Luke Christian
Level 1 (25 points)

Q: Create Fusion Drive for Mac Mini?

With the falling prices of SSDs, I am fascinated by the prospect of adding one to my Late-2012 quad-core i7 Mac mini and set it up as a single Fusion Drive volume with the existing 1TB HDD.

 

The clunky 5,400rpm HDD that it came with is laboriously slow and the opportuity to add a 256GB SSD (probably a Sandisk?), for a lot less than the incremental price hike of having specified a 128GB Fusion Drive in the first place, seems very tempting. Better still, it was mentioned, in another thread, that Disk Utility in later Mac Minis automatically set-up two installed drives as a single Fusion Drive volume, so I would not even have to delve into the dark arts of the Terminal to set it up, just pick-up a disk doubler kit from iFixit or OWC, drop in the SSD, load OS 10.9 onto the SSD, boot into Disk Utilities, select 'Repair Disk' then go and make a cup of tea!

 

Even though I might have to forfeit my remaining 6 months of Applecare, it seems like a compelling way to vastly improve my Mac mini's disappointingly sluggish performance. I always back-up to Time Machine so am not overly concerned about doubling the risk of data loss with a Fusion set-up.

 

It all seems too alluring... am I missing something?

 

Can someone temper my enthusiasm before I bite off more than I can chew with a perfectly good 6-month-old Mac mini?

Mac mini, OS X Mavericks (10.9), rMBP, 2x 24" LG monitors.

Posted on Jan 22, 2014 11:25 AM

by keg55,Solvedanswer
keg55 keg55
Level 6 (8,514 points)
Mac OS X
A:

You don't need to use Terminal commands with OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2 and above (which includes OS X Mavericks). You can create your Fusion drive by restarting into the Recovery HD (Command+R). Then launch Disk Utility. You will see both drives marked in RED lettering and a popup will display giving you an option IGNORE or FIX. Clicking FIX will erase both drives and automatically create a Fusion drive. So, do a full system back up before creating a Fusion drive.

 

In case you want to use the SSD and HDD separately, know that in Disk Utility from the Recovery HD in OS X Mountain Lion there's a bug with the IGNORE/FIX buttons. The IGNORE will do nothing and won't let you individually manage each drive. You would have to use Terminal (diskutil) to manage them. In OS X Mavericks, that bug has been fixed and clicking IGNORE will change the RED lettering to black and let you manage each drive separately.

 

TRIM aids in the reduction of write amplification and some improved performance. A 3rd party free app called Trim Enabler will enable OS X's TRIM feature on 3rd party SSD drives.

 

This produces three key benefits: 

  1. Lower write amplification. Less data is re-written and more free space is available during GC (more space to write equals fewer writes needed);
  2. Higher throughput. With the TRIM command, there is less data to move during GC and the drive runs faster. Throughput is bottlenecked at the flash an SSD is only as fast as it can write to the flash memory. During the time it is doing GC, the drive has to stop some of the data transfer from the host while it moves data around. This is why it’s beneficial for the SSD to know which data is invalid so it doesn’t have to be moved during GC.
  3. Improved endurance, because the drive is writing less to the flash by not rewriting invalid data

 

I had a Fusion drive in my late-2012 Mac Mini (120GB SSD, 500GB HDD) and there was a definite performance improvement. I think it booted up in ~16 seconds compared to ~ 30 seconds without it and apps launched much faster. I've since "defused" the drives and have separate drives. Just a preference for me, but I didn't have any issues with a Fusion drive and I enjoyed the ease of file management which was done for me by Core Storage. I didn't enable TRIM on my 120GB SSD since I rarely do any deleting of files. Most files are deleted off my HDD which is used for LAN file storage. So the built-in Garbage Collection on my SSD is good enough.

Posted on Jan 23, 2014 6:03 AM

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Luke Christian

Q: Create Fusion Drive for Mac Mini?

