Splitting the Fusion Drive

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Level 1

4 points

Splitting the Fusion Drive

I have a late-2013 iMac 27" 3.5GHz quad-core, running Catalina. A test of the fusion drive has determined the SSD is failing. I created a bootable external SSD which is running this computer right now. It works great but the internal drive(s) still show up on the desktop. If the icon is clicked, or if anything activates the disk, the entire computer crashes and restarts. The old system is still bootable, despite the corrupted drive. It takes about 30 minutes to boot and any click or drags when it's open means a least a couple of minutes of spinning beach ball before anything happens. I'd like to decouple the drives and find a way to reuse the HDD while also keeping the failing SSD from populating the desktop. Is there a way to do this without opening it up?

Thank you!

iMac 27″, OS X 10.10

Posted on Nov 3, 2021 9:30 PM

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Answer 1

Ronasara

Level 6

15,495 points

Nov 4, 2021 10:07 AM in response to Bonediggers

Yes, you can remove it from your desktop. Here is how to do it. Deselect any open windows. Then in the Finder mode, click on the Finder's Preferences. A window will open which allows you to select what items to show on your desktop. Deselect the ones you want removed and you are good to go.

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Answer 2

Bonediggers Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 4, 2021 2:12 AM in response to rkaufmann87

I think you may have misunderstood. As I mentioned, I am using an external SSD as the primary system disk. I would be using the functional internal HDD for additional 1TB storage only. It took 12 grueling hours to load that external with a bootable Catalina OS using the dying fusion drive. The fusion still populates on my desktop. It is toxic if activated. I know the terminal procedure to decouple them. I want to know if there is a software option to keep it from showing up on my desktop afterward. If I try to use Disk Utility unmount it, it forces a restart of the computer.

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Answer 3

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,272 points

Nov 3, 2021 10:38 PM in response to Bonediggers

Why waste your time and decrease performance by relying on the HD by itself. Simply buy an external SSD, clone the internal drive to the external SSD and you are in business.

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Splitting the Fusion Drive

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