You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Disk/Storage Confusion

I just got back my work iMac that was fixed internally by my company and I am confused as to what happened to my storage.


The original problem was that the computer got stuck in a reboot loop and would error out every time you tried to do a clean OS install on it. Eventually it was decided there was a hardware issue and 4 months later I finally get it back today and am told they had to replace the logic board. Cool. It starts up, it has been reverted back to Monterey, and everything seems fine until I go and check the storage before restoring my back ups and notice I am down to 128 GB instead of the 2TB I previously had.



I work with design and video files, are they kidding? But I notice in Disk Utility that there is a second storage device and it appears to be my 2TB unmounted.



My questions are: What did they do? Can I remount the 2TB and use that as my start up disk? Did they separate it out because it was corrupted and if I do try and remount it, will it restart the original issue? Is there any way to get some of my storage back?


Their first email response to me questioning this boiled down to they do not see the issue, the computer "works," and before I push it, get my manager involved, and am stuck on an old laptop (that at least has 256GB ;__;) for another 4 months, I was hoping there might be a solution I could try myself.


Any help will be greatly appreciated.


Thank you!


iMac 27″, macOS 12.5

Posted on Mar 3, 2023 4:41 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 3, 2023 4:45 PM

Hi there!


It looks like your Fusion Drive has become split.


Fusion Drive, a storage option on some iMac and Mac mini computers, combines a hard drive and flash storage in a single volume for improved performance and storage capacity. If your Fusion Drive appears as two drives instead of one, it's no longer working as a Fusion Drive. This can happen after replacing either drive of your Fusion Drive, or using software to intentionally split them into separate volumes. 


Follow these steps to create a working Fusion Drive: How to fix a split Fusion Drive - Apple Support.


Jack

Similar questions

10 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 3, 2023 4:45 PM in response to achris24

Hi there!


It looks like your Fusion Drive has become split.


Fusion Drive, a storage option on some iMac and Mac mini computers, combines a hard drive and flash storage in a single volume for improved performance and storage capacity. If your Fusion Drive appears as two drives instead of one, it's no longer working as a Fusion Drive. This can happen after replacing either drive of your Fusion Drive, or using software to intentionally split them into separate volumes. 


Follow these steps to create a working Fusion Drive: How to fix a split Fusion Drive - Apple Support.


Jack

Mar 3, 2023 4:54 PM in response to Jack-19

Does this mean that it is probably safe to assume the split wasn't intentional as part of the fix for the original problem? Recombining them shouldn't bring back the first issue? When I run first-aid on the unmounted TBs, it doesn't find any errors but I don't want to accidentally start back at square one if for some reason this was part of the og solution.

Mar 3, 2023 5:12 PM in response to achris24

Does this mean that it is probably safe to assume the split wasn't intentional as part of the fix for the original problem? Recombining them shouldn't bring back the first issue? When I run first-aid on the unmounted TBs, it doesn't find any errors but I don't want to accidentally start back at square one if for some reason this was part of the og solution.


It may be wise to run SMART Utility to check the drives' health.


Jack

Disk/Storage Confusion

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.