Warning: Large SSDs and Seagate Thunderbolt adapters

[joe8232]

Thought I would just write a quick post for people considering buying a large ssd (>256gb) for booting from a seagate thunderbolt adapter (STAE121 etc).

I originally had a 256gb M4 booting from the seagate portable thunderbolt adapter (http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-GoFlex...ywords=stae121) with absolutely no issues.

I then came across a 512gb m4 going quite cheap so bought it and tried in the adapter. The drive would mount but whenever I tried to do anything with it, the drive would break and be unmountable again. I spoke with Crucial and they didn't seem to be able to sort the problem so they sent a replacement drive. The exact same thing happened with the new drive which suggested that the problem wasn't with the drive.

After a lot of googling, I came across the blog post http://wolfgangtechnology.blogspot.c...t-adapter.html which seems to suggest that thunderbolt alone does not supply enough power for large ssds.

With this in mind a fresh drive from Crucial I bought this adapter, http://store.apple.com/uk/product/H8...op-hard-drives which comes with a power supply. Since then I have had absolutely no issues with the 512gb m4 drive.

Hope this will be of use to anyone considering purchasing a thunderbolt caddy in the future.

[mario24601]

Originally Posted by joe8232

Thought I would just write a quick post for people considering buying a large ssd (>256gb) for booting from a seagate thunderbolt adapter (STAE121 etc).

I originally had a 256gb M4 booting from the seagate portable thunderbolt adapter (http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-GoFlex...ywords=stae121) with absolutely no issues.

I then came across a 512gb m4 going quite cheap so bought it and tried in the adapter. The drive would mount but whenever I tried to do anything with it, the drive would break and be unmountable again. I spoke with Crucial and they didn't seem to be able to sort the problem so they sent a replacement drive. The exact same thing happened with the new drive which suggested that the problem wasn't with the drive.

After a lot of googling, I came across the blog post http://wolfgangtechnology.blogspot.c...t-adapter.html which seems to suggest that thunderbolt alone does not supply enough power for large ssds.

With this in mind a fresh drive from Crucial I bought this adapter, http://store.apple.com/uk/product/H8...op-hard-drives which comes with a power supply. Since then I have had absolutely no issues with the 512gb m4 drive.

Hope this will be of use to anyone considering purchasing a thunderbolt caddy in the future.

Any pictures of your setup?

[paulrbeers]

There have been other threads stating the exact same thing. philipma was probably one of the first to point this out. Using a 250GB SSD is fine, but a 500GB was too much power draw. Either way, you are better off with the goflex desktop version anyway so you can use the Thunderbolt out as well (so now you can put even more devices on your thunderbolt).

[joe8232]

Originally Posted by paulrbeers

There have been other threads stating the exact same thing. philipma was probably one of the first to point this out. Using a 250GB SSD is fine, but a 500GB was too much power draw. Either way, you are better off with the goflex desktop version anyway so you can use the Thunderbolt out as well (so now you can put even more devices on your thunderbolt).

Aah, I wasn't aware of someone already mentioning this. It definitely appears that the desktop version is the on to go with. Have been using it with the 512gb m4 and have had no problems so far *fingers crossed*.