Booting Thunderbolt iMac from LaCie Rugged SSD

rodo974 · Jan 30, 2013

Osx

shelt said:
Just an FYI regarding booting my mid-2011 27" i7 from the new 256GB LaCie Rugged Thunderbolt SSD. In short, it works perfectly so far, and no surgery required (edit; 2.5 months - rock solid through may sleep cycles...). It wakes from sleep without issues. I now used SuperDuper to mirror the SSD to the old HD boot partition once a week (in addition to TM and my other backups...). I'll report back periodically with updates.

I also enabled TRIM using Trim Enabler and a re-boot...

Blackmagic 1GB: W 250 MB/s R 378 MB/s (HDD ~90 and 95)

Boot Time to Login: 19.4s (was 90.1s with HDD)
Lightroom 4.2: 4.1s (was 14.7s)
Parallels XP Boot: 9.4s (was 45.8s)
iPhoto: 4.7s (was 14.7s)
Photoshop Load: 5.3s (was 12.7s)

While not as fast as a best in class internal 6GB SATA3 SSD, it's certainly an easy way to move to an SSD environment. I just rubber banded the drive to the back of my iMac after removing the orange bumper. No power required.

If stable, this is a cheaper and more compact external 256GB option than the GoFlex STAE122 + SSD + cable combo (~$420). The LaCie is $349 including the TB and USB3 cables.

Image

My rugged 256 Go will arrived soon on my new imac 27 i7.
I read there is problem when external SSD wakes from sleep.
you said your imac wakes from sleep without issue, what version of MAC OSX do you use (10.6 10.7 10.8) ?

beeinformed · Feb 4, 2013

By using the "LaCie Rugged SSD" to boot up the computer, will this extend the life of my 1TB harddrive in my 2012 27 inch iMac? Thanks!

g4cube · Feb 4, 2013

beeinformed said:
By using the "LaCie Rugged SSD" to boot up the computer, will this extend the life of my 1TB harddrive in my 2012 27 inch iMac? Thanks!

Probably won't make any difference. Drive is still powered up, spinning, and Spotlight continues to index the drive.

xgman · Feb 4, 2013

beeinformed said:
By using the "LaCie Rugged SSD" to boot up the computer, will this extend the life of my 1TB harddrive in my 2012 27 inch iMac? Thanks!

Are you really worried about this?

WilliamG · Feb 4, 2013

g4cube said:
Probably won't make any difference. Drive is still powered up, spinning, and Spotlight continues to index the drive.

Actually, that's not true, necessarily. First, the internal drive does spin down when not in use, and second, - if you want to be hardcore - you can disable Spotlight for the internal disk. My internal disk only spins up on boot and when I access it, which is infrequently.

g4cube · Feb 4, 2013

WilliamG said:
Actually, that's not true, necessarily. First, the internal drive does spin down when not in use, and second, - if you want to be hardcore - you can disable Spotlight for the internal disk. My internal disk only spins up on boot and when I access it, which is infrequently.

I come from the school of "spinning up/down of drive is more stressful than constant on". Anecdotal evidence of the drives in my home. I have many in computers, DVRs, and in external drives (singles and in arrays).

Only two premature failure - one a 30MB Micropolis in the 80s in desktop PC; the other a 100GB in a fairly new desktop a few years ago. I have extraordinary good luck with my drives. Other failures after several years of constant use.

Both premature failures occurred during spin-up from sleeping.

I'm not complaining at all. I've had extraordinary good luck with my drives, and I have quite a collection.

WilliamG · Feb 4, 2013

g4cube said:
I come from the school of "spinning up/down of drive is more stressful than constant on". Anecdotal evidence of the drives in my home. I have many in computers, DVRs, and in external drives (singles and in arrays).

Only two premature failure - one a 30MB Micropolis in the 80s in desktop PC; the other a 100GB in a fairly new desktop a few years ago. I have extraordinary good luck with my drives. Other failures after several years of constant use.

Both premature failures occurred during spin-up from sleeping.

I'm not complaining at all. I've had extraordinary good luck with my drives, and I have quite a collection.

I've never been able to provide any evidence to support that case, but of course our own personal experiences shape our beliefs, - can't argue with that.

beeinformed · Feb 4, 2013

WilliamG said:
Actually, that's not true, necessarily. First, the internal drive does spin down when not in use, and second, - if you want to be hardcore - you can disable Spotlight for the internal disk. My internal disk only spins up on boot and when I access it, which is infrequently.

