Can I clone/replace HDD in Fusion?

[2fifty2sixty]

Hi
I've Fusioned my SDD and HDD in my MacBook, but recently i'm getting the rainbow circle a lot and loud noises from my HDD. when I checked Repair HDD in Disk Utility, There is loads of red issues and the more I looked into it, my HDD is failing. I Time Machine, but if I cloned everything from the the failing HDD, surely I'd have to wipe everything, get the exact partitions, and install Yosemite and Mavericks back BEFORE i can do anything, right?

Is there an easier way?

Thanks in advance.

 

[MacInWin]

Did you do the fusion? If so, and the HDD fails, you'll probably lose everything on both drives. That's how fusion works. If your drive is a fusion drive from Apple and if it's under AppleCare, you can get Apple to replace it. If you made the fusion drive yourself, and if it's under AppleCare, all Apple will do is replace the HD, not the fusion and you'll lose everything. So, what I would do is back it up with either CCC to make a complete clone, or TM of everything, then un-fuse, replace the HD, boot from the CCC clone and restore from the backup. Personally, I wouldn't (and don't) use Fusion at all. it's too risky for the benefit. If you want speed, just go ahead and get a good SSD. Prices are dropping on them to the point where Fusion doesn't make sense any more, IMHO.

 

[2fifty2sixty]

Thank you Jake.

I've looked at SSD 750GB, and there's a bit of a difference in price.

With my Fusion, that I manually put together, I've 878GB, and I use a lot of that, so I appreciate the advice about jumping to an SSD, but I think this will have to do for a bit longer.

As for the current HDD, I works, but it's failing and I've ordered a 750GB Samsung HDD to replace it, but I just wondered if there was a quicker way, other than un-fusioning them, and pairing them together etc.

Thank you for your help, Jake. I'm very grateful for your views and advice.

Cheers.

 

[MacInWin]

The problem with fusion, as I understand it, is that files can be spanned over both drives, and that the directory treats the fused drives as ONE logical drive, so when either the SSD or the HD fails, you'll lose everything. I think what you will have to do is find a process to un-fuse the drives, then backup the failing HD as it ends up unfused, replace it with the new one, recover from the backup and then try re-fusing the drives again, if that's what you want to do. However, perhaps a better solution might be to replace the failing HD with a new one, but don't fuse them, move the SSD to the boot position, install the system to boot from it and then store data on the new HD. You'll have the benefit of a fast boot time from the SSD, avoid the potential of losing everything in a fused system and only have to pay for a new HD.

 

[bobtomay]

First off, you would not install Yosemite and Mavericks - pick one, that's the one you install.

For those that need more data on their internal than SSD they can afford, instead of using a Fusion drive setup, I would recommend keeping OS X on the SSD and keep your home folder on the HD.

After you get the new drive installed boot to your clone - or better, a USB drive with the Yosemite installer.
Open up DU and format both the SSD and the HD
Install OS X onto the SSD

After you have booted into the newly installed OS X on the SSD, "copy" your home folder to the HD.

After you've done that, head for System Preferences - Users and Groups
Need to click on the lock and unlock it
Then hold down the control key - click on your user account - then select the "Advanced Options" that pops up.
On that screen you can choose the location of your home folder - change it to the one you copied to the HD.

When you've done that, reboot and test the account to make sure everything is working as it should.
Once tested, you can delete the home folder on the SSD.

One more thing - you also need to head back into Users and Groups and create another Admin account on the SSD. You will need this in case the HD dies as you will not be able to boot back into OS X without an available account.

edit:
I have not tested cloning nor restoring from a clone in this configuration.
I have no idea if using the Migration Assistant to restore from the clone or from the TM backup will work.