Where is my SSD?

[cgalloway]

I have a late 2013 imac with a 1TB Fusion drive.

A while ago I had problems in starting up. Basically, the machine would not boot unless I chose a non-SSD route on pressing the option key. Running disk utility told me: "first aid found corruption that needs to be repaired. to repair the startup volume, run first aid from recovery."

I didnt pursue this because I was busy at the time. Coming back to it now, however, I cant find the SSD drive at all. I realise this is normal in disk utility, but I can find no sign of it anywhere else either. In terminal I get this:

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk0
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS Apple Fusion HDD 999.9 GB disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (external, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk1
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1
2: Apple_HFS My Passport 999.8 GB disk1s2

/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk2
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk2s1
2: Apple_HFS Lacie 1TB 999.9 GB disk2s2

In system report under 'Storage' I get essentially the same (ie, a single 1 TB internal drive). Under 'SATA' I see a reference to the Apple SSD Controller in which the drop down menu says:

Unknown:

Native Command Queuing: No
Detachable Drive: No
Bay Name: SSD

I'm assuming at this point that the SSD drive may be fried, allowing me the rather slower option of using just the conventional 'Apple Fusion HDD' instead. The machine seems to work fine. I'm a bit confused, though as to why the SSD should have disappeared altogether. Surely the system should at least tell me if its not working? Also, I had the impression that the 1 TB Fusion drive in my machine included both the SSD and a conventional drive, so I would have thought that I would have less than 1TB available to me.

If I try to reformat the drive and start from scratch am I likely to get my SSD drive back or is it gone for good?

 

[chscag]

Welcome to our forums.

Fusion drives are great when working right. However, they can be problematic when errors on them occur or they completely fail. It sounds like the SSD portion of the Fusion drive has failed and now no longer shows up in Disk Utility. Formatting is not going to help and may make things worse. Is your iMac covered by Apple Care? If not, are you close to an Apple Store? I know it's not fun lugging an iMac to have it serviced, but that may be your best source of getting it repaired. The 2013 iMac is a very difficult machine to work on by one's self and is not recommended unless you are an experienced tech.

Even if your iMac is no longer covered by Apple care, the genius bar will run diagnostics for free. They will of course charge for repairs and parts. Also, I strongly recommend you make a backup of your data as soon as you can.

 

[harryb2448]

Under SSDController in D.U. the following appears on my iMac:-



APPLE SSD SD0128F:

Capacity: 121.33 GB (121,332,826,112 bytes)
Model: APPLE SSD SD0128F
Revision: A222621
Serial Number: 131866401123
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Medium Type: Solid State
TRIM Support: Yes
Bay Name: SSD
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
EFI:
Capacity: 209.7 MB (209,715,200 bytes)
BSD Name: disk0s1
Content: EFI
Volume UUID: 0E239BC6-F960-3107-89CF-1C97F78BB46B
disk0s2:
Capacity: 120.99 GB (120,988,852,224 bytes)
BSD Name: disk0s2
Content: Apple_CoreStorage
Boot OS X:
Capacity: 134.2 MB (134,217,728 bytes)
BSD Name: disk0s3
Content: Apple_Boot
Volume UUID: 2350967B-4B6B-3F96-BE71-2F265AA6F9F8

As you can see it is 121.33GB after formatting and Recovery Partition. Overall the hard drive is shown as 3.12GB, so yours should read 1.12GB.

Hate to say it but I think not running the repair, it looks like it has failed completely.

 

[cgalloway]

<<It sounds like the SSD portion of the Fusion drive has failed and now no longer shows up in Disk Utility>>

Thanks for that. How about getting a new SSD and connecting via thunderbolt or USB3? Can I make a new Fusion drive without breaking open the imac?

 

[harryb2448]

In the final days of my older 2011 21.5" iMac I purchased a Silicon Power Thunderbird drive, which included the cable, hokkerd it up and purchased a dock for it from 12SouthDock that fitted tonthe leg of the iMac. Go into System Preferences and select the Thunderbolt drive as the bootup drive, and I then used the unternal 1TB drive as a backup. Worked great wuith very high read and write speeds, faster than 6Gbps SSDs as Thunderbolt is 10Gbps. Read was in the higher 300s and Write close to 200 from memory.Now I use it as the backup for my new iMac.

 

[cgalloway]

A 1 TB SSD drive does sound interesting, though a $350 sticker is not insignificant. Also, I already have three backup drives so I dont really need another. I was thinking of getting, say, a 240GB drive and then setting it up as a fusion.

Something like this: https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/SSD7E6G240/

 

[cgalloway]

BTW, I understand that both Thunderbolt and USB3 are faster than the internal bus.

 

[pigoo3]

A 1 TB SSD drive does sound interesting, though a $350 sticker is not insignificant.

A few years ago a 1 TB SSD would have cost $1000-$1500...thus $350 now really is not that bad! Of course this doesn't make a $350 price tag now seem any less steep. Just putting things into perspective.

Back around 2007/2008 when SSD storage was about $40/gig...a 1 terabyte SSD would have been $40,000!!!

- Nick

 

[harryb2448]

Depends how big a drive you need. Not being into photos or iTunes I got by very, very comfortably with the Silicon Power SSD with a 240GB size, but that is something you will have to work on. USB3 at 5Gbps would not be faster that the internal 6Gbps, and Thunderbolt is capable of 10Gbps.