Help! Have I Messed Up My Fusion Drive?

[DarrenUK]

Last week my late 2012 iMac was running slow and generally not working well, I erased the hard drive to reinstall a fresh copy of Mac OS but somehow messed up the erase (Reading online I think the fusion drive somehow split), I ended up with no operating system and when I turned my iMac on there was just a question mark. I followed some info online about repairing a split drive using terminal and somehow managed to get the original (2012) operating system installed and then updated to the latest version, although it is running now (not great still) I think the fusion drive is not correct?
Can someone who knows how these things work please take a look at the provided images of the drives and tell me if all is correct or have I still messed something up??

Thank you,
Darren

 

[chrfr]

Last week my late 2012 iMac was running slow and generally not working well, I erased the hard drive to reinstall a fresh copy of Mac OS but somehow messed up the erase (Reading online I think the fusion drive somehow split)

That's what a Fusion Drive is supposed to look like in Disk Utility.

 

[DarrenUK]

That's what a Fusion Drive is supposed to look like in Disk Utility.

Thanks for the reply, that's great then that it all looks correct, what is the container disk2 and container disk3 all about?

 

[chrfr]

Thanks for the reply, that's great then that it all looks correct, what is the container disk2 and container disk3 all about?

This might provide some details about what APFS formatting is doing. https://www.macobserver.com/tips/deep-dive/apfs-faq-partitions-volumes-afps-containers/

 

[DarrenUK]

This might provide some details about what APFS formatting is doing. https://www.macobserver.com/tips/deep-dive/apfs-faq-partitions-volumes-afps-containers/

Thanks, I will take a read.

 

[DarrenUK]

I have added additional images from terminal now to the original post.

 

[justperry]

I have added additional images from terminal now to the original post.

Seems good to me.

Reinstalling macOS doesn't make sense most of the time, it's either hardware related like a HDD failure, bugs in macOS or software bugs.

A good starting point is to see if the slowness is fixed when you make and login into a new account, if so the normal User account has problems.

How much RAM does your iMac have?
Was your disk almost full before reinstalling?

 

[DarrenUK]

Seems good to me.

Thanks for taking the time to take a look, great to hear that it all appears to be ok and as it should.
All of that info I really have no idea about so just wanted to double check all was good before installing a load more stuff onto my machine.

 

[justperry]

Thanks for taking the time to take a look, great to hear that it all appears to be ok and as it should.
All of that info I really have no idea about so just wanted to double check all was good before installing a load more stuff onto my machine.

No worries
I updated my post above.

 

[DarrenUK]

Seems good to me.

Reinstalling macOS doesn't make sense most of the time, it's either hardware related like a HDD failure, bugs in macOS or software bugs.

A good starting point is to see if the slowness is fixed when you make and login into a new account, if so the normal User account has problems.

How much RAM does your iMac have?
Was your disk almost full before reinstalling?

The iMac has the standard 8gb that it was shipped with, the hard drive wasn't even half full, it is not so much slow now, it has gotten better the last few days but does still freeze now and again and I can do nothing, if I leave it it for 20 - 30 seconds it un freezes and works fine.

 

[justperry]

The iMac has the standard 8gb that it was shipped with, the hard drive wasn't even half full, it is not so much slow now, it has gotten better the last few days but does still freeze now and again and I can do nothing, if I leave it it for 20 - 30 seconds it un freezes and works fine.

Might check your RAM.
As I said in my last post, try it with a new user account.
Also, did you import all your data and settings from a back-up, if so you will get into the same problems as
before, some people reinstall and next import everything from lets say TimeMachine, nothing will be solved with this, that's just wasting time.

 

[DarrenUK]

Might check your RAM.
As I said in my last post, try it with a new user account.
Also, did you import all your data and settings from a back-up, if so you will get into the same problems as
before, some people reinstall and next import everything from lets say TimeMachine, nothing will be solved with this, that's just wasting time.

I will indeed try a new user account to see if it stops the random freezing, and RAM check. As I say, the issue is no where near as bad as it was before erasing and reinstalling the operating system, this post was more really just to check that my internal hard drives were configured correctly.

No, I did not import from my time machine backup as I thought exactly that. I reinstalled everything from fresh app/software downloads and any files, documents etc I put back on from another backup I had on another drive.

 

[justperry]

I will indeed try a new user account to see if it stops the random freezing, and RAM check. As I say, the issue is no where near as bad as it was before erasing and reinstalling the operating system, this post was more really just to check that my internal hard drives were configured correctly.

No, I did not import from my time machine backup as I thought exactly that. I reinstalled everything from fresh app/software downloads and any files, documents etc I put back on from another backup I had on another drive.

You might know this, use the built in Apple Hardware Test (AHT)

 

[DarrenUK]

You might know this, use the built in Apple Hardware Test (AHT)

Actually I did come across that page of info and I did try as I thought it would be useful but it did not work for some reason.

 

[justperry]

Actually I did come across that page of info and I did try as I thought it would be useful but it did not work for some reason.

Odd, wired or wireless keyboard, I had my issues with the Apple Keyboard, I always press the on button on my wireless keyboard before a keyboard shortcut (upon startup/restart) , this will awake the keyboard, it might have not registered your keyboard input.