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  • by MCMLVIII,

    MCMLVIII MCMLVIII Apr 14, 2014 3:35 PM in response to keg55
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 14, 2014 3:35 PM in response to keg55

    I recently had my local Apple reseller supply and install a 250GB Samsung 840EVO SSD into my late 2012 i7 Mac mini to suplement the installed 1TB HDD.  They installed it in the vacant "top" bay and did a Mavericks install on it.  Unfortunately they didn't test boot the SSD and when I took my mini home, it wouldn't boot from the SSD, giving me a grey screen displaying a circle with a line through it. Repeated erasures and reinstallions of Mavericks failed to get the SSD to boot, repeatedly getting red error messages in Disk Util when checking the drive.  After reading of the problems experienced by other users on this and other forums with booting from an SSD in the "top" bay, I took my mini back to the shop and asked them to install it in the "bottom" (i.e. just under the wifi antenna) bay and do another fresh install of Mavericks onto the SSD. They were reluctant to do so, citing the difficulty in relocating the installed HDD to the other bay, but I insisted that this would fix the problem.  The changeover was duly done and my mini now boots perfectly from the SSD with all the resulting performance increases expected from doing so (cold boot to login screen in 13 seconds).  They seemed surprised that "my" solution resolved the problem so comprehensively!

     

    Despite ample evidence to the contrary, my local Apple reseller tells me they "always" install SSD's into the "top" bay and have never heard of any problems with doing so (i.e. mine was the first, hence their initial opinion that the Samsung SSD was faulty ex-factory). We ended up agreeing to disagree as to which bay was the preferred location for an SSD and they didn't charge me for the changeover in any case.

  • by phe2,

    phe2 phe2 May 16, 2014 8:39 AM in response to MCMLVIII
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 16, 2014 8:39 AM in response to MCMLVIII

    How much did the Apple reseller charge you for the installation?

  • by Lexiepex,

    Lexiepex Lexiepex May 16, 2014 8:41 AM in response to MCMLVIII
    Level 6 (10,536 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 16, 2014 8:41 AM in response to MCMLVIII

    Yes, always install a new SSD in the slot of the original startup disk, as is said here numerous times in other threads.

  • by tbirdvet,

    tbirdvet tbirdvet May 16, 2014 10:27 AM in response to MCMLVIII
    Level 4 (3,025 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 16, 2014 10:27 AM in response to MCMLVIII

    I believe the 2012 Macs are the ones that need to SSD installed in the bottom position.  Perhaps earlier models (before Fusion) could be in either.

  • by Lexiepex,

    Lexiepex Lexiepex May 16, 2014 11:47 AM in response to tbirdvet
    Level 6 (10,536 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 16, 2014 11:47 AM in response to tbirdvet

    IMHO the FusionDrive OS should be avoided, difficult and only transition.

  • by MCMLVIII,

    MCMLVIII MCMLVIII May 17, 2014 1:22 AM in response to phe2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 17, 2014 1:22 AM in response to phe2

    $50 for the installation + $30 for the SATA ribbon cable.  They never did do a proper installation, even after 3 attempts - on each occasion the computer came back either damaged, not working, or both.  After the third attempt, with a dead computer on my hands with internals looking like a dog had been chewing on it, they agreed to replace it with an upgraded 2.6GHZ model which I am now waiting to arrive.  Needless to say, I'll be doing the SSD install and HDD relocation myself..... with help from iFixit of course

  • by Lexiepex,

    Lexiepex Lexiepex May 17, 2014 2:03 AM in response to tbirdvet
    Level 6 (10,536 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 17, 2014 2:03 AM in response to tbirdvet

    Again I advise strongly against Fusion: the FusionDrive OS should be avoided, difficult and only transition.

  • by Luke Christian,

    Luke Christian Luke Christian May 18, 2014 2:59 PM in response to Lexiepex
    Level 1 (25 points)
    May 18, 2014 2:59 PM in response to Lexiepex

    Not sure why you keep advising against fusion drive. I have set-up mine using an iFixit drive installation kit and OS X to simply 'repair' the two drives into one fusion drive.

     

    It was very simple to do and has performed perfectly for the past 3 months.

     

    I, personally, would recommend this as an excellent way to combine the speed of SSD with the volume of HDD and leverages the excellent technology already build into the Apple operating system.

