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Old 02-07-2018, 07:42 PM   #1
BenK-msx
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Default noisy Hard drive all of a sudden

Gah -
need to vent as my shiny new 'vintage' 2012 mac mini i7 quad with 1T fusion drive was silently being awesome but has suddenly developed chirpitis which for some reason is a very irritating and noticable noise and is hindering my recording!

for the life of me i cannot make it cease - scouring activity monitor - killing stuff etc. not helped by being a noob on macos in relative terms as lived on windows till recently.

got a usb external drive for time machine backup as i am aware when a fusion drive goes they can do so spectacularly.

the process to fit a ssd in these minis seem far too tedious, and the reason i got the thing was to end the days of endless computer fiddling!!

- hoping it is just some little thing in the backround being a twat, but if drive failing, may go external ssd as boot.

any hints tips or possibilities- please share.

angry from wales.
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Old 02-08-2018, 12:37 AM   #2
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A noisy HDD is often the beginning of it's end. It was wise to arrange Time Machine backups.

I would replace the Fusion crap by a large SSD, because large external SSDs are usually more expensive and Trim doesn't work over USB, so Thunderbolt would be needed. If you ignore that, the external USB SSD will become pretty slow over time.

And low noise was exactly the reason, why I bought a Macbook Pro with a large internal SSD.

Oh ... I forgot ... if you want to replace the Fusion drive, do your homework, not every SSD will be compatible !!!
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Old 02-08-2018, 04:46 AM   #3
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Are you sure it's the harddisk and not the fan?
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Old 02-08-2018, 05:10 AM   #4
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A buddy had a Windows laptop a few years back that was making chirping sounds. I can't remember the specific cause but it was hard drive related and might have been something to do with drive head parking.

At any rate, there was some app that he downloaded that made the problem go away.
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Old 02-08-2018, 08:14 AM   #5
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Cheers for responses,
Definitely the hdd, fan usually inaudible on macmini unless stressed and then it sounds well, fan-like.

Just odd and annoying as happened quite suddenly and figured was something I had installed that was playing up in background but seems not.

Will look into lack of trim over usb - it's just the surgery and special tools etc required to get new drive in for the mini is exactly what I don't want to have to do anymore, and would want any fix executed quick so can carry on work.

Q: Would a boot from usb ssd be ok to transfer to be a new internal, when i had time to do it or found someone to do it for me, some time later, i.e before any trim issue becomes a problem?
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Old 02-08-2018, 08:34 AM   #6
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Those fusion drives were nothing but cheapness. Not surprised.

Sounds like you've identified the issue. You hear noises. Drive related performance has changed while nothing else has. Yes?

Keep your backup current like you have been so you don't lose anything when it fails completely.

Don't entertain the idea of switching to an external to avoid using the internal drive bays though! You have been very misinformed about swapping drives in the Mac Mini. It's easy to swap drives and you want to use those internal SATA bays.

FYI, those fusion drives give you the performance more like a 5400rpm HDD. The SSD portion is used like a buffer and it becomes a moot point with audio work. A 7200rpm HDD would be an upgrade. A SSD would be a big performance upgrade. That 2012 model has two 2.5" drive bays so you could install both if you wanted.

Vintage?

Quote:
Originally Posted by BenK-msx View Post
Q: Would a boot from usb ssd be ok to transfer to be a new internal, when i had time to do it or found someone to do it for me, some time later, i.e before any trim issue becomes a problem?
Yep. Plug your original drive in as an external. Boot from it. Format the new drive(s) you just installed into the machine. Clone your original drive (that you are currently running booted from) to the new SSD. (Use an app like Carbon Copy Cloner or the stock Disk Utility) Then you can finally boot from your new internal SSD and your identical system is back.

re: trim
Apple claims that not all 3rd party drives are good enough quality to support using trim and thus turns it off by default. You can simply turn it back on. I haven't heard any reports of a drive failure from using trim on any 3rd party drive that wasn't pre-qualified by Apple (whatever "pre-qualified" might mean).

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Old 02-08-2018, 09:14 AM   #7
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Ah all hail serr! A knighthood to 'Sir' is in order.
Cheers, trying to unpack this..

