Migrating from Fusion Drive to RAID 0 APFS

[Greenturtle]

Hi!

I currently have a Fusion Drive setup in my old MacBook Pro 2012.

500GB SSD
750GB HDD

I am thinking of removing the 500GB SSD and replacing it with another 750GB HDD. It seems to make sense to me to do away with the Fusion Drive configuration and move to a RAID 0 Array which would then be supported in the new APFS with High Sierra.

Sounds silly, but does anyone have any advice with regards to data? I have a lot of configuration setup for HomeBridge and Plex etc. and would prefer a direct clone.

Should I be thinking about Carbon Copy Cloner or Time Machine with an external hard drive to support this migration?

Thanks,

Sam

 

[m4v3r1ck]

For a bootable! clone option I can highly recommend Carbon Copy Cloner on an external RAID1.

RAID1? Because I always clone on failsafe external drives and that's what a RAID1 is!

Install a new macOS and then I use Migration Assistant to copy back all rest of my current OS setup.

I always avoid Timemachine myself.

Good luck! Cheers

 

[nekton1]

Apple does not support APFS on HDD, RAIDed or otherwise.

 

[killawat]

edit: delete

 

[m4v3r1ck]

Apple does not support APFS on HDD, RAIDed or otherwise.

Factcheck? I just love it!

https://developer.apple.com/library...Management/Conceptual/APFS_Guide/FAQ/FAQ.html

Cheers

 

[Greenturtle]

Thanks for your responses! I read that article and it suggests it does!

I went with the CCC to a Disk Image. Phew, didn't realise how slow transferring 800GB to two Hard drives over Firewire would be!!

 

[nekton1]

You are reading an outdated guide that has been superseded by later information releases from Apple.

HS 10.13 GM candidate 17A362A does NOT support APFS on HDDs, in single or RAID configurations.

The KEY words are DOES NOT SUPPORT. Sure, you can force an installation but Apple won't support it and you are risking real trouble if you run the current 17A362A in that configuration.

Apple has said that APFS will be supported on HDD in a future release, but not at present.

Factcheck? I just love it!

https://developer.apple.com/library...Management/Conceptual/APFS_Guide/FAQ/FAQ.html

Cheers

 

[maverick808]

Apple has said that APFS will be supported on HDD in a future release, but not at present.

I don't think that's completely accurate. I believe Apple have said HDD boot disks aren't supported, but I can't see anywhere that they said APFS on HDD simply isn't supported yet. Do you have a source where they have?

 

[nekton1]

The OP was talking about: "I currently have a Fusion Drive setup in my old MacBook Pro 2012." and "removing the 500GB SSD and replacing it with another 750GB HDD" to "move to a RAID 0 Array which would then be supported in the new APFS with High Sierra".
As fas as I can see, with this configuration and this MBP—he can only be talking about a boot configuration, which is why I am telling him that Apple currently deprecates APFS on HDD for booting.
There is nothing to stop him putting APFS on a non-boot RAID but what would be the purpose of having a non-booting RAID inside a MBP? Is the OP suggesting booting from an external? I have read nothing to suggest that.

 

[m4v3r1ck]

Thanks for your responses! I read that article and it suggests it does!

I went with the CCC to a Disk Image. Phew, didn't realise how slow transferring 800GB to two Hard drives over Firewire would be!!

Yes, the first CCC run takes a while, depending on your CCC settings the next - incremental - clone runs will take less time.

CCC really saved my bacon many times!

Cheers

 

[m4v3r1ck]

I don't think that's completely accurate. I believe Apple have said HDD boot disks aren't supported, but I can't see anywhere that they said APFS on HDD simply isn't supported yet. Do you have a source where they have?

As maverick808 said, could you please share a link to your new informations about APFS. Because of the basics, a real issue for me if Apple would leave such a document unattended - not revised - on its dev pages.

Cheers

 

[nekton1]

https://beta.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/apfsfusion

Beta versions of macOS High Sierra made a change in the disk format of systems by converting them to use the new Apple File System. The initial release of macOS High Sierra will provide support for the new Apple File System as the default boot filesystem on Mac systems with all-Flash built-in storage. If you installed a beta version of macOS High Sierra, the Fusion Drive in your Mac may have been converted to Apple File System. Because this configuration is not supported in the initial release of macOS High Sierra, we recommend that you follow the steps below to revert back to the previous disk format.

My comment--there are ways round this but Apple does not support them. If you ignore this advice, you are playing with fire until Apple makes the necessary changes in later updates.

As maverick808 said, could you please share a link to your new informations about APFS. Because of the basics, a real issue for me if Apple would leave such a document unattended - not revised - on its dev pages.

Cheers

 

[chrfr]

You are reading an outdated guide that has been superseded by later information releases from Apple.

HS 10.13 GM candidate 17A362A does NOT support APFS on HDDs, in single or RAID configurations.

The KEY words are DOES NOT SUPPORT. Sure, you can force an installation but Apple won't support it and you are risking real trouble if you run the current 17A362A in that configuration.

Apple has said that APFS will be supported on HDD in a future release, but not at present.

Unlike with Fusion Drives, the GM Candidate installer will allow a user to install on an APFS disk without any warning. Presumably whatever issues Apple has found with Fusion Drives and APFS are either less severe or nonexistent on regular HDDs.

 

[m4v3r1ck]

https://beta.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/apfsfusion

Beta versions of macOS High Sierra made a change in the disk format of systems by converting them to use the new Apple File System. The initial release of macOS High Sierra will provide support for the new Apple File System as the default boot filesystem on Mac systems with all-Flash built-in storage. If you installed a beta version of macOS High Sierra, the Fusion Drive in your Mac may have been converted to Apple File System. Because this configuration is not supported in the initial release of macOS High Sierra, we recommend that you follow the steps below to revert back to the previous disk format.

My comment--there are ways round this but Apple does not support them. If you ignore this advice, you are playing with fire until Apple makes the necessary changes in later updates.

Thanks for your reply and link! I never install beta's on working - production - machines so I'm no self-proclaimed expert, but this topic is getting more and more confusion with each post added.

A recap for myself:

So, APFS is NOT supported for Fusion Drives in the Public Release of macOS HS. So if you installed the betas, your Fusion Drive is converted to APFS and needs to be reverted before installing the Public Release gets out?

SSD's / HDD's are the way to go and last but no least, Apple Raid - disk utils - is NOT supported for a macOS HS boot drive?

Thanks in advance for any further explanations!!!

Cheers