iMac Fusion Drive problem SSD Is Showing As Available But 1TB HDD Missing??

[DarrenUK]

I have an old 2012 iMac with a 1TB Fusion drive, the computer was running slow and shutting down randomly and after a while getting fed up with it I completely erased it to see if a new install would fix the issue.
When I went to re install the operating system instead of the Fusion Drive showing up it only listed a 120gb SSD drive, I installed the OS on that and it works fine but where has the 1tb HDD drive gone?? It does not show in disk utility, only the small SSD drive does.
Does this mean that the HDD drive is dead? Or have I done something wrong somewhere when I erased??

 

[Juicy Box]

The HDD is most likely dead.

Honestly, it is amazing you got 11 years out of the HDD. The Late 2012 and Late 2013 iMacs used a bad model Seagate HDD, and there is a higher than normal failure rate.

The 2TB and 3TB had a replacement program that Apple started, but that has ended.

The 1TB HDDs also had high failure rates, but there wasn't a special repair program for them.

I currently have two Late 2012 and one Late 2013 iMacs in my home that had a dead HDD at some point.

 

[Juicy Box]

While keeping the dead HDD in your computer could possibly lead to some boot issues, most times, your computer will run perfectly fine without it working.

You can use the internal SSD as your boot drive, or you can have an external boot drive. If you are handy with fixing max, you can replace the dead internal HDD. I would not put another HDD back into the computer if you spend the time to open it up. Just put a SATA SSD in its place.

 

[DarrenUK]

The HDD is most likely dead.

Honestly, it is amazing you got 11 years out of the HDD. The Late 2012 and Late 2013 iMacs used a bad model Seagate HDD, and there is a higher than normal failure rate.

The 2TB and 3TB had a replacement program that Apple started, but that has ended.

The 1TB HDDs also had high failure rates, but there wasn't a special repair program for them.

I currently have two Late 2012 and one Late 2013 iMacs in my home that had a dead HDD at some point.

Thanks for the reply and info. Well if there have been that many failures with those models then as you say most probably a dead HDD is the issue. It has definitely done me well.

Had been waiting for a new 27” iMac to come out the last couple of years but due to this hard drive issue have had to settle for the 24” M1 for now as a replacement.

 

[DarrenUK]

While keeping the dead HDD in your computer could possibly lead to some boot issues, most times, your computer will run perfectly fine without it working.

You can use the internal SSD as your boot drive, or you can have an external boot drive. If you are handy with fixing max, you can replace the dead internal HDD. I would not put another HDD back into the computer if you spend the time to open it up. Just put a SATA SSD in its place.

As I’ve got another iMac now I probably won’t bother doing anything with it, maybe sell it on for spares or repair although I’m not sure if anyone could get any data from the dead HDD?? it was erased or at least it should have been.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

As I’ve got another iMac now I probably won’t bother doing anything with it, maybe sell it on for spares or repair although I’m not sure if anyone could get any data from the dead HDD?? it was erased or at least it should have been.

I'm not sure if anyone bother to get data from it, unless your data is somehow profitable to them?
Does it contain a NOC list or something similar?

 

[JonaM]

If you had FileVault enabled it will have been fully encrypted and unreadable by anyone else

 

[Fishrrman]

Can the drive be seen by disk utility?

If disk utility has a "view" menu, be sure to go there and choose "show all devices".

Can it be seen in system information?

 

[DarrenUK]

If you had FileVault enabled it will have been fully encrypted and unreadable by anyone else

Unfortunately I didn’t.

 

[DarrenUK]

Can the drive be seen by disk utility?

If disk utility has a "view" menu, be sure to go there and choose "show all devices".

Can it be seen in system information?

No, it cannot be seen in disk utility, even when show all is selected.

In system information where it used to show “Fusion Drive” it now just shows “SSD Drive”

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"No, it cannot be seen in disk utility, even when show all is selected.
In system information where it used to show “Fusion Drive” it now just shows “SSD Drive”"

I'll guess the internal HDD portion of the fusion drive has failed.

If it was me, I'd just leave the HDD "dead, but in-place".
Then boot and run from the internal SSD portion.

Of course, since it's only 128gb in size, you need to be careful about what's kept on it. It needs such things as:
- the OS
- applications
- user folders, BUT...
... the user folders should be kept "slimmed down", with large libraries (movies, pics, music) stored elsewhere (on external drives).

You could buy something like a Samsung t7 "Shield" SSD, and it would provide plenty of fast external storage.