"
Yep. Plug your original drive (** the fusion drive that is one physical unit? ) in as an external.
Boot from it. Format the new drive(s) you just installed into the machine. Clone your original drive (that you are currently running booted from) to the new SSD. (Use an app like Carbon Copy Cloner or the stock Disk Utility) Then you can finally boot from your new internal SSD and your identical system is back."

I see how that's the best procedure, thanks.

My original question was more could i 'temporarily' use an external ssd as my boot drive (with say clone of current system on ) without issue or performance degradation?

Quote:
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Those fusion drives were nothing but cheapness. Not surprised.

Sounds like you've identified the issue. You hear noises. Drive related performance has changed while nothing else has. Yes?

Keep your backup current like you have been so you don't lose anything when it fails completely.

Don't entertain the idea of switching to an external to avoid using the internal drive bays though! You have been very misinformed about swapping drives in the Mac Mini. It's easy to swap drives and you want to use those internal SATA bays.

FYI, those fusion drives give you the performance more like a 5400rpm HDD. The SSD portion is used like a buffer and it becomes a moot point with audio work. A 7200rpm HDD would be an upgrade. A SSD would be a big performance upgrade. That 2012 model has two 2.5" drive bays so you could install both if you wanted.

Vintage?



Yep. Plug your original drive in as an external. Boot from it. Format the new drive(s) you just installed into the machine. Clone your original drive (that you are currently running booted from) to the new SSD. (Use an app like Carbon Copy Cloner or the stock Disk Utility) Then you can finally boot from your new internal SSD and your identical system is back.

re: trim
Apple claims that not all 3rd party drives are good enough quality to support using trim and thus turns it off by default. You can simply turn it back on. I haven't heard any reports of a drive failure from using trim on any 3rd party drive that wasn't pre-qualified by Apple (whatever "pre-qualified" might mean).
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Old 02-08-2018, 09:32 AM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by serr View Post
re: trim
Apple claims that not all 3rd party drives are good enough quality to support using trim and thus turns it off by default. You can simply turn it back on. I haven't heard any reports of a drive failure from using trim on any 3rd party drive that wasn't pre-qualified by Apple (whatever "pre-qualified" might mean).
I wanted a good priced external thunderbolt SSD for my Macbbok Pro and bought a LaCie Rugged 1 TB HDD, replaced the mechanical HDD with a Samsung EVO 850, activated OSX Trim Support and it works nicely. So it should work with an internal EVO 850 too, right?

But the question is, is it supported to boot from it? I vaguely remember, that only a few SSDs are supported as an internal boot drive.

PS: I also used the external LaCie to boot from it. I installed OSX on it from a USB pendrive, recovered my Time Machine backup and checked if my music stuff stilled worked after an OSX version upgrade.
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Old 02-08-2018, 09:32 AM   #9
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If you put a SSD in an external thunderbolt enclosure you would be able to use it at full performance. If you were to just put it in a USB enclosure, you'd be able to boot fine and troubleshoot the system and run many things but you would not have full performance. Now... you already have a bottleneck for performance from the fusion drive. So maybe a moot point for temporary. You definitely want to use the internal bays though. (As soon as you see the prices on those TB external enclosures you'll get a little more motivation for the internal bays too. ) It's a compact unit but it's very much made to take apart and swap drives around.

Oh, and of course substitute "your current backup drive" into the above about booting/cloning if your fusion drive has failed failed.
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Old 02-08-2018, 09:38 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Aymara View Post
I wanted a good priced external thunderbolt SSD for my Macbbok Pro and bought a LaCie Rugged 1 TB HDD, replaced the mechanical HDD with a Samsung EVO 850, activated OSX Trim Support and it works nicely. So it should work with an internal EVO 850 too, right?
Yep. Again, I haven't read of a single reported case of something going wrong because of using trim. Has anyone?
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Old 02-08-2018, 09:50 AM   #11
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Cheers guys, all good info and is appreciated.

So Usb bit slow for optimal ssd use. I have seen TB prices! Fooled myself that spending time was over, either way.

Re time machine/backups, I recall reading I think from serr that a clone is far better, quicker etc since no reinstall faff etc. Any backup is good of course but clone seems more painless unless time machine does that in some way?

