I ordered a Seagate t-bolt connector.

grundstof said:

I've had my MBP 15' Retina hooked up to 4 Seagate GoFlex Desktop thunderbolt adapter (two on each port on the MBP) with two Apple Gigabit Ethernet adaptors at the end of each thunderbolt-chain.

Then I got two Samsung SSD 840 Basic 500GB, enabled Trim and created a RAID0 1TB Drive. Using Blackmagic Disk Speed Test, that resulted in 600mb/s write and 700mb/s read when empty as well as with only 25% free space.

A couple of days ago, another two Samsung SSD 840 Basic 500GB was added and a 4x SSD RAID0 (32kb stripe size) 2TB drive was created....

All the SSD's arrived with the "correct" FW: DXT06B0Q (If someone know how to update the FW on a Mac-system, please reply)

Prior to adding the last two SSD's, I tried creating a Fusion Drive. First using one Samsung SSD and a Hitachi 3TB 7200rpm SATA-III, secondly with two SSD's in RAID0 and the same Hitachi HDD (that is a Fusion drive consisting of a RAID0 Drive + a HDD). The first Fusion Drive was deleted immediately in favor of the second 4TB Fusion Drive. Both of them worked without any error.


My Thanks to this forum and especially this thread, for convincing me to try the Seagate GoFlex Desktop thunderbolt adapter - as you can see, there is no reason to be disappointed...


BTW: Does the Seagate GoFlex Desktop thunderbolt adapter appear in System Information.app as "Unknown AHCI Standard Controller" for everybody else?

Click to expand...

Insane speeds, that's for sure! How much was the whole thing though? TB adapter + the 4 drives. I don't think it's worth the cost imo.

grundstof, thats exactly what it is identified for me as well.

I have a stae121 and a 256gb crucial m4 hooked up to my iMac and it has been working flawlessly. I came across a cheap 512gb m4 the other day and bought it (bnib) but my stae121 does not like it at all. I spoke to crucial and they sent me a replacement and that hasn't worked either. Just wondering if anyone else has had any joy with a 512gb ssd or is there a known flaw with them? Thanks!

joe8232 said:

I have a stae121 and a 256gb crucial m4 hooked up to my iMac and it has been working flawlessly. I came across a cheap 512gb m4 the other day and bought it (bnib) but my stae121 does not like it at all. I spoke to crucial and they sent me a replacement and that hasn't worked either. Just wondering if anyone else has had any joy with a 512gb ssd or is there a known flaw with them? Thanks!

Click to expand...

I think I recall earlier in this lengthly thread speculation was that the power requirements of higher capacity SSD's were an issue for the bus-powered STAE121.

philipma1957 said:

the seagates won't run a ssd above 256gb very well.

that crucial will run well in a powered t-bolt like a lacie little big disk. I have 2 or 3 500gb crucials very good every where but the seagate stae121. same goes for samsung 512gbs and the big intel 600gb

Click to expand...

Well ... this is awkward ...

I have been running a Crucial M4 512GB in a Seagate GoFlex Thunderbolt enclosure (2.5" bus powered) for quite some time with no problems ...

... until last week, when the drive totally failed while I was doing a CCC backup to it! It simply disappeared from the mounted drives, and I was unable to revive it with any of the suggested methods. Crucial is replacing it and I should have a new one tomorrow.

So .... was it simply a drive failure ... or was it related to the GoFlex?

BTW: Excellent Crucial customer service and prompt replacement.

-howard

philipma1957 said:

well you would be one of very few that was able to run the 500gb ssd on the seagate. All the ones I tried would drop in and out. If you read all of this thread you will see most of us could not get 500gb ssd to work well.


as for the crucial 500gb it has a 5000 hour bug. 6 months is close to 5000 hours. so if you ran it for 6 months that could be the problem.
two links
about the 5000 hour bug

http://www.fastestssd.com/new-ssds/5000-hour-bug-in-crucials-m4/


http://hothardware.com/News/Crucial...-SSD-Bug-Promises-Firmware-Fix-in-MidJanuary/

Click to expand...

Well ... it was about 5 months old ... but I did update the firmware to "010G" a couple of months ago.

