HOW-TO (/HOWTO)

How to make your own Fusion Drive

(https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?
u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.macworld.com%2Farticle%2F2014011%2Fstorage-
drives%2Fhow-to-make-your-own-fusion-drive.html)

(https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?
url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.macworld.com%2Farticle%2F2014011%2Fstorage-
drives%2Fhow-to-make-your-own-fusion-
drive.html&via=macworld&text=How+to+make+your+own+Fusion+Drive)

(https://plus.google.com/share?
url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.macworld.com%2Farticle%2F2014011%2Fstorage-
drives%2Fhow-to-make-your-own-fusion-drive.html)

(https://pinterest.com/pin/create/bookmarklet/?
url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.macworld.com%2Farticle%2F2014011%2Fstorage-
drives%2Fhow-to-make-your-own-fusion-
drive.html&description=How+to+make+your+own+Fusion+Drive)

(http://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.macworld.com%2Farticle%2F2014011%2Fstorage-
drives%2Fhow-to-make-your-own-fusion-
drive.html&title=How+to+make+your+own+Fusion+Drive)

(/author/Albert-Filice/) By Albert Filice (/author/Albert-Filice/)

Editorial Assistant, Macworld
NOV 15, 2012 3:30 AM PT
 LATEST REVIEWS

LaCie 2big Thunderbolt 2 (12TB)

(/article/2601342/lacie-2big-thunderbolt-2-review-updated-drive-cant-take-full-advantage-of-its-fastest-connection.html) (/article/2601342/lacie-2big-
thunderbolt-2-review-updated-drive-cant-take-full-advantage-of-its-fastest-connection.html)

Drobo Mini

(/article/2602220/review-the-drobo-mini-is-all-about-ease-of-use.html) (/article/2602220/review-the-drobo-mini-is-all-about-ease-of-use.html)

Oyen Digital Shadow Mini (1TB)

(/article/2454940/oyen-digital-shadow-mini-review-a-600-1tb-portable-ssd-thats-a-great-deal.html) (/article/2454940/oyen-digital-shadow-mini-review-a-
600-1tb-portable-ssd-thats-a-great-deal.html)

A Fusion Drive (http://www.macworld.com/article/2013805/fusion-drive-an-overview.html) gives you the best of two worlds: the high
storage capacity of a traditional platter-based hard drive, and the speed boost of a solid-state drive, without you having to manually
manage files. Apple offers the Fusion Drive as build-to-order options for the $799 Mac mini
(http://www.macworld.com/article/2013675/lab-tested-the-mac-mini-maximized-with-fusion-drive.html) and the upcoming iMac
(http://www.macworld.com/article/2012880/apple-slims-down-imac-in-latest-update.html), but if you are willing, able, and have the
parts, you can make your own Fusion Drive.

To build a Fusion Drive, you need to use the Terminal. We're going to lay out the commands you need in a way that most can
understand, and you don't need to enter a lot of them. However, a warning to anyone who has never used the Terminal: Working with
the Terminal isn't as simple as a graphic interface, as spelling counts and you don't always have a nice list of commands. You also
need to be using OS X 10.8.2 or later.

Content Continues Below

Gather your drives

Albert Filice

1TB Hitachi hard drive (from a Mac mini) and 250GB OWC Mercury Extreme SSD.

You need two drives to make a Fusion Drive, and if you want to get the speed boost, one should be an SSD. In our setup, we used a
Hitachi 1TB 2.5-inch hard drive (the one that ships in a Mac mini) and a 240GB OWC Mercury Extreme Pro
(http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Mercury_Extreme_Pro_6G) 6G SSD.

Apple chooses the drives they use based on extensive testing, which is why they recommend buying a Fusion Drive at the point of
purchasing your Mac. Apple does not support users who have built their own Fusion Drive. (In our lab experiments, I was able to
create a Fusion Drive with two flash thumb drives.)

Back up your data

If you have anything that you want to keep on either of the drives, now is the time to back it up: linking the drives with CoreStorage,
the technology behind the Fusion Drive, will erase them completely. If you need help with backing up your data, check out our guide
on how to back up your data with Time Machine
(http://www.macworld.com/article/1164963/mac_basics_how_to_set_up_time_machine.html) or, if you don't need to save absolutely
everything on your drive, our more generic guide on backing up your data. (http://www.macworld.com/article/2013004/backup-
basics-the-quick-something-is-better-than-nothing-backup-system.html)

Bust open Terminal

Albert Filice

A list of Disk Utility's CoreStorage Terminal commands

The Disk Utility application (Application > Utilities > Disk Utility) doesn't support the management or creation of Fusion Drives in its
graphical interface, and knowing Apple, it might not ever support it. To create the Fusion Drive, we'll use Disk Utility, but the
command line version that comes with every Mac. (Learn more about the Disk Utility command line
(http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man8/diskutil.8).)

