Recovery partitions in DIYfusion?

[toke lahti]

Hi,
I made fusion drive to my mbp and it shows like this now:

Last login: Thu May 29 15:40:46 on ttys000
TokesMacBook:~ toke$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *120.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         119.7 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Boot OS X               134.2 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         999.9 GB   disk1s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Boot OS X               134.2 MB   disk1s3
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk2
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk2s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS 10.9.2 2014-05-29       499.8 GB   disk2s2
/dev/disk3
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Fusion                 *1.1 TB     disk3
TokesMacBook:~ toke$

Do I now have recovery partition in both ssd AND hdd and what are the benefits and downsides of this?

 

[Weaselboy]

You do not have a recovery partition. There are various guides for making the Fusion drive, and not all of those guides create a recovery partition.

If you had one, you would be able to see the 650MB partition like in this screenshot.

There is a guide here that will make a Fusion drive with recovery in place.

It is good to have the recovery partition. Some services like Filevault encryption and Find my Mac require it. Also, the recovery partition can be booted from to use as a troubleshooting tool. If you don't care about any of those things, it won't harm anything to run without one.

 

[toke lahti]

Okay,
the boot partition is not recovery partition.
Do I need to have two boot partitions?

Weeel, I guess I need to re-fusion and copy all things again from external drive...
Find my mac might be handy sometime in the future...

 

[Weaselboy]

Okay,
the boot partition is not recovery partition.
Do I need to have two boot partitions?

Weeel, I guess I need to re-fusion and copy all things again from external drive...
Find my mac might be handy sometime in the future...

No... I suspect the way you made the Fusion gave you that second boot section instead of the recovery partition.

 

[toke lahti]

This looks better then:

TokesMacBook:~ toke$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *120.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         119.7 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Boot OS X               134.2 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         999.3 GB   disk1s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk1s3
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk2
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk2s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS 10.9.2 2014-05-29       499.8 GB   disk2s2
/dev/disk3
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Fusion                 *1.1 TB     disk3
TokesMacBook:~ toke$

Thanks for the help!

 

[toke lahti]

Old thread, but since the same topic, why not to continue here?
My old mini2012 has waited for repairing the fusion (ssd died, once again these old ones do not have enough TBW) for a long time. Since I'm moving, I thought now I need to waste that time. That mini was sort of backup to my old stuff.

Funny thing happened: when I removed the LVG, the Recovery partition also disappeared.
The fix was to install (Sierra 10.12.6 in this case) OS first to the hdd. That made the Recovery partition there and then create Fusion and install the OS again to that.

Does anybody know what is the last OS version where you can create CS Fusion drive?
And can you do Fusion with APFS in the next version or is there a gap between these versions?

 

[toke lahti]

No... I suspect the way you made the Fusion gave you that second boot section instead of the recovery partition.

I only know one way to make Fusion drive: sudo diskutil cs createVolume [paste the UUID here] jhfs+ [ArbitraryDriveName] 100%.

What other ways are there?

Btw, the instructions has to be digged up from archive.org these days: https://web.archive.org/web/2021050...cworld.com/article.php?story=2014030311173257

Strange thing that Apple's own instructions say use disk names, not partitions:

How to fix a split Fusion Drive - Apple Support

If your Fusion Drive appears as two drives instead of one in the Finder, it's no longer working as a Fusion Drive. Here's how to fix it.

support.apple.com

Somehow the Recovery partition appears also with those instructions?

 

[Fishrrman]

I see no point in trying to "rebuild" a failed fusion drive.

The only reason "fusion" existed in the first place was because SSDs were (at the time) too expensive.

Get either a blade drive (of sufficient size), or replace the platter-based HDD with a SATA SSD (of sufficient size). Forget about fusion.

Even an external USB3 SSD (as a boot drive) will be better.

 

[toke lahti]

I see no point in trying to "rebuild" a failed fusion drive.

The only reason "fusion" existed in the first place was because SSDs were (at the time) too expensive.

Get either a blade drive (of sufficient size), or replace the platter-based HDD with a SATA SSD (of sufficient size). Forget about fusion.

Even an external USB3 SSD (as a boot drive) will be better.

You don't have to see the point and I guess you never will.

If plain ssd is "good enough", fusion is simply better.
This time the "repair" costed me $10 for small, but brand new ssd and got 2.1TB of as fast storage as the computer needs and even can use.

If you want to send me a 2TB ssd, PM me and I'll give you address where to send it.

Fusion just is and will always be scientifically more "elegant" than any storage with single speed. Most data people save, does not need fast access. That is not changing.

I have now tested Fusion with APFS and got it working.
I believe that I will remain too lazy to test with my daily driver, current mini, so maybe when I get another mini.

Many interesting combinations:

1. internal ssd + hdd
2. internal ssd + external big slow ssd
3. external ssd + hdd
4. external fast ssd + external big slow ssd.

My biggest with for Apple in 2024 is them to introduce "FusionRAM".
(ie. fast RAM on SoC and slower expandable RAM on motherboard.
That would also save Mac Pro from extinction.