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Apple Computing Products:
macOS - Operating System
2019 imac fusion drive
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<blockquote data-quote="MacInWin" data-source="post: 1828512" data-attributes="member: 396914"><p>Fusion drives, even the totally internal ones, are not as reliable as either SSDs or spinner-HDs. The reason is that a fused drive is a combination of the two. And a failure of either is catastrophic to the fused drive overall. So if you have a drive that is 99% reliable and an SSD that is 99% reliable, the fusion of the two will be about 98% reliable (99% times 99%). Add in the unreliability of the fusion software (no software is 100% reliable) and the product is never going to be as reliable as each component. Now add in the unreliable cabling to reach an external drive, the unreliability of the external power supply, control boards for the interface and the ports on both the iMac and external drives and the reliability of a monster made that way will be way to risky for my taste. Any glitch in the communications/power to the external drive and everything is gone. I have enough trouble accidentally nudging a USB cable and getting the warning about not unmounting before disconnecting the drive. If I had a fused drive, that message would mean I just lost everything on both drives.</p><p></p><p>In any event, to fuse a pair of drives they both have to be in the same macOS format, so it probably won't work with either of his externals as they currently exist. </p><p></p><p>In the case of the OP, what may be better is to copy his files from the FAT drive to the RAID drive temporarily, then reformat the FAT drive to macOS format, then copy the files back from the RAID array to that newly formatted drive. Now copy his Home directory to that same drive and start cleaning out his directory, but leave the directory in place. There are hidden files in the Home directory that some applications expect to be there and that software sometimes does not look anywhere else. To work on files, either work with them from the external drive, or if that is too slow, move them to the internal drive, do the work, then once finished copy the result back to the external and erase from the internal. Given that the OP's objective is the best way to do that is to leave the Home directory where it is and to avoid making a Frankenstein monster that is going to have reduced reliability.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MacInWin, post: 1828512, member: 396914"] Fusion drives, even the totally internal ones, are not as reliable as either SSDs or spinner-HDs. The reason is that a fused drive is a combination of the two. And a failure of either is catastrophic to the fused drive overall. So if you have a drive that is 99% reliable and an SSD that is 99% reliable, the fusion of the two will be about 98% reliable (99% times 99%). Add in the unreliability of the fusion software (no software is 100% reliable) and the product is never going to be as reliable as each component. Now add in the unreliable cabling to reach an external drive, the unreliability of the external power supply, control boards for the interface and the ports on both the iMac and external drives and the reliability of a monster made that way will be way to risky for my taste. Any glitch in the communications/power to the external drive and everything is gone. I have enough trouble accidentally nudging a USB cable and getting the warning about not unmounting before disconnecting the drive. If I had a fused drive, that message would mean I just lost everything on both drives. In any event, to fuse a pair of drives they both have to be in the same macOS format, so it probably won't work with either of his externals as they currently exist. In the case of the OP, what may be better is to copy his files from the FAT drive to the RAID drive temporarily, then reformat the FAT drive to macOS format, then copy the files back from the RAID array to that newly formatted drive. Now copy his Home directory to that same drive and start cleaning out his directory, but leave the directory in place. There are hidden files in the Home directory that some applications expect to be there and that software sometimes does not look anywhere else. To work on files, either work with them from the external drive, or if that is too slow, move them to the internal drive, do the work, then once finished copy the result back to the external and erase from the internal. Given that the OP's objective is the best way to do that is to leave the Home directory where it is and to avoid making a Frankenstein monster that is going to have reduced reliability. [/QUOTE]
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Apple Computing Products:
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2019 imac fusion drive
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