If you aren't going to include the drive you booted from in a Fusion Drive, you can open the Terminal app (Applications > Utilities >
Terminal). This would be the case, say, if you're using a Mac Pro with multiple drive bays, since you can format them both externally.

If you want to include your current boot drive as part of the Fusion Drive, you're going to need to boot into recovery mode and run
Terminal from there. The CoreStorage process used to "fuse" the drives also formats them, and you can't do that to a drive used as
the boot drive. You can boot into recovery mode by holding Command+R when starting up your Mac, and open Terminal from there.

MORE LIKE THIS

(/article/2015664/storage-flash/how-to-split-up-a-fusion-drive.html)
How to split up a Fusion Drive (/article/2015664/storage-flash/how-to-split-up-a-fusion-drive.html)

Encrypt any disk in Mountain Lion (/article/1168077/software-utilities/encrypt-any-disk-in-mountain-lion.html)

(/article/2013805/storage/fusion-drive-an-overview.html)
Fusion Drive: An overview (/article/2013805/storage/fusion-drive-an-overview.html)

(/video/92208/apple-and-the-supreme-court-apple-s-trade-in-program-apple-s-fluctuating-market-cap-macworld-podcas) (/video/92208/apple-and-the-supreme-court-
apple-s-trade-in-program-apple-s-fluctuating-market-cap-macworld-podcas)
VIDEO
Apple and the Supreme Court, Apple’s trade-in program, Apple’s fluctuating... (/video/92208/apple-and-the-supreme-court-apple-s-trade-in-program-apple-s-fluctuating-market-
cap-macworld-podcas)

Content Continues Below

One last thing to note: If you're using a Mac currently in Apple's product line, such as the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro
(http://www.macworld.com/article/2013072/review-13-inch-retina-macbook-pro-offers-optimal-choice-for-lightweight-laptop-
users.html) or the new Mac mini (http://www.macworld.com/article/2013385/review-new-mac-mini-offers-an-attractive-bang-for-the-
buck.html), you can't use just any old install disc as a boot disc. Those machines require a special version of Mountain Lion that's not
yet in the App Store. So in this circumstance, recovery mode is your best bet.

Content Continues Below

Make the drive

Once you have the Terminal open, you're ready to get to creating the Fusion Drive.

List the drives you system can see. Use the following command to list the drives attached to your system:

diskutil list

This will list the drives like this:

 Albert Filice

A list of attached devices using the command "diskutil list"

Content Continues Below

The drive mount points are labeled /dev/disk#. Make a note of the mount points for the disks you want to make into a Fusion Drive.
In our example, /dev/disk0 is the boot disk, while /dev/disk1 and /dev/disk2 are the SSD and hard drive (respectively) that we
want to put together as a Fusion Drive. An easy way to tell drives apart is by their size and their name. Make sure you don't confuse
them, as the Terminal doesn't give much warning before wiping your drive.

Create a logical volume group. Let's create a CoreStorage logical volume group, the pool of data that will be made from the
combined space of our physical drives. Use the following format of the diskutil command:

Content Continues Below

diskutil coreStorage create nameYourThing drive1 drive2

Going off the example using /dev/disk1 and /dev/disk2 as the drives to combine, I simply type:

diskutil coreStorage create myLogicalVolGroup /dev/disk1 /dev/disk2

Content Continues Below

When the process is done, your logical volume group should be completed and the command will finish by presenting you with a
unique identifier for the group, which you should copy to your clipboard. It should look similar to this:

Content Continues Below

Albert Filice
The UUID is the unique identifier you want to copy

Create a logical volume. Now that we have a logical volume group, we can create the logical volume, what your Mac will recognize
as a single drive. Use the following format of the diskutil command:

Content Continues Below

diskutil coreStorage createVolume lvgUUID type name size

lvgUUID is the unique identifier you copied from the previous step.
type use Journaled HFS+ (typed as jhfs+).
name can be whatever you want to name the drive (traditionally "Macintosh HD"). Make sure you use quotes if there's a space
in the name.
size is how much of the "pool" that you want to make into a drive, using the following suffixes: B(ytes), S(512-byte-blocks),
K(ilobytes), M(egabytes), G(igabytes), T(erabytes), P(etabytes), or (%) a percentage of the current size of the logical volume
group.

Content Continues Below

Going off my previous example, my command would look like this:

diskutil coreStorage createVolume 50B457C3-ADC6-4EDC-9ABA-FD8C6EEDE69A jhfs+ "Macintosh HD" 100%

Albert Filice

The final command to create the Fusion Drive can be seen at the top of the Terminal screen

Content Continues Below

That will create a volume named Macintosh HD, and fill the entire logical volume group (100%), or all the space on the two drives.