I have another 512GB M4 in a MacBook Pro which is a month or so older and it has shown no issues (also updated firmware "010G").

hfg said:

Well ... this is awkward ...

I have been running a Crucial M4 512GB in a Seagate GoFlex Thunderbolt enclosure (2.5" bus powered) for quite some time with no problems ...

... until last week, when the drive totally failed while I was doing a CCC backup to it! It simply disappeared from the mounted drives, and I was unable to revive it with any of the suggested methods. Crucial is replacing it and I should have a new one tomorrow.

So .... was it simply a drive failure ... or was it related to the GoFlex?

BTW: Excellent Crucial customer service and prompt replacement.

-howard

Click to expand...

Well ... this is going beyond awkward ...

Last week I "bricked" a Crucial M4 512GB SSD using the Seagate Thunderbolt Adapter to do a quick temporary backup of my MacBook Pro (late 2011). It failed shortly after the transfer started with a "disconnect" error message. I was unable to revive it using all methods I could find including Crucial's "power on reset" for several 20 minute cycles. I returned it for a replacement.

Well, this week I removed another Crucial M4 512GB SSD from the MacBook Pro to replace it with a Samsung 840 Pro. I put the M4 on the Seagate Thunderbolt Adapter in order to migrate my environment to the newly installed drive. Shortly after the transfer started, I received a "disconnect" message and discovered I had "bricked" another 512GB M4 SSD!

I have been using these drives for about 6 months, and one has been on the Seagate adapter connected to my 2012 iMac for about 6 weeks with no issues. I had previously connected it to the MacBook Pro for disk test (Black Magic) purposes, but never for extended external usage. The MBPro was attached to AC power both times the drives failed while on the Seagate TB Adapter.

I don't think I will try that again ...

Crucial is sending me a replacement drive, and I will probably put them both into either the LaCie LBD or in my Pegasus J4 and use them in a RAID-0 array.

One odd thing ... I was updating my other Crucial M4 drives to the current "040H" firmware level, and just for kicks I thought I would see what would happen if I updated the "bricked" drive. To my amazement, it recognized the drive and the current firmware level, and proceeded to successfully update the firmware and reset the drive. However, it was still "bricked" as far as seeing it in Disk Utility to try to partition or format it. It does identify itself in "About My Mac" system report, but that is the only place I can see that it is even attached.


BTW: both of the Crucial / Micron Tech Support people were great to work with, and promptly generated my RMA documents and shipped the replacement drives (with CC cover) the same day. A big thanks to them!


-howard

PS: yes, I am working my through every post on this thread ... should have fully read it prior to "bricking" 2 big SSDs.

EDIT: just for clarification, I was using the Elgato thunderbolt cables when this happened. There also may be an issue with power available from the Thunderbolt port on the Macbook Pro (even when on AC adapter) being less or flakey than the power supplied by the 2012 iMac Thunderbolt port.

.

connorpb7 said:

Thought I would share my results so far for more feedback. I am using an OCZ vertex 4 with the adaptor and getting great stability so far. Speeds are pretty good too.

Click to expand...

Are you using the desk adapter (STAE122) or the portable, bus powered one (STAE121)? And if you are using the desk adapter, are you using the 3.5" -> 2.5" adapter that comes with the drive? I'm curious to know if this mount adapter actually works with the Thunderbolt adapter.

Nickodemus64 said:

I have a 2011 MAC mini .

After i purchased the Mini first thing i did was upgrade the Memory to 8GB.
Next i purchased a OCZ Agility 3 120GB, nice drive little slow for an SSD. OS X is running on the SSD and the data on the original 500GB HDD.

I have been looking at Thunderbolt for a long time and finally the price was right. I purchased the STBC3000102 that's the STAE122 and a 3TB HDD together. Shortly after i got a new Vertex 4 128GB SSD and install it in the mac. Before doing so I bench it on the STAE122 450+ Write and 550+ Read.
Wow my agility 3 was only getting 150-160 Write and 170-180 Read.
After installing I bench the Vertex 4 again same speeds.

I install the Vertex 4 into my MAC and started getting errors. I did a clean install and it was fine until i try to move the data. I bench the 3TB HDD and was amazed that I got 140+ Read and 160+ Write from a HDD on the Thunderbolt adapter. Well I did a test and move the data to a partition on the new 3TB HDD and have had no errors since. I am guessing the old HDD in the mac is too slow to work with the fast SSD.

