How to separate Fusion drive functionality?

[RealRobD]

Picked up an old 2014 mac mini cheap as chips to use as a tv, movie server etc. And was curious about separating the fusion functionality.
I'm assuming it's all software based and when I replace the 120gb nvme or even wipe it with a fresh OS install it will be separate?
Also curious, what is the key type on the original nvme?

 

[ignatius345]

Picked up an old 2014 mac mini cheap as chips to use as a tv, movie server etc. And was curious about separating the fusion functionality.
I'm assuming it's all software based and when I replace the 120gb nvme or even wipe it with a fresh OS install it will be separate?

Yeah, they're physically separate drives and I'm pretty sure if you replace one of them the logical volume will break and you'll have to reformat both drives.

If you're just using it to serve media, might just be easier to run everything off an external drive and spare all the headaches. Seems like a pretty low-demand use case to me.

Also curious, what is the key type on the original nvme?

Not sure, on the Mini. On iMacs I know they're apparently tricky to source. Minis might be the same. Here's a thread on iMac blade drives: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/a-list-of-successful-imac-27-2012-2019-ssd-upgrades.2162435/

 

[MacCheetah3]

Unless the SSD shows as (near) failing, I recommend splitting the drives, (re)installing the latest compatible Mac OS on the SSD, and using the HDD as mass storage. Of course, you could replace/upgrade just the HDD.

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