Enjoy!
Once that command is done, you have your Fusion Drive. You can now restore Mountain Lion back onto it, or do whatever you want.
The only thing to remember is that they both need to be connected at the same time to work.

Content Continues Below

Hat tip: http://jollyjinx.tumblr.com (http://jollyjinx.tumblr.com/)

To comment on this article and other Macworld content, visit our Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Macworld/) page or our
Twitter (https://twitter.com/macworld) feed.

Related: Hard Drives (/Category/Storage-Drives) SSDs (/Category/Storage-Flash) Apple (/Category/Apple) DIY (/Tag/Diy/) Fusion Drive (/Tag/Fusion-Drive/)

Albert is a former PCWorld and Macworld intern and GeekTech (http://www.techhive.com/column/geek-tech) writer, who now works as an Editorial
Assistant in the PCWorld Lab. Albert likes to dabble in Web development in his free time. Check him out on Dribbble (http://dribbble.com/albert-
filice), or see some of his work on CodePen (http://codepen.io/monstersaurous).

Follow
 👤 ! "
(/author/Albert-
(https://twitter.com/monstasaurous)
(https://plus.google.com/u/0/114715353051122252029)
Filice/)

Sponsored Stories

If You're Over 30 And Own A Computer, This This Cheap Selfie Drone is the Most Amazing 15 European Cities with Highest Quality of Life
Game Is A Must-Have! Invention in 2018 Far and Wide
Vikings smartdailysavings.com (https://www.farandwide.com/s/europes-most-livable-
(https://plarium.com/landings/en/vikings/village_steps_m_prelp001_2?
(https://12tracku.com/path/lp.php? cities-71985994306c4df6?
plid=102600&pxl=outbrain&PublisherID=00f92bdc129ca5dc12532a5a716aa363c8&placement=$publisher_name$_$section_id$&adpartnerset=0090b5aa329891411e902488e53
trvid=12970&trvx=68a2bc15&c=$ob_click_id$&campid=00706a6c28a6cd49d43359495adc0c1ba2&creaid=0099302c
utm_campaign=europelivable-
ea4be4fc5dde4c97&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=out&

The Unusual Link Between Eggs And Diabetes 25 Insanely Cool Products from America Finally Prós e contras dos cinco carros elétricos mais
healthierpatriot.com Here vendidos
(http://track.gmftrk.com/8431e919-0c8b-4031-b18b- trendingguides.com The Daily Prosper
82e772e57cb9? (http://golnks.com/path/lp.php? (https://thedailyprosper.com/pt/a/pros-e-contras-dos-
pubid=$publisher_name$&ad=0079eae2eafc38eab19c4755ea2135c635&section=$section_name$&obOrigUrl=true)
trvid=10025&trvx=c2e80466&OutbrainClickId=$ob_click_id$&campid=00cabdb30e3f40670e862ad42621c482bd&cre
cinco-carros-eletricos-mais-vendidos?obOrigUrl=true)

The $29 iPhone battery replacement 13-inch MacBook Pro SSD service program Black Friday Steal: These $100 Wireless
program ends on New Year’s Eve FAQ: Everything you need to… Bluetooth Earbuds Are…
Macworld Macworld Macworld

(https://www.macworld.com/article/3325324/iphone- (https://www.macworld.com/article/3320456/macs/13- (https://www.macworld.com/article/3323058/consumer-

ipad/iphone-battery-replacement-program-ends-on- inch-macbook-pro-ssd-service-program-faq.html? electronics/black-friday-steal-these-100-wireless-
december-31.html?obOrigUrl=true) obOrigUrl=true) bluetooth-earbuds-are-under-30.html?obOrigUrl=true)
 (link)
Mac running slowly? Check it for junk files and outdated apps! British Expat in Portugal? Discover How Brexit Could Affect You and
mackeeper.com Your Pension
Abbey Wealth
(http://mackeeper.com/paramss=phexafc9b896b4b5b5e69298a0aea19cd2e8cb90e5eec3d6d0b0cad1ca9cdddac2d4e0dbdbdbc4e0d8d8d5e6d1959bada29c96cedbced2d9cee
tid_ext=Mac+running+slowly%3F+Check+it+for+junk+files+and+outdated+apps%21;$section_name$;$publisher_name$;00c42a0814084f538f06b57579722e2b84&obOrigUrl=t
(https://www.abbeywealth.com/free-pension-review-for-british-expatriates-
outbrain/?utm_source=outbrain&utm_medium=Nov18&obOrigUrl=true)

SHOP TECH PRODUCTS AT AMAZON

(link)
(link)

(https://connatix.com)