Looking at sticking a SSD in my old mid 2011 mac mini that I want to use only for photo editing..
But it seems a waste to just throw the 500GB drive out and replace with a 128 SSD.
I cam across the idea of making it a fusion drive, but im not sure how this works?
Does it work as 1 HD or 2?
Eg: can i leave the 500GB there to just store photos on and use the 128SSD for editing?
Edit: Apologies, I believe you can create a fusion drive from two drives, but it seems tricky: http://www.macworld.com/article/2014011/how-to-make-your-own…
I personally would just get the biggest SSD you can afford and use that - I have a 1TB SSD in my iMac which flies.
Well it all depends how you define a fusion drive. A fusion drive is made from 2 drives, a fast one and a slow one. This is the logical part of it.
What apple is selling is a fusion drive that has inside of it a SSD part and a normal HDD. They are all 1 physical unit and it probably looks like any other single unit.
What other people managed to do it a take 2 drives and make them behave like 1 fusion drive while keeping them physically separate. They are not sticky taped together or anything, they are still 2 physical drives they just act like 1.
After you have everything set up apple will move files from 1 drive to the other based on how often you use them (or another similar algorithm). I just have 1 SDD with the OS and /home and a HDD for storage. They are not bundled together they still act like 2 drives.
The physical fusion drive is good when you have space constrains, meaning you have only 1 place to put in a HDD/SSD so a physical fusion drive is a good alternative that gives you both speed and storage at a decent price. If you have 2 places just put in a HDD and a SSD just use them both as separate entities.
Great info thanks!
By the sounds of it I think i would like to setup so the OS/photoshop is on the main HDd (the SSD) and the original HD (500gb) is jus sitting there for me to dump the final images on for storage after i've finished with them.
by the sounds, a fusion drive is not what i'm looking for??
Had a further look into it and it looks like i need to go the easier option and just swap the HDD our for a SSD
That article isnt a fusion drive, it's just a pool of 2 drives that appear as one. A fusion drive will prioritise frequently used data to the SSD, and deprioritise least used data to the HDD
I'm considering doing this to my laptop.
From what I understand, SSD's are fast, but if they fail, your data is gone forever. My approach is to load the OS on a smallish SSD (120GB) and install a second HDD (500GB) for storage. That way, if mthe SSD fails, I havent lost any of my documents.
If anyone thinks this is a bad idea, feel free to let me know the reasons why.
SSDs are much much more reliable than HDDs, they also consume less power. The thing is with SSDs is when they break, it's catastrophic and quite expensive to remedy. However, the SMART warning system for SSDs is very good, and a catastropic failure is very very rare.
There have been some great write ups of the life capacity of SSDs recently, and the lifespan is just amazing. If you notice with all the SSDs they recieved a warning well in advance of a failure
So yes, run a second HDD as a backup, but you are much less likely to need it than running two HDDs
Davo - thanks for the info. I will certainly look into and all SSD solution.
Some people are running a backup on backup since the HDDs are so cheap these days.
I migrated to a SDD last year to load the OS and the games I play mainly. My first HDD became backup for my OS and storage with my second HDD became backup for the storage only. Also had been using SSD for a brand new computer at work too. Never had a problem with a SSD so far.
I am very disappointed with this thread
……..are aiming to expand the options by developing a new fusion drive rocket engine that promises to make possible a manned spacecraft that could reach Mars and return to Earth in months rather than years
I was thinking the same thing when I came in :).
i did it 2 years ag0. 2tb wd green + 256gb samsung 830 in my imac
but i totally forgot about how to do it now.
need to google it again.
depends on which mac u got.
i have a first gen i3 imac
only 1 sata for hdd, so i have to removed the old hdd and odd replaced with a 2tb and 256 ssd.
as well as need to install the fan control. as the old hdd have firmware for the fan control.
You can't make a fusion drive.
A fusion drive is a specific drive that contains both a regular HDD and an SSD, plus software to intelligently switch between the two. You can buy third party ones cheaper than SSDs with similar capacity for example WD Black2 (http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1190)
You're probably thinking of dual drives, where your computer has both an SSD and a regular HDD. You could for instance boot and put common programs on the SSD and non critical files on the HDD, but this becomes a pain pretty quickly and also, I am not sure Mac Minis have enough space to have two physical drives?