Damn this mac unfamiliarity!


Worth using both bays?
My Old daw pc has a decent sdd with Windows on, would rather not gut that system but is an option.

Cheers
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Old 02-08-2018, 09:55 AM   #12
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I haven't either. But OTOH, you never know why an SSD fails.

I was, fi, fairly sure SSD's weren't susceptible to magnetic fields. Until a storage array that had 16 SSD's as cache and a large number of rotating rust disks for storage, kept failing.

We found out that the SSD closest to the quad 1 kW power supplies failed every now and then. Usually at night, when remote backup started and strained the system.

The next model had thicker metal between PSU and disk cage.

It never bothered rotating rust.
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Old 02-08-2018, 10:04 AM   #13
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Quote:
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So Usb bit slow for optimal ssd use.
USB 3.0 and Thunberbolt 2.0 have around the same read/write speeds with the same SSD.

But USB doesn't support Trim, so it's likely, that the external SSD will become pretty slow over time ... up to mechanical disk speeds. That's why I chose Thunderbolt.

Quote:
Re time machine/backups, I recall reading I think from serr that a clone is far better, quicker etc since no reinstall faff etc.
If you have a good cloning software and know how to handle it, it's faster yes. But if you first need to learn this stuff, the TimeMachine method might be faster
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Old 02-08-2018, 12:15 PM   #14
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Quote:
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I wanted a good priced external thunderbolt SSD for my Macbbok Pro and bought a LaCie Rugged 1 TB HDD, replaced the mechanical HDD with a Samsung EVO 850, activated OSX Trim Support and it works nicely. So it should work with an internal EVO 850 too, right?

But the question is, is it supported to boot from it? I vaguely remember, that only a few SSDs are supported as an internal boot drive.
Yep. I put it in my MBP (one where the stock internal isn't soldered/superglued/melted permanently into place) and boots like a champ.
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Old 02-08-2018, 08:49 PM   #15
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Further head scratching has me at this potential way forward:

1: Clone current system To my external USB
2: un-fuse thefusion drive set up, erasing all - hopefully yielding one 128gb ssd and a potential elderly spinny HDD.
3: use clone to put system on the 128 ssd. (As pretty new I've only used less than 100gb on existing fusion drive.) This seems doable?

4: see if that remedies noisy spin drive issue, ( no opening her up needed ) and set about getting a new ssd to go in there if necessary to supplement ssd#1 or clone to new one and use ssd#1 as extra.

From googling getting a fusion drive set up out of a mini is more work than replacing a single drive which does seem straight forward enough, so this gives a stepped approach where it might not be necessary to do surgery.

Potential pitfalls is the ex-fusion ssd is kak?
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Old 02-08-2018, 11:59 PM   #16
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For an interim solution your plan should work, but keep in mind, that around 10% of the SSD should stay free for Trim to work, which will happen, when the Mac is idle.

Furthermore I don't recommend the described two SSD setup, because macOS is not like Windows, where you can install programs and plugins on a second drive. Here the second SSD would be for data only, which can include samples.

So I would use at least a 256GB system drive (SSD) and maybe the second bay for a high quality mechanical drive, which is the better choice for audio recordings, where you will likely have many delete cycles. But in this case no Fusuion setup!

It depends, what you are using and recording. In my case I have NI Komplete 10 with more than 250 GB of samples, so my second internal disk would be a fast SSD too. And the mechanical disk for analog audio recordings would be USB 3.

PS: And you're right, you first need to "break" the Fusion setup to get two single disks. You'll find several tutorials online, how to replace a Fusion drive with a single SSD.

PPS: I myself use a Macbook Pro with a 512 GB internal SSD, which is nearly twice as fast as the external Thunderbolt SSD I built. Currently everything is installed internally for performance reasons and for audio recordings I use a mechanical USB3 HDD. But if I want to upgrade to Komplete 11 Ultimate, I will need the external SSD for the sample libraries, because it won't fit on the internal SSD. I tell you this as an example to show you, that you should choose wisely, which setup and SSD sizes you should use. Choose wisely to avoid choosing twice
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Old 02-09-2018, 12:24 AM   #17
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Don't miss my PS above and keep in mind, that surgery as you call it will be unavoidable, because it's likely, that the noisy HDD will still make noise, when being idle.

