Help Required with MacMini Fusion Drive

Question

Level 1

4 points

Help Required with MacMini Fusion Drive

Hello all

I recently purchased a second hand late 2012 MacMini i7 wth a fusion drive. The previous owner had created a windows partition. I won't to return the machine to its original out of the box factory setup for my use as I have no need to run windows on it.

I am struggling to get the fusion drive to fuse. Currently I have two separate disks which I have named 329GB and 781GB. Disk Utility shows both drives are fine. I have rebooted in Recovery Mode to use the online disk utility and the drives do not show up as red and so there is no option to fix them.

I have used Terminal (following some reading online) and it provides the following information:

+-- Logical Volume Group F92C23DE-59E6-48E1-9525-07BAA362792C

=========================================================

Name: Macintosh HD

Status: Online

Size: 790333857792 B (790.3 GB)

Free Space: 98304 B (98.3 KB)

|

+-< Physical Volume 5E674D49-E043-46E0-8B68-4A1BE6F198D6

| ----------------------------------------------------

| Index: 0

| Disk: disk0s2

| Status: Online

| Size: 120988852224 B (121.0 GB)

|

+-< Physical Volume 7BA0BD21-C934-4179-B432-8CE91651DA29

| ----------------------------------------------------

| Index: 1

| Disk: disk1s2

| Status: Online

| Size: 669345005568 B (669.3 GB)

|

+-> Logical Volume Family 9350CC2D-8020-42E4-9C64-A2F1C4BC3DFB

----------------------------------------------------------

Encryption Type: None

|

+-> Logical Volume C94C8E95-391F-48B9-8920-2BF7C0646691

---------------------------------------------------

Disk: disk2

Status: Online

Size (Total): 781826392064 B (781.8 GB)

Revertible: No

LV Name: 781GB

Volume Name: 781GB

Content Hint: Apple_HFS

LVG Type: Fusion, Sparse

None of the data on the drive(s) is critical as it is all available on my old Mac mini and can be re-migrated again later.

Any advice on how to return the Fusion drive to its original out of the box state please?

Airport Time Capsule 802.11ac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on Jul 29, 2016 10:35 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Niel

Community+ 2026

Level 10

742,829 points

Jul 29, 2016 10:38 PM in response to dubai mac

Open the Boot Camp Assistant and return the drive to a single-partition setup.

(143720)

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Answer 2

dubai mac Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 29, 2016 11:02 PM in response to Niel

Thanks.

Opened BootCamp Assistant and following message received:

The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition.

The startup disk must be formatted as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume or already partitioned by Boot Camp Assistant for installing Windows.

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Answer 3

dubai mac Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 30, 2016 12:31 AM in response to dubai mac

Further info from terminal:

diskutil list

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *121.3 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage Macintosh HD 121.0 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 134.2 MB disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk1

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage Macintosh HD 669.3 GB disk1s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.1 MB disk1s3

4: Apple_HFS 329GB 329.3 GB disk1s4

5: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk1s5

/dev/disk2 (internal, virtual):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_HFS 781GB +781.8 GB disk2

Logical Volume on disk0s2, disk1s2

C94C8E95-391F-48B9-8920-2BF7C0646691

Unencrypted Fusion Drive

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Answer 4

lllaass

Level 10

210,519 points

Jul 30, 2016 12:39 AM in response to dubai mac

I would just backup any data you want for the disk. Then boot to Recovery

About OS X Recovery - Apple Support

and format the disks and reinstall OSX. With both a HD and SSD present, a Fusion drive will automatically be created.

Also see:

What to do before selling or giving away your Mac - Apple Support

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Answer 5

dubai mac Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 30, 2016 12:47 AM in response to lllaass

Thanks

No back-up required as all data is on another mac and can be migrated again later.

So do I need to name the two parts of the fusion drive during the process? If I do won't this create two separate drives rather than the once combined drive I should have?

I have tried doing this or similar previously and was not succesful

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Answer 6

lllaass

Level 10

210,519 points

Jul 30, 2016 1:10 AM in response to dubai mac

With the latest iOS versions, a Fusion drive will automatically be created. Yo have to take overt action to have separate drives as many users have posted here.

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Answer 7

dubai mac Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 30, 2016 1:16 AM in response to lllaass

So

1. Use Recovery or Internet Recovery? any difference?

2. Format both parts of the fusion drive as OS X Extended Journaled? Do I have to name both parts? If so does this have no impact?

3. Which part is most advisable to install OS X onto the small SSD part?

4. Should the outcome be one single drive showing as the Macintosh HD?

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Answer 8

lllaass

Level 10

210,519 points

Jul 30, 2016 1:23 AM in response to dubai mac

Internet Recovery will install 10.8.5 which might not automatically create a Fusion drive

The Recovery partition will install the OSX version that was on the Mac.

I would just boot to the Recovery partition and click on install OSX and then follow the instructions

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Answer 9

dubai mac Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 30, 2016 3:06 AM in response to lllaass

Update:

I tried booting into recovery mode but internet recovery mode opened automatically and then presented a no entry sign. Repeated same outcome. I installed a bootable usb flash drive and held down Option on restart and was presented with a choice of start up disks. I chose Recovery 10.11 rather than the usb. I erased and reformatted both partitions of the fusion drive as OS X extended journaled and then reinstalled OS X from Recovery.

The machine is now set up but when I choose in Finder preferences to see disks it mounts both parts of the Fusion drive separately on the screen. Is this as it should be or does this mean I have failed to achieve my desired outcome?

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Answer 10

lllaass

Level 10

210,519 points

Jul 30, 2016 8:16 AM in response to dubai mac

This will help you determine if you have a fusion drive

Is the Fusion Drive option installed on my knew imac?

Did 10.11 install via Recovery?

If not a Fusion drive try again by seeing:

How do you format a Fusion drive in El Capitan - won't combine SSD and non-SSD into Fusion drive like it did in prior OS versions

If still problem yo can do it via Terminal I Recovery by:

http://create.pro/blog/how-to-create-a-fusion-drive-in-os-x-from-a-hdd-ssd-diy-s shd-for-mac/

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Answer 11

dubai mac Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 31, 2016 2:38 AM in response to lllaass

Unfortunately it is unclear whether I have a fusion drive installed. "About my mac" refers to a fusion drive but then shows it as two separate drives...

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