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User profile for user: Hans Brinker
Hans Brinker Author
User level: Level 1
13 points

Steps to remove fusion drive.

I brought my Mac mini to a repairshop and have asked them to replace one of the two drives that make a Fusion drive.

I have made a backup before.

Now I have doubts about the steps that I have made.

As I have only one computer how will it function after the changes are made?

Questions:

- Do you have to break the Fusion drive before removing the disks?

- After breaking the Fusion drive is the information on both drives lost?

- If so, how do I get my Mac (with the new drives) up and running? I don't have any OS for this was installed on my Fusion drive and it is lost.

- If the drives are removed without breaking the Fusion drive can I get the information (OS) from one of the drives?


The shop will start the repair next week, so I can call to cancel it.

Mac mini, macOS High Sierra (10.13.6), 2.7 GHz Intel Core i7; 16GB Memory

Posted on Sep 2, 2018 3:52 AM

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User profile for user: Tesserax
Tesserax
User level: Level 10
148,513 points

Posted on Sep 2, 2018 3:00 PM

- Do you have to break the Fusion drive before removing the disks?

Yes.

- After breaking the Fusion drive is the information on both drives lost?

No, but in order to access them properly again, the Fusion drive would need to be re-enabled.

- If so, how do I get my Mac (with the new drives) up and running? I don't have any OS for this was installed on my Fusion drive and it is lost.

You would first make a complete backup of your Fusion drive pair, either using Time Machine, and/or, creating a cloned copy to an external hard drive using either macOS Disk Utility or a third-party app, like Carbon Copy Cloner. This, of course, would require that your Mac is currently bootable and operational from the existing Fusion drive. If macOS is corrupt or missing, this will make both the backup and restore much more difficult. Hopefully, you have been making periodic backups and can restore your data from them.

- If the drives are removed without breaking the Fusion drive can I get the information (OS) from one of the drives?

Potentially, but this would require a second Mac and using Target Disk Mode to attempt to access the Fusion drive from the second Mac.

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User profile for user: Tesserax
Tesserax
User level: Level 10
148,513 points

Sep 2, 2018 3:00 PM in response to Hans Brinker

- Do you have to break the Fusion drive before removing the disks?

Yes.

- After breaking the Fusion drive is the information on both drives lost?

No, but in order to access them properly again, the Fusion drive would need to be re-enabled.

- If so, how do I get my Mac (with the new drives) up and running? I don't have any OS for this was installed on my Fusion drive and it is lost.

You would first make a complete backup of your Fusion drive pair, either using Time Machine, and/or, creating a cloned copy to an external hard drive using either macOS Disk Utility or a third-party app, like Carbon Copy Cloner. This, of course, would require that your Mac is currently bootable and operational from the existing Fusion drive. If macOS is corrupt or missing, this will make both the backup and restore much more difficult. Hopefully, you have been making periodic backups and can restore your data from them.

- If the drives are removed without breaking the Fusion drive can I get the information (OS) from one of the drives?

Potentially, but this would require a second Mac and using Target Disk Mode to attempt to access the Fusion drive from the second Mac.

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Steps to remove fusion drive.

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