 

[DarrenUK]

Odd, wired or wireless keyboard, I had my issues with the Apple Keyboard, I always press the on button on my wireless keyboard before a keyboard shortcut (upon startup/restart) , this will awake the keyboard, it might have not registered your keyboard input.

I think the keyboard is fine, it is the wireless Apple one and works fine entering recovery mode or safe mode, upon turning the computer on when I press D I get just a white screen that stays, I have to use the power button to turn the computer off, when I press option + D I get the screen in the image below.

[doublepost=1566147152][/doublepost]

Might check your RAM.
As I said in my last post, try it with a new user account.
Also, did you import all your data and settings from a back-up, if so you will get into the same problems as
before, some people reinstall and next import everything from lets say TimeMachine, nothing will be solved with this, that's just wasting time.

Oddly the last hour or so it has gone crazy again, freezing and spinning beachball all of the time, once logged in I cannot do anything, just frozen. I’ve restarte multiple times but once I log in it just freezes and I get the spinning beachball.
I did just manage after sometime to create another user account and set as admin and that appeared to work fine! So, perhaps after all of this the actual account is the issue here. I’m not sure how this can make the computer unusable like this though? If this is the case how can the account go bad again so soon after erasing the hard drive and creating a new one?

 

[justperry]

I think the keyboard is fine, it is the wireless Apple one and works fine entering recovery mode or safe mode, upon turning the computer on when I press D I get just a white screen that stays, I have to use the power button to turn the computer off, when I press option + D I get the screen in the image below.
View attachment 853571
[doublepost=1566147152][/doublepost]
Oddly the last hour or so it has gone crazy again, freezing and spinning beachball all of the time, once logged in I cannot do anything, just frozen. I’ve restarte multiple times but once I log in it just freezes and I get the spinning beachball.
I did just manage after sometime to create another user account and set as admin and that appeared to work fine! So, perhaps after all of this the actual account is the issue here. I’m not sure how this can make the computer unusable like this though? If this is the case how can the account go bad again so soon after erasing the hard drive and creating a new one?

You might have a plugin, startup program running on your normal account, have you tried opening Activity monitor to look for runaway processes?
I have a patched version of Menumeters running in my MenuBar, it shows the CPU load on it, might have a high CPU load.
Or, just RAM.
I was busy today so little time to help you out today.

 

[DarrenUK]

I can’t check activity monitor or anything as I am unable to do anything due to the freezing and beachballs.
With the iMac being 7 years old I think it is probably just time I just ordered an new one and be done with it.

 

[justperry]

I can’t check activity monitor or anything as I am unable to do anything due to the freezing and beachballs.
With the iMac being 7 years old I think it is probably just time I just ordered an new one and be done with it.

Both my Macs are 2012 models, a Mac Mini and a 13" MBP, they both run well, Upgraded RAM to 16GB and SSD on both Macs, still running like a charm, except for the hiccups related to the Graphic card, but it isn't that bad, scrolling for instance in Safari is jerky while opening/loading a new Tab, that's it.

Pretty sure it can't be that much, might be the HD acting up, you might try the following, takes time though, break up the Fusion drive and install macOS directly on the SSD, if that solves the lowliness you know your HD is close to being dead.
Or try (Slow), installing it on an external, look what happens there.

 

[DarrenUK]

Both my Macs are 2012 models, a Mac Mini and a 13" MBP, they both run well, Upgraded RAM to 16GB and SSD on both Macs, still running like a charm, except for the hiccups related to the Graphic card, but it isn't that bad, scrolling for instance in Safari is jerky while opening/loading a new Tab, that's it.

Pretty sure it can't be that much, might be the HD acting up, you might try the following, takes time though, break up the Fusion drive and install macOS directly on the SSD, if that solves the lowliness you know your HD is close to being dead.
Or try (Slow), installing it on an external, look what happens there.

Funny you should mention trying an external drive, as one last attempt to save a few £££ I bought a Samsung T5 500GB SSD external drive today and have installed macOS onto that, i have installed most stuff that I need onto it and it has been running fine all afternoon. If it is still running ok in the morning (fingers crossed) I will finish installing the rest of stuff.

 

[justperry]

Funny you should mention trying an external drive, as one last attempt to save a few £££ I bought a Samsung T5 500GB SSD external drive today and have installed macOS onto that, i have installed most stuff that I need onto it and it has been running fine all afternoon. If it is still running ok in the morning (fingers crossed) I will finish installing the rest of stuff.

So, it seems to me your HD is on it's way out, there are utilities for checking the health of HD's.
Several programs report it, like Diskwarrior when checking the disk.

I had a few dying on me, some get really-really slow.

 

[DarrenUK]

So, it seems to me your HD is on it's way out, there are utilities for checking the health of HD's.
Several programs report it, like Diskwarrior when checking the disk.

I had a few dying on me, some get really-really slow.

Well still running great all day today so I guess one of the internal hard drives was on its way out after all, I will check out Diskwarrior or similar to see out of interest what it shows.
Thanks again for your time and help, I've defiantly learnt a thing or two and all of the info may help in the future should I have any further issues.

 

[justperry]

You could check the SMART status in Disk Utility, click on the mechanical disk, Command-I, in the bottom it shows the status. (See below)

There's a Utility called Smart Utility (Yes really), it's a trial, might check this out, you can see my HD in my Mini failed too in the below screenshot.

No worries