Furthermore a 128GB SSD is extremely small for an OS drive.

As I said, choose wisely
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Old 02-09-2018, 11:17 AM   #18
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Cheers aymara,

Have gone for a 256gb evo860, figure it deserves a decent spec, although not happy at having to buy it!

Trying to decide best route now:
Will clone system to my backup usb HDD.

Then thinking best to un-fuse the fusion drive.

Then install new ssd in place of the old hdd, leaving the 128 ssd in place ?

Boot from usb clone, (this is ok despite wiped internals since there is 'windows bios' style boot options?)


restore To the new ssd.

End up with one larger boot drive & one smaller internal ssds, + external usb HDD with potential for a faster external for extra storage later.


Hopfully that will work out.
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Old 02-09-2018, 11:45 AM   #19
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Furthermore I don't recommend the described two SSD setup, because macOS is not like Windows, where you can install programs and plugins on a second drive. Here the second SSD would be for data only, which can include samples.
You've been misinformed about OSX then. You can literally put any files wherever you want. It is RECOMMENDED to install apps to the applications folder but you could keep absolutely everything in your desktop folder like Windows users if you wanted.

There's no benefit to installing apps to a 2nd drive though. Consider the OS and apps to be a "team".

The advice for HDD's was to split them up to multiple drives for performance. (But you still would keep apps with the OS drive.) A single SSD outperforms the multiple HDD setup by quite a bit. So... not much bang for the buck going to multiple SSD's unless you use a lot of prerecorded samples that play directly from the drive and do the MIDI thing with that.

I'd take advantage of the two internal drive bays and install a 250GB or 500GB SSD in one bay and a 1TB HDD in the other. (A 1TB 7200rpm HDD would still be higher performance and let you run many projects off it in a pinch. A 2TB 5400rpm would be double storage but no performance. The free space on your SSD is your high performance workspace.)
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Old 02-09-2018, 11:55 AM   #20
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I hear you serr, will consider but main concern at mo is a seamless transition to ssd boot and the returning of silence as soon as possible!

It looks as though From research the hdd part of the fusion setup is in the bay that is a pita to get to, gah!

One q: do you see any problems with procedure I described?
Clone to usb backup, un-fuse old drives, open up and replace, boot from usb then re clone to new drive.

Cheers, I guess my desire to retire from computer daw system sodding around by going Mac was v wishful!
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Old 02-09-2018, 12:25 PM   #21
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Clone to usb backup, un-fuse old drives, open up and replace, boot from usb then re clone to new drive.
Mmh, wouldn't cloning to the backup drive delete the Time Machine backups?
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Old 02-09-2018, 12:40 PM   #22
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Mmh, wouldn't cloning to the backup drive delete the Time Machine backups?
Sorry i meant use the clone on the usb to restore current system on new drive,

If u mean before I start yes it may want to delete any time machine backups i have but i will back those up elsewhere so usb device is empty before making a clean clone so to speak.
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Old 02-09-2018, 01:50 PM   #23
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What I would do to minimize effort and risk is creating an OSX installer USB stick, from which you can boot and install OSX in case the cloning should fail ... surely also keep the Time Machine backups.

Then I would put the new SSD into an USB housing and clone the current system to it.

Then just remove both Fusion drives and replace the small internal SSD with the new one. I would also add a second larger HDD if you do much audio recording, or a second large SSD, if you have many sample libraries.

This way you only clone once and not twice. And a USB housing is only 10-15 bucks.

@Serr: Do you have a different recommendation?
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Old 02-09-2018, 02:29 PM   #24
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I'm sorry, I just realized you were talking about the OSX feature to create a "fusion drive" setup with separate physical SSD + HDD. Not the short lived product called "fusion drive" that was a single physical 'combo' drive that was sold for a short time when SSD prices were still astronomical.

Yeah Aymara, I agree with that recommendation.

So... you would already have a SSD in one bay and the (now noisy) HDD in the other. The HDD can be replaced.

