Fusion Drive inquiries
Fusion Drive inquiries
I transferred my 2011 iMac to my parents when I moved to a new Macbook Pro. I had set up a DIY "Fusion Drive" with a Crucial M550 120GB SSD and the original Seagate 500GB 7200.12 Barracuda drive. While I was away, I noticed it made a very loud, repetitive sound every second (vroum, vroum, vroum...) which suggested some vibrations weren’t being absorbed. My questions are: - Is the hard drive or the fans responsible for this noise? - Can I check the SMART status of the drive while it’s still in the Fusion setup? Is there any Mac software similar to CrystalDiskInfo for that? - Since they don’t require much storage, can I remove the Fusion Drive and put everything on the SSD? Or should I reinstall everything? I’m okay using Time Machine for backups. The disassembly of the drives seems risky, so I’d prefer not to open the iMac unless absolutely necessary (and I’d need my suction pads). Is there a way to completely power down the hard drive without opening it?
Keep an eye on each drive in SMART. It isn't very accurate, but when a warning appears, it points to the drive. Does it resemble this description? If none of these indications match what you're experiencing, it's likely the fan issue.
The noise doesn't match any issues I've seen on the site or elsewhere, which eases my concern. It feels like a deep, subtle shake happening every second. This is similar to what I've felt with an external WD Blue and a basic case that amplify certain vibrations. The iMac hasn't shown this since I purchased it. Let's check SMART soon.
Warning : Can we fully remove a user? That happened after updating macOS (El Capitan, 10.11.6). Now my parent account isn't visible, but I'm sure it was active during the reboot/update process. My own account is fine, yet it's now the sole one. The user folder remains intact.
You're facing several issues with your storage setup. The problem seems to stem from mismatched components being grouped together—possibly because the system treats the Seagate as part of the "Fusion Drive" even though it's separate. The SMART report indicates a fault in your drive, but the tool doesn't recognize the Seagate properly. You might need to check individual drives and ensure they're correctly identified. Regarding backups, accessing the lost user folder could help restore settings, but you'll need to unlock it first. For a clean Time Machine backup, consider using a dedicated backup solution or ensuring your drive is healthy before attempting recovery.
I restored my iMac clean after saving crucial files manually (good news, under 10GB). A quick command fixed the "lost user" data issue. I swapped out the Fusion Drive and reinstalled everything on the 120GB SSD to ease storage strain. Everything seems okay now, though the SSD is clearly failing (reallocation count at 196). I’m hoping to swap it for a larger drive before it completely stops working. Once I have a 200GB+ SSD, both Crucial and Seagate will be replaced by it (unless Crucial offers a four-year warranty, which I doubt). I’ll keep an eye on things during regular use; the noise hasn’t returned yet, so it might be the Seagate drive that’s now empty. The Fusion Drive isn’t working well if it causes SSD issues anymore.