Does Mac Os Optimize Hybrid Drive

Fusion Drive, a storage option on some iMac and Mac mini computers, combines a hard drive and flash storage in a single volume for improved performance and storage capacity. If your Fusion Drive appears as two drives instead of one in the Finder, it's no longer working as a Fusion Drive. This can happen after replacing either drive of your Fusion Drive, or using software to intentionally split them into separate volumes.

Dec 09, 2013  3) Does the mac contain a function to COMPLETELY COPY my main hard drive (With Mac OSX) to the hybrid drive if i get one, then if i replaced the old hard drive with the hybrid, would it work fine? I want a SSHD because they are significantly cheaper than SSD. A feature that Apple added in macOS Sierra is called Optimize Storage. It lets you free up storage space by having the system automatically keep things in iCloud. Here's how to turn it on. Dec 22, 2019  How to disable Optimize Storage on your Mac. Optimize Storage automatically removes iTunes movies and TV shows that you've already watched from your Mac. It also only keeps recent email attachments on your Mac when your hard drive starts to run out of room. Mar 29, 2019  How to Optimize Your Mac. It is not uncommon for computer systems to slow down over time. The cause of diminished speed can be malicious, such as viruses and spyware on the hard drive. Slow speed can also result from application overload.

Does Mac Os Optimize Hybrid Drive

You can continue using the two drives independently, or follow these steps to regain the benefits of having the single logical volume of a Fusion Drive.

Before you begin

Jul 23, 2018  When Apple released macOS 10.13 High Sierra in 2017, one of its most notable features was nearly invisible. Installing the update on a Mac with a solid-state drive (SSD)—but not a Fusion drive—automatically switched the underlying file system from Mac OS Extended (also known as HFS+) to APFS (Apple File System).

If you're not sure that your Mac was configured with a Fusion Drive, or that the drive has been split:

  1. Disconnect any external storage devices from your Mac.
  2. Choose Apple menu  > About This Mac, then click Storage.
    • If you see a drive labeled Fusion Drive, your Fusion Drive is working and this article doesn't apply to you.
    • If you have a Fusion Drive that has been split, you should see two drives. One of them should be labeled Flash Storage, with a capacity of 24GB, 32GB, or 128GB. The other should be at least 1TB.

Use Terminal to create a Fusion Drive again

These steps permanently delete all data stored on the drives that make up your Fusion Drive. Make sure that you have a backup before continuing.

  1. When you use iCloud Drive, your files are stored on your Mac, Apple's iCloud Drive server, and also any other Macs using iCloud Drive with your Apple ID. When you save or modify a new file, it is automatically mirrored on the server and your other Macs. If you wish to save storage space on a Mac, you can turn on the Optimize Mac Storage option to have some files automatically offloaded from.
  2. Oct 27, 2010  Macworld senior contributors Rob Griffiths and Kirk McElhearn replaced their Mac's stock hard drive with a Seagate Momentus XT hybrid drive, which has 4GB of flash storage and a 500GB hard drive.

If you're using macOS Mojave or later

  1. Turn on your Mac, then immediately press and hold Command-R to start up from macOS Recovery. Release the keys when you see the Apple logo or spinning globe.
  2. When you see the macOS Utilities window, choose Utilities > Terminal from the menu bar.
  3. Type diskutil resetFusion in the Terminal window, then press Return.
  4. Type Yes (with a capital Y) when prompted, then press Return.
  5. When Terminal indicates that the operation was successful, quit Terminal to return to the macOS Utilities window.
  6. Choose Reinstall macOS, then follow the onscreen instructions to reinstall the Mac operating system. Your Mac restarts from your Fusion Drive when done.

If you're using macOS High Sierra or earlier

  1. Turn on your Mac, then immediately press and hold Command-R to start up from macOS Recovery. Release the keys you see the Apple logo or spinning globe.
  2. When you see the macOS Utilities window, choose Utilities > Terminal from the menu bar.
  3. Type diskutil list in the Terminal window, then press Return.
  4. Terminal displays a table of data about your drives. In the IDENTIFIER column, find the identifier for each of the two internal, physical drives that make up your Fusion Drive. Usually the identifiers are disk0 and disk1. One of them should be 128GB or less in size. The other at least 1TB in size.
  5. Type the following command, replacing identifier1 and identifier2 with the identifiers you found in the previous step. Then press Return.

