Hi Severin,
I just fitted a 250GB SSD and a 3TB hard drive to my late 2009 i7 iMac (along with upping the RAM to 24GB). I was considering setting up a fusion drive but, as for yourself, for a variety of reasons I decided not to. Primary reason was that a fusion setup would only allow 1 extra partition – whereas I have split the 3TB into 3 partitions. The main reason for a fusion drive as opposed to separate seemed to be that separate drives require you to manage your own files rather than just having the one logical volume with the OS doing the file movement as required. I have always preferred to organise my files my way – not always as per Apple’s default setup – so this was not a problem for me. Currently my setup is: 250GB SSD contains main OSX (El Capitan) and applications, together with a bare Admin user profile 1.5TB partition is my main data drive and contains my main user profile and various other stuff. 1.0TB partition is currently empty but will probably become a dedicated media drive (music, video etc) 500 GB partition is a bootable SL OSX 10.6.8 clone of my old setup (has some legacy software and it means I can stagger my clean-out/reorganisation of years of accumulated cruft). I found plenty of online resources when rebuilding my computer and setting this up but, as you say, it can be difficult to decide which approach is the best. My thoughts: To be sure, to be sure – at least 2 backups of your current system before you start – Your clone plus an up to date Time machine backup would seem to cover this. Work out just how you intend to manage your data between the drives – given you have a bigger SSD but smaller HD than my set-up: I imagine you will not be looking to further partition the HD – just ending up with the 500GB SSD and the 1.5TB HD. I presume your OS and applications will be on the SSD. With only a 250GB SSD, for me it made sense to have my main user folder on the HD but with a 500GB SSD you may find it better to keep your user folder on the SSD and just use the HD for high capacity storage. Obviously you need to proceed in 2 stages: Split the fusion drive into its separate SSD & HD components. Set up the drives with your new desired configuration. In terms of splitting up the fusion drive, this article is also referenced by several others: https://www.macworld.com/article/2015664/storage-flash/how-to-split-up-a-fusion-drive.html In your case, since you have a bootable clone, you can ignore the instructions about doing this from recovery mode – just boot-up from the clone and your internal drive(s) can be dealt with easily. Here’s another article that seems to cover it well: https://www.lifewire.com/split-fusion-drive-apart-2260166 If you do decide that you want your user folder on the HD, rather than the SSD, this is the OWC video I used for guidance: https://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/owc_techknowlogy/keeping_system_files/?_ga=2.27482869.873964507.1523432163-1041492836.1522295138 Since I was not just adding an SSD to a computer with the existing system on the HD, I initiall just copied my user folder over from the clone but I then ran into permissions issues as I had been logged in as admin account when I copied over and that seemed to change the permissions so that there were problems when looged in to my main account I didn’t have correct access to my user folder. I picked this up quickly and went back to square 1 and found a sequence which worked for me – then all fine! If you do decide to do this, then if you cloned your existing clone back to the 1.5TB HD as the very first step, then you would be essentially in exactly the same start point as the video and could follow it exactly and (hopefully) avoid any permissions issues. Of course if you are going to have your user folder on the SSD, with the OS, then none of this is relevant ;o) HTH & good luck! I’m still coming to grips with Outlook 2016 which seems to be missing a heap of features that I reliedon in Entourage 2004 – the price of progress! Cheers Neil -- Neil R. Houghton Albany, Western Australia Tel: +61 8 9841 6063 Email: [email protected] From: <[email protected]> on behalf of Severin Crisp <[email protected]> Reply-To: WAMUG <[email protected]> Date: Wednesday, 11 April 2018 at 14:01 To: WAMUG <[email protected]> Subject: Hard drive I have an iMac with a 1.5T hard drive made up of a 1T conventional drive and a 500GB Samsung SSD. For a variety of reasons I am looking to split this up to a 500GB SSD system drive and the remainder on the 1T drive. I am wondering how to achieve this and need informed advice. I make a daily carbo Copy clone of the 1.5T fusion drive but wonder how to proceed. Help please! Severin Crisp I have read several internet solutions but would appreciate further advice. ____________________________________________________ Assoc Prof R Severin Crisp, FAIP, FIP, CPhys 15 Thomas St, Mount Clarence, Albany, 6330, Western Australia ph (08) 9842 1950 ( Int'l +61 8 9842 1950) Mob 0484 624 741 mail to: [email protected] _________________________________________ -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - Guidelines - Settings & Unsubscribe -
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