As for using the OSX 'fusion drive' feature, it isn't an ideal setup for an audio system. You would get more bang for the buck managing the two drives separately yourself.

That Mac Mini may not offer the convenience of the Mac Pro (the real Mac Pro, not the newer cylinder version with no expandability) for swapping drives around but it at least offers 2 2.5" drive bays. It is what it is.

I would do this:
Consolidate your system (OS install + apps) vs. your data (projects, media collection, etc) on externals. Clone the system so that you can boot that external and see your system for piece of mind.

Now separate the 'fusion' drive.

Keep the SSD and replace the failing HDD and use them separately.
Now if the 128GB SSD is not going to be big enough for convenience for your system drive, then consider upgrading it too.

If you are using Time Machine now, you at least will have everything backed up and be able to recover. The pros are that being super easy right out of the box. The cons are it isn't an identical clone and bootable. That means recovery is manually installing OSX and then using migration assistant to migrate your data back from the Tome Machine backup files. If you use an app like Carbon Copy Cloner, you can make identical hard drive volume clones and if they have an OSX system on them they're bootable just like the original.

I do very much recommend taking the time to make a USB installer for OSX too.

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Old 02-09-2018, 03:15 PM   #25
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TM backup disks should have a recovery partition to boot from. However, since High Sierra, I'm seeing a lot of Macs that have no recovery partition at all. Not on the main startup disk, and consequently not on the TM disk either.

"Fusion Drive" is always Apple's concoction. Not my favourite and in my eyes absolutely unsuited for audio or video work. It's a software solution, based on Apple's software RAID, which was equally dangerous.

The hardware variant is called a hybrid drive or SSHD. I have several. No problems with audio or video, since it's just a disk to the system. Speed advantage is not so big, except in some cases, like starting and quitting applications all the time. If these are small apps, the gain is noticeable. If these are humongous apps, like photoshop, fi, there's no gain, as these don't fit on the 8 or 16 GB ssd part. As to reliability, none has died in 5 years of daily use.

There is/was a compatibility problem with CCC and Super Duper. Both programs created clones perfectly, but they weren't bootable and I found no way to make them bootable. Keep in mind I tested this years ago, so current versions might just work.

And I've had a look. These drives are still available.
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Old 02-09-2018, 03:46 PM   #26
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Quote:
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TM backup disks should have a recovery partition to boot from.
But in reality they usually don't, because most people buy a USB HDD plug it in, format it and use it for Time Machine.

Quote:
There is/was a compatibility problem with CCC and Super Duper.
And this warning shows, how important an USB stick with the OSX installer is ... make sure it's bootable ... there are tutorials online ... and keep the Time Machine backup.

A further step for a fallback is not to brake up the Fusion ... the mini 128 GB isn't worth the hassle. Clone to the new SSD by using a USB housing and check if it boots and everything works. If not, the original disk are still there and working ... assuming the noisy disk doesn't fail in the meantime.
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Old 02-09-2018, 03:47 PM   #27
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ok stop, you lot are muddying the waters now ! all useful really..

here's where mac 101.5 boy is at:

i have TM backup but believe this to be more like a backup of 'stuff', rather than a clone that would be all my kaka & OS installed and lovely as it is now.
plan is to backup the TM data onto something else, and CCC clone everything onto my usb external.
this should boot...

I then de-fuse the fusion to avoid fusion-confusion later. no collusion.

I gathered CCC would create such a bootable clone or a clone with which i can at least use to restore onto new ssd drive, even if all internals are 100% empty - right? (achieved via boot menus)

a 256 gb evo 560 ssd is amazon'n its way to me.
i could also grab a usb-housing adapter but figured using existing usb external to create clone, then to be later used for backups and reaper bak-ups seemed a reasonable way too.

studying the exciting youtube videos of mac mini dismantling also, for kicks.

edit: btw the bloody drive is silent at the moment, just to F**k with me.
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Old 02-09-2018, 03:54 PM   #28
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You can do that, but it's more work as needed, because you need to copy the TM backups and clone twice. And braking the Fusion is a waste of time.

My described way is much faster and only costs an additional USB housing for 10 bucks.