     

    The only proviso is that the OS does not enable TRIM technology to work with third-party SSDs (mostly a theoretical benefit), otherwise I can see no reason not to recommend it.

  • by Allan Eckert,

    Allan Eckert Allan Eckert May 18, 2014 3:48 PM in response to Lexiepex
    Level 9 (54,085 points)
    Desktops
    May 18, 2014 3:48 PM in response to Lexiepex

    I would really be interested in hearing why you say that Fusion Drives are only a transition.

     

    The concept of the Fusion Drive or as it is know elsewhere the tiered logical volume has been around on servers since the early nineties at least. So while it might be new for Apple, it really is not that new of concept elsewhere.

     

    Also your comment of "difficult" with absolutely nothing to back it up isn't very meaningful. I am currently using a Fusion Drive and have had no problems or "difficulties' with it at all. More information on why you say that woiuld be most welcome.

     

    Allan

  • by Lexiepex,

    Lexiepex Lexiepex May 19, 2014 12:16 AM in response to Luke Christian
    Level 6 (10,536 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 19, 2014 12:16 AM in response to Luke Christian

    I explained enough. If you are happy, go on. I was explaining to birdvet.

    Lex

  • by Lexiepex,

    Lexiepex Lexiepex May 19, 2014 12:23 AM in response to Allan Eckert
    Level 6 (10,536 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 19, 2014 12:23 AM in response to Allan Eckert

    Allan, I am not talking about servers and all that. I am talking about the single mac, not the complicated systems. And since it is cheap to have more than large enough ssd, there is also not a reason for fusiondrive. Look back one two years in this forum and you see what I mean. SSD+HDD size stays the same fusion or not, as soon as the SSD size is above 128GB or even 256GB therre is no reason at all to be exotic. And writing a lot on a SSD is not good for it'sAnd  lifetime. I am even not talking about NAS systems because that would be counterproductive also in my opinion, although I am less certain here, I have little experience with NAS and try to avoid it.

    Lex

  • by tbirdvet,

    tbirdvet tbirdvet May 19, 2014 3:24 AM in response to Lexiepex
    Level 4 (3,025 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 19, 2014 3:24 AM in response to Lexiepex

    I agree.  The Fusion design is just one more thing that can go wrong.  Also many note the constant writing between the drives with noise and wear.  I have just one 512GB SSD in mine which is more than enough volume for me.

  • by pjclick,

    pjclick pjclick Jun 22, 2014 7:52 AM in response to keg55
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 22, 2014 7:52 AM in response to keg55

    Will this exact same process work on my mid-2011, 2.7 Core i7 mini, running Mavericks?  Thanks...

  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Jun 22, 2014 8:00 AM in response to pjclick
    Level 10 (190,740 points)
    Apple Watch
    Jun 22, 2014 8:00 AM in response to pjclick

    If you mean creating a fusion drive the answer is yes.

    pjclick wrote:

     

    Will this exact same process work on my mid-2011, 2.7 Core i7 mini, running Mavericks?  Thanks...

  • by drmcvinney,

    drmcvinney drmcvinney Jul 2, 2014 8:43 AM in response to Lexiepex
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 2, 2014 8:43 AM in response to Lexiepex

    Hey LexSchellings, I bought a used 2010 server Mini with a "fusion drive" and have experienced persistent kernel panic crashes. Meanwhile TechTool says that all is well with everything. The Apple Store in Little Rock says that the fusion drive was incorrectly set up -- they say Mavericks only supports the configuration in 2012 Minis. I let them keep it to run tests which they have been doing for 2 days!!

    What is installed is a 500GB HD and a 128GB SSD that shows up as a single drive of 628GB. Before I brought it to the Apple Store my inclination was to wipe the drives and install a clean Mavericks that will hopefully identify the two drives separately and I can work mostly off the SSD , and then dump the idea of fusion drive which may be causing the kernel panics. Reading this thread I can see that you don't like the idea of fusion drives; I thought I would ask this question and see if I'm on the right track.

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