When the hard-disk half of a Fusion Drive fails, the whole logical volume breaks. Here's how we rebuilt it.
A family iMac stopped booting and an Apple store had been unable to help. The machine used a Fusion Drive, which pairs a small fast SSD with a larger hard disk and presents the two to macOS as a single combined volume. It is a clever arrangement, but it has a catch: because data is spread across both devices, if either one fails the whole volume breaks — and here the hard-disk half had developed a mechanical fault. The SSD was fine, but on its own it was only ever half the picture.
We identified the setup as a Fusion (Core Storage) volume and confirmed that the hard-disk component was failing mechanically while the SSD was healthy. Recovering a Fusion Drive is a two-part job: each physical device has to be recovered in its own right, and then the logical volume that ties them together has to be reassembled from both.
We recovered the failing hard disk first, imaging it on a DeepSpar Disk Imager to get a complete, gentle copy of a drive that was struggling, with the PC3000 on hand for its firmware. The healthy SSD was imaged straightforwardly. With full images of both devices, we then reconstructed the Fusion (Core Storage) logical volume in software, reassembling the data that had been spread across the pair so the underlying file system could be read as a single whole.
From the rebuilt volume we confirmed the family's photos, home video and documents — including the baby photos they were most anxious about — opened correctly, then wrote everything to fresh media.
The full contents of the Fusion Drive came back, returned on fresh media after six working days. The lesson worth drawing out is that a Fusion Drive's convenience comes with a shared fate — two devices acting as one means a single failure can take the lot — so a separate backup is every bit as important as it is on an ordinary drive.
DeepSpar DDI · PC3000 — imaging and recovery carried out in-house. Every job is imaged before any recovery work begins, and the original media is never written to.
Send us your device for a free diagnostic, and tell us a little about what happened — an engineer will review it and confirm your exact quote in writing before any work begins.
Recovering your data starts with getting the device to us. Pack it safely, add your contact details, and send it over — after we run a free diagnostic, we’ll confirm your exact price in writing before any work begins.
Posting it in? We recommend a tracked, insured service. Prefer to drop it off? You’re welcome Monday–Friday, 9am–5:30pm — please still package the device as above.
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Yes — including failed drives, corrupt APFS, Fusion Drives and liquid-damaged MacBooks, where soldered storage is recovered at board level.
From £300 plus VAT for models with a removable drive, and from £550 plus VAT where the storage is soldered to the logic board. No fix, no fee on most jobs.
Yes, with your account password. FileVault and hardware encryption are only recoverable for the device's owner.
Start with an instant online quote, or call and talk it through with us first. You'll have a clear, fixed price before any work begins.