When the SSD clone works, you can put the Fusion SSD later in the USB housing, delete the partition, create a new one, format and use it for samples. If you mainly use read access, the lack of trim is not an issue.

And if the clone fails, you still have the Fusion for fallback.
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Old 02-09-2018, 04:07 PM   #29
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You can do that, but it's more work as needed, because you need to copy the TM backups and clone twice. And braking the Fusion is a waste of time.

My described way is much faster and only costs an additional USB housing for 10 bucks.

When the SSD clone works, you can put the Fusion SSD later in the USB housing, delete the partition, create a new one, format and use it for samples. If you mainly use read access, the lack of trim is not an issue.

And if the clone fails, you still have the Fusion for fallback.
thanks - will definately consider - just having got the external usb only a few days ago, and now having to get new ssd, those last few £ for a housing too are hard work!
with it also being quiet for the last 30 min since firing up this evening, does make me wonder the source of issue - but was always going to SSD upgrade anyway sooner than later.
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Old 02-09-2018, 05:23 PM   #30
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And this warning shows, how important an USB stick with the OSX installer is ... make sure it's bootable ... there are tutorials online ... and keep the Time Machine backup.
A USB stick is equivalent to a USB disk, or an SD card. All three exist in bootable and non-bootable. SD cards are a little more reliable than USB sticks, in my experience. And I use these a lot for Raspberry Pi's.

Also, a bootable USB disk should have a recovery partition too. Unfortunately, there aren't a gazillion tuts and tools to explain it. Just Disk Utility and a few drops of common sense. But that seems hard to some people...
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Old 02-09-2018, 05:25 PM   #31
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Check out ifixit.com too. You get a free power point display take apart guide.
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Old 02-09-2018, 11:24 PM   #32
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A USB stick is equivalent to a USB disk, or an SD card. All three exist in bootable and non-bootable.
From my experience reality and theory don't always match here. In other words, some USB sticks don't boot though they were prepared for being bootable.

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Also, a bootable USB disk should have a recovery partition too. Unfortunately, there aren't a gazillion tuts and tools to explain it. Just Disk Utility and a few drops of common sense. But that seems hard to some people...
Sure it's hard, especially for non computer geeks and former Windows users, that don't have deep OSX knowledge yet.

When I bought my Macbook, I was one of the later and wondered even about simple things like "how do I make a screenshot"
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Old 02-09-2018, 11:35 PM   #33
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thanks - will definately consider - just having got the external usb only a few days ago, and now having to get new ssd, those last few £ for a housing too are hard work!
with it also being quiet for the last 30 min since firing up this evening, does make me wonder the source of issue - but was always going to SSD upgrade anyway sooner than later.
As long as the drive is silent and you do daily backups, you can also wait 'til you have the budget for a housing and a second internal HDD. So you need to open the Mini just once and have everything done much faster.

The source of the issue is pretty likely the motor of the HDD. Why it suddenly stopped making noise and when it starts again doing this ... nobody knows.
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Old 02-10-2018, 02:58 AM   #34
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From my experience reality and theory don't always match here. In other words, some USB sticks don't boot though they were prepared for being bootable.
That's probably because there's a vast difference in quality. Up to rejected stuff that gets sold anyways. Remember the story about the harddisk that wasn't a disk, but a USB stick in a case with manipulated firmware? It promised to be a 1 TB HD, it was a 64 GB USB stick. Anything over 64 GB just erased previously copied stuff, but left the filenames.

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Sure it's hard, especially for non computer geeks and former Windows users, that don't have deep OSX knowledge yet.
One day, you'll need to format a harddisk. So you need to know Disk utility anyway. Sure, Apple has hidden some stuff, to keep it simple.

I've got at least six different tools to write Raspbian to an SD. Nice tools, but half of them are no longer supported and at least two produce errors. The command line stuff still works. But that's hard. One typo and you could erase your startup disk by accident. And some of these tools fail with other OS images, as they've only been tested with Raspbian.

That's a problem that's the worst with Youtube tuts. We're very fortunate to have real good tutorials from guys like Kenny and the REAPER blog. If you look at Audacity tuts, I estimate around 20% are fake and half of them are obsolete. Not so nice for beginners.

