DIY Fusion Drive Problems

zooankski · 7 May 2015 at 20:51

I am trying to create a fusion drive but keep getting an error when i have booted to terminal and input the following cmd line -
diskutil coreStorage create ****** /dev/disk0 /dev/disk1

disk0 is my SSD and 1 is a 640 Gb Tosh.

All i get is a started message followed by this error-

Started CoreStorage operation
Error: -69886: Invalid request

The drives show up fine in disk utility when i boot in to yosemite and i have tried taking the tosh drive back to basics with not even an EFI partition. Still no joy and i cannot work out what the issue is. Anyone got any ideas????

Feek · 8 May 2015 at 07:40

Can you post a link to the procedure you're following please?

zooankski · 8 May 2015 at 16:02

Sussed it- no core storage

Feek · 8 May 2015 at 17:55

Well this is something I'm interested in doing so I'd still appreciate a link to the procedure you're following if that's possible please.

zooankski · 10 May 2015 at 13:36

There are loads of guides, just Google DIY fusion drive

MagicBoy · 10 May 2015 at 13:42

No Core Storage? You still running Lion?

It's a bit rude when people come asking for help, then resolve/workaround it themselves and won't feed back to the community.

zooankski · 11 May 2015 at 07:41

Regarding the core storage thing. I stumbled across that by accident using terminal and typing in "diskutil cs list" it said there were no CoreStorage Volumes.
Ended up Googling that and it gave me the terminal commands to sort it. The DIY fusion instuctions then worked a treat

http://www.macworld.com/article/2014011/how-to-make-your-own-fusion-drive.html

Plenty of guides available on adding a second drive to the mac mini using a data doubler cable and that was a pretty simple process although i did end up buying a kit including the logic board removal tool which you could easily have made from a length of wire coat hanger yourself and saved a fiver.
Always had the intention to feed back but been working shift so apologies for the delay.

Feek · 11 May 2015 at 08:25

Thanks for the link - I know there are a few guides around but it's always good to find someone who's actually done it using a published method.

I have a 2011 iMac with 256Gb SSD and 2Tb HDD. I'd like to SuperDuper! clone the SSD and HDD off to external drives then build the two internal drives into a Fusion drive then restore from my backups. Or at least, that's the plan.

zooankski · 11 May 2015 at 08:59

The actual process is simple if you follow the instructions. The best ones i found and actually ended up using were from youtube -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7ZYwLl8z0Q

Ended up with this