    Example: diskutil cs create Macintosh HD disk0 disk1

  6. If you get a disk unmounting error, enter diskutil unmountDisk identifier, using the first identifier you gathered previously. Then enter same command again using the second identifier. Then retry the command in step 5.
  7. Type diskutil cs list, then press Return.
  8. Terminal displays additional data about your drives (volumes). Find the string of numbers that appears after ”Logical Volume Group” for the volume named Macintosh HD. It's a number like 8354AFC3-BF97-4589-A407-25453FD2815A.
    Example:
    +-- Logical Volume Group 8354AFC3-BF97-4589-A407-25453FD2815A
    |
    | Name: Macintosh HD

  9. Type the following command, replacing logicalvolumegroup with the number you found in the previous step. Then press Return.

    Example: diskutil cs createVolume 8354AFC3-BF97-4589-A407-25453FD2815A jhfs+ Macintosh HD 100%

  10. When Terminal indicates that the operation was successful, quit Terminal to return to the macOS Utilities window.
  11. Choose Reinstall macOS, then follow the onscreen instructions to reinstall the Mac operating system. Your Mac restarts from your Fusion Drive when done.

If you have replaced the hard drive on your Mac with an SSD (a very good move!) then you have already experienced how the flash storage enhances the overall user experience. However, to get the most out of your SSD and extend its lifespan, it’s wise to avoid the mistakes that most users make when installing a new flash storage disk. Read on for practical advice on optimizing your Mac for your brand new SSD.

Start Fresh

How to optimize a mac

When you get your hands on the upgraded Mac, you'll immediately feel the difference in terms of speed – everything from the time it takes to boot up to how long an app takes to load. The most common mistake users make here is to use Time Machine (or their preferred third-party backup system) to restore all the data that was previously stored on the HDD.

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That's not the best way to get the most out of your SSD. The problem with this approach is that while you will get all your files and apps back, you’ll also inherit the old system's space-hogging legacy elements. Apps you never really used, huge mailboxes, that massive downloads folder you never cleared out will all get carried over this way, not to mention the cache files and junk data that had built up during the years of using the system.

Although it takes more time, the best way to maintain peak performance of your Mac and its new SSD is to carefully consider which apps you want to install. The same approach applies for files and folders, too. If you have iCloud enabled, this will be a seamless transition because all your files saved in iCloud Drive will appear on your refreshed Mac after signing in with your Apple ID. If not, then review them manually and copy only those that you really need. The rest can sit on an external drive.

Move Large Files to HDD

The same goes for large files or folders, particularly videos and the Photos or iTunes library that occupy huge chunks of space but aren’t needed immediately. Photographers and video professionals can obviously skip this part, but the rest of us general users tend to store massive amounts of photos and videos that quickly fill up the limited space of the SSD. Unless you need to access these libraries on a daily basis, simply drop them on an external drive and keep that device to hand.

Turn Off Local Snapshots

Although this is a neat feature of Time Machine, it is worth disabling unless you depend on local backups you. Local snapshots occupy too much precious storage space and may even interfere with plans to install Windows on a Mac, but the real catch is that macOS doesn't show how much space local snapshots are using and therefore makes it hard to figure out how much free space you have on the machine.

Does Mac Os Optimize Hybrid Driver

Also, keep in mind the limited number of write (P/E aka program/erase) cycles that SSDs have, which is usually around 10,000. Since local snapshots fill up the startup disk, macOS starts to delete them, which increases the number of writes that occur and therefore shortens the SSD's lifespan.

This is why it is wise to simply disable local snapshots. To do so, simply turn off Time Machine's automatic backups. Keep in mind, though, that you will need to manually select “Backup now” each time you connect the Time Machine disk to your Mac.

Don't Run Benchmarks

It may be tempting to quantify the speed improvements that an SSD brings but running various benchmarks just increases the number of writes and erases on the flash storage, which will obviously eat into its limited write cycle count. So, if you don't need to run a benchmark, just skip it. You'll feel the difference immediately after starting the machine.

Turn Off Hibernation

Does Mac Os Optimize Hybrid Drive Review

You'll likely read on some blogs that turning off hibernation mode on laptops will optimize the SSD performance, but this is only party true: Apple designed hibernate mode to prevent data loss and it has three recommended settings. By default, the hibernate mode is set to “3” on MacBooks. There is one thing you should keep in mind with this, however: hibernate mode only activates in certain scenarios and its frequency depends on your usage. It’s not recommended to disable hibernation, but if you feel that it’s necessary, then do understanding the risk to any unsaved work.

Does Mac Os Optimize Hybrid Drivers

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