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When I bought my Macbook, I was one of the later and wondered even about simple things like "how do I make a screenshot"
RTFM. Could it be any simpler than option-shift 3 or option-shift 4? Sure, it's different from Windows, but you should try some Linuxes ;-)
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Old 02-10-2018, 06:23 AM   #35
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Remember the story about the harddisk that wasn't a disk, but a USB stick in a case with manipulated firmware?
No, I missed that.

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We're very fortunate to have real good tutorials from guys like Kenny and the REAPER blog.
That's why I always recommend Reaper to DAW beginners ... it is cheap and has the most powerful community, which speeds up the learning process. And even some Pros like it or at least support it as a secondary DAW in the studio.

And it has a reason, that some of us are members here since years

Fact is, this forum is a treasure for beginners.

Quote:
Could it be any simpler than option-shift 3 or option-shift 4? Sure, it's different from Windows, but you should try some Linuxes ;-)
Sure, it's simple to learn, but for an ex-Windows guy with only little Linux know-how, or let's say little command line know how, it's a completely new world.

But after nearly 2 years now I still love it ... Windows in the office, Mac at home ... at least for me. Ok, OSX has it's downsides too, but the DAW experience so far, at least for me, was more hassle free, than on Windows 7.
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Old 02-10-2018, 10:39 AM   #36
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Got drive and went and got an enclosure so I can clone once and install as and when, cheers for all the tips.

Regards Mac noobness, part of it for me is being a veteran since late 90's spending days & weeks getting the simplest of things to work in Windows, midi, drivers, new components etc, and after a while you'd rather spend your energy learning more productive things like improving my keyboard skills, mixing or voice!

I'll gain familiarity with macos naturally enough and imagine over time it'll be less of a time hoover than homebuilt pc daws.
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Old 02-10-2018, 10:59 AM   #37
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I myself wasted less time on OSX than Windows, when is comes to getting audio stuff to work as expected

Keep us updated on your progress installing the new SSD.
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Old 02-11-2018, 05:14 PM   #38
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currently typing on cloned via CCC system running on new ssd in an external usb enclosure.

everything appears mostly normal - my electric88 vsti which is waves won't load as likely the licence files not being in the original exact matching locations is a problem.

would that be more to do with the fact that the disk has physically moved (usb) or just because i gave it a different name (not Macintosh HD )

maybe i should check is the answer - easy to redo the waves validation thing anyway.

just for info
read and write speeds over this usb adapter are 240-250 read & write -
things maybe seem slightly slower but not as much as i'd expected.

internal fusion is more like 300+ write 500 read. FYI

next is to decide how i deal with internals - remove ssd - unplug hdd - remove all - unfuse first etc...

least backup clone looks good -

cheers again for the tips on smoothest transition.
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Old 02-11-2018, 07:43 PM   #39
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OOH
so have opened it up and replaced the 128 ssd that was part of the fusion drive with my new 250 ssd with cloned system on...

since it was clear the hdd wouldnt come out with alot more dissasembly decided that i'd just 'disconnect' it - I want to check that if i do connect it with the system disk on ssd that OS wont try anything weird like try to recreate the fusion setup.

the idea is it can sit being an old spin hdd = mostly doing nothing. if gets noisy or problematic then it goes.

reconnecting should be easy as the little sata connecter is easy to get to, plus i've been in there now.

not sure what to do with this 128 ssd - as presumably has all or part of a nonfunctioning OS on it. have enough backups so can format and place into the usb enclosure for bit of extra space that isn't too slow.

speeds btw (tool = speed test by blackmagicdesign):
new ssd: 485+ write 525 read
old fusion: 300+ write 500 read
usb ssd: 240 write 250 read

seems ok - 60% increase in write speed - no noise, less heat - not bad. just down on storage - but thats solvable. now to check my activations..
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Old 02-11-2018, 11:15 PM   #40
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Internal SSD speed is what I expected. USB SSD is pretty slow though ... USB 3 should be nearly the same speed. Might be a matter of the housing ... don't know.

That the licence wasn't working on USB, was a matter of internal Unix paths, not the volume name, I guess.

When using the old SSD on USB keep in mind, that trim doesn't work and that it will become slower, the more delete cycles it had.
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