I'm looking for a way to disable Fusion drive, but maintain the ability to partition/reformat, etc both separate drives with Disk Utility. Is this possible? If it is any consolation, I will be doing a complete reformat so no data needs to be saved/salvaged.
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Permanently disable Fusion drive?
- Thread starter theaero
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So despite the fact that there are two physical drives, theres no way to spilt them with 100% functionality? (Be able to use disk utility, and maintain a recovery partition)
I have 100% functionality. Not being able to use Disk Utility is a very, very minor inconvenience, but the functionality of Disk Utility is available through Terminal commands. Heck, to even disable the fusion drive you have to use Terminal. I disabled the fusion in my 2012 iMac as soon as I got it. I use the 128GB SSD for Windows 7, and the 1TB drive for Mac photos (HFS), and Windows 7 games (NTFS). No issues as of yet.
Also wondering if it is possible to maintain a recovery drive and use of disk utility while still splitting the fusion drive?
Also, does anyone know if the 27" iMacs use a 7200RPM drive?
Thanks!
Also, does anyone know if the 27" iMacs use a 7200RPM drive?
Thanks!
Care to elaborate? One of the previous posters in this thread said it was not possible. Thank you!
You have to use Disk Utility via Terminal. So the answer is yes, but not directly. I have 100% full functionality, as has been stated, this way.
Sorry but I'm a little cloudy about the Fusion drive still. May I ask why do you guys order an iMac with Fusion drive and still want to disable it? What's the point?
Some of us like more control over our computer, is all.
As for me, I'm using a larger SSD via Thunderbolt as my boot drive to OS X. So I wanted to use the 128GB SSD inside the iMac for my Windows 7 boot drive, and then use the 1TB hard drive for photos/games.
"So despite the fact that there are two physical drives, theres no way to spilt them with 100% functionality? (Be able to use disk utility, and maintain a recovery partition)"
I believe the problem is that once you "split" the fusion drive into two separate drives, if you run the recovery partition, and launch Disk Utility, it's going to assume that the two separate drives should actually be a "fusion drive" -- and then attempt to re-create the fusion drive automatically.
In doing so, it will wipe out the data on BOTH drives.
The workaround is to NEVER run Disk Utility from the recovery partition, unless you want the above sequence of events to happen. (Aside: you _can_ run the copy of DU that's on your SSD, assuming you retain that as your boot drive)
That doesn't mean that you can't split the drives.
However, you probably need to create a "second boot volume" somewhere (so you can run DU and "aim it" at your internal SSD now and then).
Others may disagree, but I'd recommend that you create an "alternate boot partition" as the first partition on your internal HDD. You can use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to regularly backup the contents of the SSD to the boot partition on the HDD. Then use the remaining partition on the HDD for whatever you wish.
I believe the problem is that once you "split" the fusion drive into two separate drives, if you run the recovery partition, and launch Disk Utility, it's going to assume that the two separate drives should actually be a "fusion drive" -- and then attempt to re-create the fusion drive automatically.
In doing so, it will wipe out the data on BOTH drives.
The workaround is to NEVER run Disk Utility from the recovery partition, unless you want the above sequence of events to happen. (Aside: you _can_ run the copy of DU that's on your SSD, assuming you retain that as your boot drive)
That doesn't mean that you can't split the drives.
However, you probably need to create a "second boot volume" somewhere (so you can run DU and "aim it" at your internal SSD now and then).
Others may disagree, but I'd recommend that you create an "alternate boot partition" as the first partition on your internal HDD. You can use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to regularly backup the contents of the SSD to the boot partition on the HDD. Then use the remaining partition on the HDD for whatever you wish.