I am so impressed with the thunderbolt adapter i purchased another STAE122 so I can swap drives on it.

I use a Seagate 500GB SATA 2 drive for backup with Carbon Copy Cloner.

I also run a second monitor from the Thunderbolt ports with no issues.

And for you PC users Thunderbolt has been released on some of the new MB so this adapter will be compatible with your PC as well.

Click to expand...

Sounds nice :] Are you using the 2.5" --> 3.5" mount adapter that comes with the OCZ Vertex 4 to connect it to the STAE122? I'm probably getting the same set-up soon... Maybe even getting two of those to make a RAID0 drive...

Oh, sorry for spamming but it all seems in vein to me now as they don't sell the STAE121 or the STAE122 at the Finnish Apple Store, and they don't dispatch them to Finland either from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk. Seems like there's no way for me to get one I was in the US just a couple weeks ago, I should have taken the opportunity to buy one there...

Dear all,

I get some similar outages like you are reporting them by using the Seagate Goflex adapter. My setup is as follows:

• Seagate Goflex STAE126 adapter (mobile)
• Apple 0,5m MD862ZM/A cable
• Samsung SSD 840pro series 512GB

Question is if anybody has had the same issues with the shorter Apple cable like I'm using because it's somehow new on the market and what would you recommend me doing?

Desktop stand is not an option currently as I will be mounting my iMac (mid-2011) on the wall and want to put the GoFlex adapter on the back of the iMac housing.

Will the Elegato cable work better as referenced to a number of times in this thread?

Thank you for any suggestion you might have.

franzose said:

Dear all,

I get some similar outages like you are reporting them by using the Seagate Goflex adapter. My setup is as follows:

• Seagate Goflex STAE126 adapter (mobile)
• Apple 0,5m MD862ZM/A cable
• Samsung SSD 840pro series 512GB

Question is if anybody has had the same issues with the shorter Apple cable like I'm using because it's somehow new on the market and what would you recommend me doing?

Desktop stand is not an option currently as I will be mounting my iMac (mid-2011) on the wall and want to put the GoFlex adapter on the back of the iMac housing.

Will the Elegato cable work better as referenced to a number of times in this thread?

Thank you for any suggestion you might have.

Click to expand...

I don't know that there is enough controlled testing experience among the users here to differentiate the Thunderbolt cables in use. They are a consideration, due to the fact that they are "active" tuned transmission lines with electronics at each end tuned to the cable length and properties.

For my reported experience: I was using Elgato cables (0.5m) both when connected to the iMac (no observed issues) and when connected to the Macbook Pro (bricked 2 Crucial M4 512GB SSDs).

Not sure that proves much.

-howard

hfg said:

For my reported experience: I was using Elgato cables (0.5m) both when connected to the iMac (no observed issues) and when connected to the Macbook Pro (bricked 2 Crucial M4 512GB SSDs).

Not sure that proves much.

Click to expand...

Should have read your comments first. I've tried to figure out on my iMac what was the issue using Blackmagic stress test. Should not have done that, now my Samsung drive is completely bricked, too!!!

Tried on two machines, Windows, Mac, Boot-Disk from Samsung. Device is definitely dead and will be returned for RMA. Wholly crap!

What was you solution in the end, Howard? Getting rid of Seagate Thunderbolt adapter?

franzose said:

Should have read your comments first. I've tried to figure out on my iMac what was the issue using Blackmagic stress test. Should not have done that, now my Samsung drive is completely bricked, too!!!

Tried on two machines, Windows, Mac, Boot-Disk from Samsung. Device is definitely dead and will be returned for RMA. Wholly crap!

What was you solution in the end, Howard? Getting rid of Seagate Thunderbolt adapter?

Click to expand...

You might try putting it in a powered up enclosure (not connected to a computer) and letting it idle for 20 minutes, then remove it for 2 minutes, then repeat 3 or 4 times. Sometimes that might reset them, but it didn't work for mine and I had to RMA both of them for replacement.