I was thinking similar thoughts about the internal harddrive, that when it is not in use, it spins down.

My thoughts were to use an external SSD to boot up my imac computer with Moutain Lion OS and applications (I don't have many applications on my imac) installed on it. I would have my data/documents/photos,etc installed on the internal harddrive.

I thought this type of setup might eleviate some stress on the internal harddrive, although I'm probably wrong about it and this setup may not be a workable solution.

WilliamG · Feb 5, 2013

beeinformed said:
I was thinking similar thoughts about the internal harddrive, that when it is not in use, it spins down.

My thoughts were to use an external SSD to boot up my imac computer with Moutain Lion OS and applications (I don't have many applications on my imac) installed on it. I would have my data/documents/photos,etc installed on the internal harddrive.

I thought this type of setup might eleviate some stress on the internal harddrive, although I'm probably wrong about it and this setup may not be a workable solution.

It's a perfectly workable solution. I've been doing that for almost 2 months now with my 2012 27" iMac + Thunderbolt SSD.

shelt · Feb 6, 2013

rodo974 said:
My rugged 256 Go will arrived soon on my new imac 27 i7.
I read there is problem when external SSD wakes from sleep.
you said your imac wakes from sleep without issue, what version of MAC OSX do you use (10.6 10.7 10.8) ?

I am on 10.8.2. I have been booting from the Lacie 256GB for 2 months now. Absolutely zero issues. Very happy with the setup. I also enabled trim with trim enabler.

sam3020 · Feb 6, 2013

shelt said:
I am on 10.8.2. I have been booting from the Lacie 256GB for 2 months now. Absolutely zero issues. Very happy with the setup. I also enabled trim with trim enabler.

What does enabling trim actually do?

lloyd709 · Feb 9, 2013

Using the USB 3 port?

Anyone know if you can you use the usb3 port while plugged into your computer using Thunderbolt so it becomes a sort of hub?

I guess there might be power issues for things that need power!

g4cube · Feb 9, 2013

lloyd709 said:
Anyone know if you can you use the usb3 port while plugged into your computer using Thunderbolt so it becomes a sort of hub?

I guess there might be power issues for things that need power!

Nope.

Whichever port is connected first determines which port works.

One or the other, but not both.

Nyvar · Feb 9, 2013

I have an 2011 3.4 i7 Apple 128 SSD, and didn't want to spring for a new 2012 just because I wanted (note wanted not needed) more speed. I'd thought about sending it to OWC to have them add an SSD, but decided to try this route first. I tried both the Lacie, and a Samsung 840 Pro using the Seagate TB adapter.

Using Blackmagic Apple and Lacie were about the same write speeds, Lacie half again as fast on read. Samsung was more than twice as fast on write and slightly higher on read.

I was going to trim through console, then discovered it can't be enabled on an external. I'm not worried about it. If I figure it out, I'll report back. I'm going to stick with the Samsung but holding on to the Lacie for now as a back up.

Here are the screenshots:

Apple

Lacie

Samsung

WizardHunt · Feb 10, 2013

When I got my iMac I immediately ordered a Lacie SSD 256GB Drive and hooked it up to my new iMac. I did a restore from Time Machine and I am all set. I do notice a huge difference. Photoshop now only takes about 4.2 seconds to open when in the past it was 30-45 seconds on my 2009 machine.

Here is a Disk Speed Test and before I bought my iMac on my 2009 my speeds was only like Write 136 MB/s and Read 133 MB/s. Then when I got my new iMac it as like 186.5 MB/s Write and 183.5 MB/s Read. But now after converting to a Fusion Drive, (a much larger one than Apple does) i got 287.2 MB/s Write and 376.3 MB/s Read. Much faster.

Here's the Link.

WizardHunt · Feb 10, 2013

rodo974 said:
My rugged 256 Go will arrived soon on my new imac 27 i7.
I read there is problem when external SSD wakes from sleep.
you said your imac wakes from sleep without issue, what version of MAC OSX do you use (10.6 10.7 10.8) ?

I just installed my SSD 256 GB Lacie drive and i have no waking up from sleep problems at all.

----------

Nyvar said:
I enabled trim through console. I'm going to stick with the Samsung but holding on to the Lacie for now as a back up.

