Combine three 2tb partitions on portable SSD

[MichaelQC]

I have been given a portable SSD drive and would like to use it as one of my Time machine backups. (I currently use two 2tb that alternate backups) However it has three partitions each of which is 2tb. I suspect that it would be better if the backups were spread across the whole 6tb. But I cannot find a way to combine them. Is that possible and if so how to do it. I am using a late 2014 iMac 1.12tb on Big Sur.

 

[MacInWin]

Welcome to the forum.

How is the SSD formatted? You can find that by attaching it, then opening Disk Utility in your Utilities folder in Finder. Click on the "View" button on the top bar of the window and then "Show all devices" and you should see the hardware in the sidebar with the hardware listed at the top, totally unindented and then indented will be the three partitions, if they are, in fact, partitions. Let us know what you find, with maybe a screenshot if you can get one.

 

[MichaelQC]

Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Screenshot attached

 

[MacInWin]

OK, thanks. what you posted is almost like you left out one step. That is, in Disk Utility, click on "View" and then "Show All Devices" and take a shot of that. If you have already done that,then what DU is showing is three devices, all with the hardware name "VendorCo ProductCode Media," each of 2TB size, which is very strange. On that line should be something like what is listed for the boot device at the top of the External section of the sidebar column, where it says ,"WD My Passport 0748 Media." That identifies the actual hardware and the indents under that are the formatted data on that hardware. It almost looks like there is some data missing from the three devices where the vendor code, product code and media code is missing, so the system put in what it did. Can you tell us more about this external set of drives? I must admit that an 8TB SSD is very large, larger than any I've seen thus far, so something is unusual about it.

As an aside, using an SSD as a TM backup is a huge waste of that speed and capability. Backups can be stored nicely on rotating drives because speed is not an issue, normally.

 

[MichaelQC]

Apparently the device was purchased on-line and then given to me. I only thought of Time Machine because of its size and no need to replace it every year or two as I seem to do. I really don't have any other use for a large storage device.

 

[MacInWin]

Does the device have any brand or manufacturer names or model numbers on it? It definitely looks like three individual devices, each of 2TB capacity. If they are three devices in one enclosure, you *might* be able to fuse them to look like one, but that would be, in my mind, a sub-optimal approach and may not even be acceptable for TM to use. Or they may have been fused to make it appear to be a single 6T device, but the fusion "broke" somehow and now you are seeing the three individual devices. It certainly looks strange to me.

 

[MichaelQC]

No identifyng logos or names but we found the web site.

 

[MacInWin]

That helps. What I think you have is a cheaply made device that probably has three 2TB SD cards inside, or maybe just the guts of three such cards, minus the exterior packaging. They were probably "fused" to look like on 6TB drive, but the fusion has broken and now you are seeing the three individual controllers through the USB port. The pricing tells me it is a knock-off, probably from either China or Taiwan. A good 2TB SSD is more than the price shown in the website. The cheapest I found at Amazon, in a very quick search, was five times the price shown at that website for a 2TB SSD.

So, you have a couple of options. The challenge for you is that if I'm right about it being a set of SD cards is that they are notoriously unreliable over the long term. I personally would not trust anything important to an SD card. They are great for short term data transfers, like taking a picture in a camera and then reading the card to get the files into a computer, but not for long term storage like a TM backup.

If you want to continue to use the device as three 2TB drives, you can do so. If you want to fuse them into a fusion drive, let us know and we can give you directions on how to do that. Just be aware that in a fused drive if ANY of the three have issues, you lose all data on all three.

 

[MichaelQC]

Thank you very much for your assistance. I am not going to use it now.

 

[pm-r]

But I cannot find a way to combine them. Is that possible and if so how to do it. I am using a late 2014 iMac 1.12tb on Big Sur.

I'm coming in here a little bit late, and until I read the whole thread I was going to suggest using Stellar Partition Manager that I found works much better than Apple's disk utility, especially when partitions or any partition resizing are involved.

But after reading the full thread here, I'm not sure it would work on that drive as I believe it is designed to work with proper solid state and rotary drives.

As Jake mentioned, that particular SSD doesn't seem to be exactly a "normal" SSD drive even though technically it is I guess.

Anyway if you want to give it a look you can find the information here:

How to use Stellar Partition Manager on Mac Drive? | Stellar

Use Stellar Partition Manager on Mac Drive, Mac SSD or Mac external USB drive to format, partition, resize, add a new partition. Manage all partitioning activities on Mac internal or external hard drive via this Mac partition manager application.

www.stellarinfo.com

- Patrick
=======

 

[chscag]

Patrick:

For info sake in case someone wants to download the "Stellar Partition Manager", they need to know it is not compatible with APFS which means it can't be used with macOS Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur, and Monterey.

It does have its uses for managing partitions on HFS+, FAT, and even NTFS.

 

[MacInWin]

Thank you very much for your assistance. I am not going to use it now.

Well, I could be wrong, but the only way I can think to find out is to open up the device and see what is in there. But I strongly suspect it is what I described. It can be used for other purposes, as I described, but I would avoid using it for anything long term or critical.

 

[pm-r]

@chscag

For info sake in case someone wants to download the "Stellar Partition Manager", they need to know it is not compatible with APFS which means it can't be used with macOS Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur, and Monterey.

Thanks for the info Charlie, I keep forgetting about the latest mac OS drive formatting changes.


- Patrick
=======

 

[jpdemers]

At that price, it's extremely unlikely to actually contain the advertised capacity. It's like the bogus SD cards that are jiggered to "report" 1TB when in reality they're just cheap 128GB or 264GB cards. The sellers are crooks who fold up their tent when enough buyers complain to Amazon or eBay, then come back the next day under a different name.