I am currently using one Seagate Thunderbolt Adapter with smaller 256GB SSDs, and also the LaCie "Little Big Disk" dual drive powered enclosures in RAID-0 for speed. A powered enclosure (desktop) should work fine for the 512GB drives, as should a "good" USB-3.0 enclosure albeit with perhaps a slight speed penalty. I am looking to cable the other Seagate TB Adapter in to a Thunderbolt-to-eSATA converter for a RAID-5 box I still have in use.

-howard

hfg said:

I am currently using one Seagate Thunderbolt Adapter with smaller 256GB SSDs, and also the LaCie "Little Big Disk" dual drive powered enclosures in RAID-0 for speed. A powered enclosure (desktop) should work fine for the 512GB drives, as should a "good" USB-3.0 enclosure albeit with perhaps a slight speed penalty. I am looking to cable the other Seagate TB Adapter in to a Thunderbolt-to-eSATA converter for a RAID-5 box I still have in use.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, Lacie's Little Big Disk is not sold as barebone with no disks...on top I got only USB-2 in my mid-2011. Not a lot of options.

Is there any option for an external power supply of the Seagate Goflex?

franzose said:

Unfortunately, Lacie's Little Big Disk is not sold as barebone with no disks...on top I got only USB-2 in my mid-2011. Not a lot of options.

Is there any option for an external power supply of the Seagate Goflex?

Click to expand...

In theory you could try the Desktop version for their 3.5" HDD GoFlex products - this offers power and a second Thunderbolt port, but not sure I've read anyone testing this one out yet.

Also, you could simply buy an external HDD power station and get a male to female SATA cable and connect directly to the Seagate sled. I used this method to connect bare 3.5" HDD to the sled so I could transfer data back and forth and that worked fine (but never did any testing with any SSDs over 256GB).

franzose said:

Unfortunately, Lacie's Little Big Disk is not sold as barebone with no disks...on top I got only USB-2 in my mid-2011. Not a lot of options.

Is there any option for an external power supply of the Seagate Goflex?

Click to expand...

I purchased "refurbished" LaCie Little Big Disk hard disk units from MacMall for around $200 and replaced the hard disks with SSDs. You can either use the hard disks for other projects or sell them on eBay or CL to further recoup some of your costs.

The portable Seagate GoFlex does not have a power input jack on it. You could use the desktop model Seagate Thunderbolt Adapter which is AC powered. There have been some posts from users of these who report that the data transfer speeds are identical to the bus powered portable ones.

martinm0 said:

In theory you could try the Desktop version for their 3.5" HDD GoFlex products - this offers power and a second Thunderbolt port, but not sure I've read anyone testing this one out yet.

Click to expand...

Wolfgang did: http://wolfgangtechnology.blogspot.de/2012/06/mac-with-seagate-thunderbolt-adapter.html?m=1

As I found out, after buying all the pieces, the Seagate GoFlex disks do not fit on the Seagate Thunderbolt desktop adapter, because the SATA connector on the GoFlex case is a couple of Millimeters (about 1/4") inside the case and the Desktop adapter has only a short SATA connector and so does not go deep enough in the case to make connection.

Click to expand...

But not "the" solution, first it's pricey, second adapter does not fit SSD comfortably.

franzose said:

Wolfgang did: http://wolfgangtechnology.blogspot.de/2012/06/mac-with-seagate-thunderbolt-adapter.html?m=1



But not "the" solution, first it's pricey, second adapter does not fit SSD comfortably.

Click to expand...

You can find "bare" disk drive shells for both Seagate systems on eBay and mount your drive in them for a finished look and securely mounted drive.

hfg said:

You can find "bare" disk drive shells for both Seagate systems on eBay and mount your drive in them for a finished look and securely mounted drive.

Click to expand...

Not so easy in Germany, unfortunately I'm not located in the US. Same as for the Lacie refurbished option, did not find any over here.

I felt like posting:
It's been just over 7 months since I made the upgrade. Everything is working fine here, and I've even updated the SSD firmware regularly. Buttery smooth!

jhonka said:

I felt like posting:
It's been just over 7 months since I made the upgrade. Everything is working fine here, and I've even updated the SSD firmware regularly. Buttery smooth!

Click to expand...

Thanks for that feedback.

I've been watching this thread for a while to ensure this is a solid solution. It's good to see most people are having a smooth experience.