What are you talking about exactly when you say you enabled trim through the console? Can you explain how to enable trim and what it does for you?

freddiecable · Feb 10, 2013

I have an external SSD for my i7 2,93 (2009 iMac). Read and write 30 MB

(USB2)

Here is the screen dump from the same test on my MBA i7 512 SSD.

I'm really disappointed in Apple not offering us 256 or 512 SSD ONLY 768 for a fortune

I had the SSD installed but I got kernel panics all the time so I took it out and put it in an external 2.5" USB2. I might as well just use the internal 3.5" spinning.

Nyvar · Feb 10, 2013

What are you talking about exactly when you say you enabled trim through the console? Can you explain how to enable trim and what it does for you?

I lied, and had to edit my post. I made the post and then went to enable it, and discovered I couldn't.

I'd enabled trim (the need is controversial it's "garbage collecting") on ssds before but they'd been ones I'd installed in mbps. Apparently it can't be done (at least using code in the console) to an external drive.

Sorry for the confusion.

N

WizardHunt · Feb 10, 2013

Nyvar said:
I lied, and had to edit my post. I made the post and then went to enable it, and discovered I couldn't.

I'd enabled trim (the need is controversial it's "garbage collecting") on ssds before but they'd been ones I'd installed in mbps. Apparently it can't be done (at least using code in the console) to an external drive.

Sorry for the confusion.

N

Not a problem.

mario24601 · Feb 10, 2013

Nyvar said:
I have an 2011 3.4 i7 Apple 128 SSD, and didn't want to spring for a new 2012 just because I wanted (note wanted not needed) more speed. I'd thought about sending it to OWC to have them add an SSD, but decided to try this route first. I tried both the Lacie, and a Samsung 840 Pro using the Seagate TB adapter.

Using Blackmagic Apple and Lacie were about the same write speeds, Lacie half again as fast on read. Samsung was more than twice as fast on write and slightly higher on read.

I was going to trim through console, then discovered it can't be enabled on an external. I'm not worried about it. If I figure it out, I'll report back. I'm going to stick with the Samsung but holding on to the Lacie for now as a back up.

Here are the screenshots:

Apple

View attachment 395843

Lacie

View attachment 395844

Samsung

View attachment 395845

Using Seagate desktop or bus powered?

beeinformed · Feb 11, 2013

WizardHunt said:
I just installed my SSD 256 GB Lacie drive and i have no waking up from sleep problems at all.

----------

What are you talking about exactly when you say you enabled trim through the console? Can you explain how to enable trim and what it does for you?

On your SSD 256 GB Lacie drive, besides the operating system, do you also have your applications/documents/downloads installed on it as well? Thanks!

sam3020 · Feb 11, 2013

beeinformed said:
On your SSD 256 GB Lacie drive, besides the operating system, do you also have your applications/documents/downloads installed on it as well? Thanks!

I have my operating system, applications, documents, downloads, music everything on mine. I seriously recommend if you have an imac with a normal hdd you will not be disappointed. The performance difference is insane

WizardHunt · Feb 11, 2013

beeinformed said:
On your SSD 256 GB Lacie drive, besides the operating system, do you also have your applications/documents/downloads installed on it as well? Thanks!

On my setup, I have all my stuff...applications, Documents, pictures,including downloads... etc all on the SSD drive. It is my boot drive so I assume that it is all loaded on the ssd drive and judging that my PS CS5 Extended now loads in about 4 seconds I feel that it is on my SSD now.

beeinformed · Feb 12, 2013

WizardHunt said:
On my setup, I have all my stuff...applications, Documents, pictures,including downloads... etc all on the SSD drive. It is my boot drive so I assume that it is all loaded on the ssd drive and judging that my PS CS5 Extended now loads in about 4 seconds I feel that it is on my SSD now.

Thank's for answering my question! I have another question (which probably sounds silly) but does the cable that's connected to the LaCie external drive and goes into the thunderbolt port of the iMac, is it secure enough where it won't come out of that port? Thanks!

g4cube · Feb 12, 2013

beeinformed said:
Thank's for answering my question! I have another question (which probably sounds silly) but does the cable that's connected to the LaCie external drive and goes into the thunderbolt port of the iMac, is it secure enough where it won't come out of that port? Thanks!

It is a friction fit like any other cable. there is nothing to restrain it from inadvertent removal. It is fairly tight, and does have a built-in detent and inserts fairly deep.

Nothing to worry about.

Booting Thunderbolt iMac from LaCie Rugged SSD

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