dilgit]

When I hit the "verify disk" in Disk Utilities I get the following details:

Verifying partition map for “APPLE HDD ST3000DM001 Media”
Checking prerequisites
Checking the partition list
Checking for an EFI system partition
Checking the EFI system partition’s size
Checking the EFI system partition’s file system
Checking all HFS data partition loader spaces
Checking Core Storage Physical Volume partitions
Checking storage system
Checking volume.
disk2s2: Scan for Volume Headers
disk0s2: Scan for Volume Headers
disk2s2: Scan for Disk Labels
disk0s2: Scan for Disk Labels
Logical Volume Group 924F52D2-E4E5-4C1B-AADC-BAB5663C9BE2 spans 2 devices
disk2s2+disk0s2: Scan for Metadata Volume
Logical Volume Group has a 4482 MB Metadata Volume with double redundancy
Start scanning metadata for a valid checkpoint
Load and verify Segment Headers
Load and verify Checkpoint Payload
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Incorporate 0 newer non-checkpoint transactions
Load and verify Virtual Address Table
Load and verify Segment Usage Table
Load and verify Metadata Superblock
Load and verify Logical Volumes B-Trees
Logical Volume Group contains 0 Logical Volumes
Load and verify Freespace Summary
Load and verify Block Accounting
Load and verify Live Virtual Addresses
Newest transaction commit checkpoint is valid
Load and verify Segment Cleaning
The volume 924F52D2-E4E5-4C1B-AADC-BAB5663C9BE2 appears to be OK.
The partition map appears to be OK

Verifying partition map for “APPLE SSD SM128E Media”
Checking prerequisites
Checking the partition list
Checking for an EFI system partition
Checking the EFI system partition’s size
Checking the EFI system partition’s file system
Checking all HFS data partition loader spaces
Checking Core Storage Physical Volume partitions
Checking storage system
Checking volume.
disk2s2: Scan for Volume Headers
disk0s2: Scan for Volume Headers
disk2s2: Scan for Disk Labels
disk0s2: Scan for Disk Labels
Logical Volume Group 924F52D2-E4E5-4C1B-AADC-BAB5663C9BE2 spans 2 devices
disk2s2+disk0s2: Scan for Metadata Volume
Logical Volume Group has a 4482 MB Metadata Volume with double redundancy
Start scanning metadata for a valid checkpoint
Load and verify Segment Headers
Load and verify Checkpoint Payload
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Incorporate 0 newer non-checkpoint transactions
Load and verify Virtual Address Table
Load and verify Segment Usage Table
Load and verify Metadata Superblock
Load and verify Logical Volumes B-Trees
Logical Volume Group contains 0 Logical Volumes
Load and verify Freespace Summary
Load and verify Block Accounting
Load and verify Live Virtual Addresses
Newest transaction commit checkpoint is valid
Load and verify Segment Cleaning
The volume 924F52D2-E4E5-4C1B-AADC-BAB5663C9BE2 appears to be OK.
The partition map appears to be OK

So if every thing is OK and the disk is not corrupted, why can't I format it?

 

[dilgit]

When I tried terminal - "diskutil cs list" - I get the following, but no logical id:

CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group 924F52D2-E4E5-4C1B-AADC-BAB5663C9BE2
=========================================================
Name: Internal Drive
Status: Online
Size: 3121237860352 B (3.1 TB)
Free Space: 3106705375232 B (3.1 TB)
|
+-< Physical Volume 34223C03-3916-48CE-A8F7-7528BF7737C3
| ----------------------------------------------------
| Index: 0
| Disk: disk2s2
| Status: Online
| Size: 3000249008128 B (3.0 TB)
|
+-< Physical Volume 3530DC6C-2518-474B-BC81-3D68DEAFCF7D
----------------------------------------------------
Index: 1
Disk: disk0s2
Status: Online
Size: 120988852224 B (121.0 GB)

 

[hfg]

Hi-

What you listed for the "diskutil cs list" looks pretty normal, except for 2 things:
1 - I usually see a "Logical Volume Family" which shows the final Fusion drive name and total size immediately following that you listed above.

2 - Your Physical Volumes seem to be in the reverse order, which may not really mean anything here, but it is different (Index: 0 is your hard disk, and Index: 1 is your SSD.


First ... DO YOU HAVE A FULL BACKUP?

If so, it might be easiest to follow one of the many DIY Fusion posts or links and "break" the fusion drive, then rebuild it ... and then restore your data. This will absolutely destroy any data contained on the drives, so if you don't have a backup, it may be prudent to hold off doing this as a last-resort.


-howard

 

[gnasher729]

OK. So my 3TB Fusion drive has stopped responding on my iMac 27" late 2012(details below). I reinstalled ML 10.8.3 on my external 2TB WD USB 3 drive, and I boot from there. It works just fine but not as fast as with SSD drive. Also installed Parallels 8 and Windows 7 Home Premium.
When I open Disk Utility, I see the Fusion drive grayed out. It's impossible to perform anything on that drive: partition/format - NOTHING!! When I open system report, and serial-ATA I see the Fusion drive, divided to the Samsung 128GB SSD drive(BSD Name: disk 2), and the 3TB HD drive(BSD Name: disk 0).

My question is: How can I format the Fusion drive so that I can reinstall ML on it once again?

At the moment, every Mac with a Fusion drive is still under warranty, so I would let Apple sort it out. Might very well be a hardware problem that's impossible for you to fix.

 

[Fishrrman]

"Fusion drive has died... Now what?"

