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I would like to buy external ssd that I can use on multiple devices (bootable clones on partitions) want it to work with usb (2008 mac book) up to thunderbolt 2 Not sure how to put that together & don’t want to buy something that isn’t compatible but prefer the newest fastest. Any suggestions about how & what I was considering seagate T5 ? or buying an ssd & installing it in an enclosure (thunderbolt 2) if I can find that. Then getting an adapter, but I am still confused about usb C / thunderbolt 3 and the difference between that and thunderbolt 2 (mac book 2015)
@nan_c I understand the desire to have super fast transfer speeds, especially with external drives. Let me lay out some details for you. USB 3.0 (5 Gbps or 625 MB/s)Thunderbolt 2 (20 Gbps or 2.5GB/s) So, clearly Thunderbolt 2 is faster; 4x faster. However, there’s two problems: I can’t find any hard drive enclosures that use Thunderbolt 2 as their interface. This is most likely because of the recent arrival of Thunderbolt 3.0/USB-CUsing an adapter would serve no real purpose to you. There’s only two possibilities with USB and ThunderboltSSD Enclosure —Thunderbolt2 Cable (20 Gbps)—>Thunderbolt 2 to USB 3.0 Adapter (5 Gbps) —> USB 3.0 Port (5 Gbps)SSD Enclosure —USB 3.0 Cable (5 Gbps)—>USB 3.0 to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter (5 Gbps) —> Thunderbolt 2 Port (Decreased to 5 Gbps)As we say in the computer world, your transfer speed is only as fast as your slowest link. In both cases, there’s a point where your max speed is degraded/maxed at 5 Gbps, which is still a fast speed. So, I would suggest sticking with a USB 3.0 drive enclosure, especially because your Mac has USB 3.0 ports. BUT, if you’re really obsessed with maxing out the transfer speeds, what you might be able to do, is: Get a SSD drive enclosure with a Thunderbolt 3 interface, like this oneGet a Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 AdapterConnect the adapter to your Mac and boom, you’re in business with a 20 Gbps speed. The drawbacks, is that this is pretty expensive, and you’d have to buy M.2 SSDs, which are not cheap either. Only SOME of those USB-C enclosures are equipped with Thunderbolt 3 speeds. So really, all the other ones would be equivalent to getting a USB 3.0 enclosure. I know this is probably confusing, I actually had to look it up too. Here’s something to explain it better: “Because USB-C is confusing as !&&*. Think of USB-C as the physical port, and Thunderbolt 3 as the protocol. USB-C can host USB2/3/3.1, Thunderbolt 3, Audio, Display port, HDMI, and Ethernet. Plus a couple more I’m probably forgetting. It can also provide power up to 100W. ‘‘But, and this is a big one, that all depends on what the device manufacturer has enabled. Also can depend on the cable connecting the devices together. Phones typically will have USB 2/3, charging, and maybe HDMI and/or audio. Computers can have any and all of them.”’’ If this helps you, please let me know! I do my best to help as many people as possible! -Alex
How about using this SSD - this has thunderbolt 2 interface: https://www.ramcity.com.au/products/data… The max read/write speed is approx 1,500 Mbs . Any thoughts?
You need to power the drives if you are using an adapter (TB3 to TB2). Use a powered usb3 hub, then plug the hub into the adapter, then into computer. The hub has to be a powered hub. Once you have that setup, then you can plugin the hard drive to the powered hub and it will be bootable!
@alexrobinson I hope you can help me with my issue, which is regarding TB 2 too. :) I have a MS Windows PC as my work system. Now, for school and leisure, I use my 13" MacBook Pro retina. My office gave me a monitor to go with the laptop I use for telework, which is compatible to both laptops. Now I have a Thunderbolt display that I was thinking of using for work, but I am conflicted on how to connect it to the Windows PC since it doesn’t have thunderbolt 2 ports. The I/O ports for the Windows PC are: 2 USB 3.0 portsHDMImini DisplayPort Is there a possibility to connect my Windows PC to the Thunderbolt display so I can have another monitor for productivity? Thanks for your help.