Something tells me we're going to be seeing a LOT of posts like this in the future...

 

[Kissaragi]

"Fusion drive has died... Now what?"

Something tells me we're going to be seeing a LOT of posts like this in the future...

Why? Hard drives fail sometimes, i see no reason why the fusion drive would have a higher than average failure rate.

But i agree with other people, the op should just contact apple.

 

[Nuke61]

"Fusion drive has died... Now what?"

Something tells me we're going to be seeing a LOT of posts like this in the future...

No different than Apple Notifies iMac Owners of Expanded Seagate Hard Drive Recall - the big difference, at least for me, is that with Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 I'll have FAST external backups via SuperDuper! that will allow me to use my computer with continued SSD speeds with a simple reboot and selection of the external backup.

 

[hfg]

No different than Apple Notifies iMac Owners of Expanded Seagate Hard Drive Recall - the big difference, at least for me, is that with Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 I'll have FAST external backups via SuperDuper! that will allow me to use my computer with continued SSD speeds with a simple reboot and selection of the external backup.

Of course ... you can do exactly the same thing if your Fusion drive fails. Absolutely no difference in your workflow.

 

[bembol]

"Fusion drive has died... Now what?"

Something tells me we're going to be seeing a LOT of posts like this in the future...

Why? Hard drives fail sometimes, i see no reason why the fusion drive would have a higher than average failure rate.

But i agree with other people, the op should just contact apple.

It's why I (finally) got Apple Care.

 

[hfg]

It might be worth a try to simply recreate the Logical Volume (step 2 of creating a DIY fusion):

diskutil coreStorage createVolume 924F52D2-E4E5-4C1B-AADC-BAB5663C9BE2 jhfs+ Fusion 100%


The lvgUUID above is yours: 924F52D2-E4E5-4C1B-AADC-BAB5663C9BE2

You will probably have to restore from your backup ... thankfully you said you do have one.


-howard

 

[Nuke61]

Of course ... you can do exactly the same thing if your Fusion drive fails. Absolutely no difference in your workflow.

That's exactly what I was referring to, if the Fusion drive failed. This is a bit different than the earlier Macs because they had FireWire and not Thunderbolt and USB 3.0, so it's a much smaller deal now because we have blazingly fast external options.

 

[dandrewk]

With a fusion drive, you have a new drive that uses two technologies. If either fails, the drive tanks. Theoretically, the chances of fusion drive failure is a bit higher.

But that's a rather massive assumption, especially since SSD are rock solid.

----------

No different than Apple Notifies iMac Owners of Expanded Seagate Hard Drive Recall - the big difference, at least for me, is that with Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 I'll have FAST external backups via SuperDuper! that will allow me to use my computer with continued SSD speeds with a simple reboot and selection of the external backup.

Thunderbolt drives have SSD speeds? Not on my machine. They are blazingly fast, but SSD speeds approach 186,282 mile/second.

 

[hfg]

Thunderbolt drives have SSD speeds? Not on my machine. They are blazingly fast, but SSD speeds approach 186,282 mile/second.

Ahhh ... you must be thinking of the new Optical SSD drives?

 

[McGiord]

Is it possible to open these new iMacs and replace the internal hard drive?
I have not been following these late models, I am interested in buying one, but it seems that it can only be serviced by Apple?
I appreciate your comments.

THanks

 

[Nuke61]

Thunderbolt drives have SSD speeds? Not on my machine. They are blazingly fast, but SSD speeds approach 186,282 mile/second.

Near enough that you can't tell the difference without measuring it. The I/O speeds are what really differentiate an SSD from spinning disks, not raw transfer speed. Even my 2010 iMac with the Mercury Electra SSD through FireWire was fast enough that it felt pretty much like my MBP with an internal SSD.

 

[dandrewk]

Near enough that you can't tell the difference without measuring it. The I/O speeds are what really differentiate an SSD from spinning disks, not raw transfer speed. Even my 2010 iMac with the Mercury Electra SSD through FireWire was fast enough that it felt pretty much like my MBP with an internal SSD.

768gb ssd:
Black Magic Read: 430 MB/s Write: 450 MB/s
QuickBench Seq.Read: 267 Seq.Write: 238 Rnd.Read: 132 Rnd.Write: 175
QuickBench 1gb Seq.Read:476 Seq.Write: 440

3tb Lacie Thunderbolt:
Black Magic Read: 180 MB/s Write: 188 MB/s
QuickBench Seq.Read: 142 Seq.Write: 136 Rnd.Read: 29 Rnd.Write:35
QuickBench 1gb Seq.Read: 188 Seq.Write: 187

Less Scientific: It takes 20 seconds startup (apple logo to desktop icons appearing) with the SSD. Booting off a CCC clone on the Lacie Thunderbold took nearly one minute, 15 seconds.

Not exhaustive, but still it tells me that that SSD speeds are significantly and noticeably faster. Nobody would argue that Thunderbolt isn't fast enough for anybody, but I don't think you can say they match SSD speeds.

 

[Nuke61]

768gb ssd:
Black Magic Read: 430 MB/s Write: 450 MB/s
QuickBench Seq.Read: 267 Seq.Write: 238 Rnd.Read: 132 Rnd.Write: 175
QuickBench 1gb Seq.Read:476 Seq.Write: 440

These are all external drives, and speeds with SSD via Thunderbolt or USB 3.0 is close enough to internal SSD speeds that you won't notice the difference unless you're running benchmarks. I guess I wasn't clear enough that I was referring to an external SSD vs internal SSD when I said external Thunderbolt booting.