Western Digital Announces Thunderbolt-Powered My Passport Pro RAID Drive

[pika2000]

So, are the drives user replaceable? If not, then what's the point of the RAID redundancy? If one of the disks failed (and hard drives do fail, it's only a matter of when), user have to buy a whole new set?
Also, integrated cable? That never sound good. If something is wrong with the cable, then what? Buy another drive?

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Are you concerned by the memory, CPU, GPU, fans, speakers, camera, display, keyboard lighting, or anything else that might be drawing power from the logic board?

Turning no your computer also shortens it's life, so does using it and so does letting it sit there. Sounds like your best bet is not buying a computer if you want the longest life out of it.

Ah, nothing quite like smart-aleck comments to make one wish there was a rule against posting such things on here.

While the original poster may seem a bit paranoid, one could readily point out that such items mentioned above were considered in the design of the Mac in question, whereas adding 3rd party drives that never existed until now is more of an unknown factor without more information about power draw, etc., particularly if you have more than one device attached and/or it is to be attached in a more or less permanent fashion. Many electronic devices have OPTIONS for their own power supplies for exactly these sorts of reasons even if they don't ship with one (connector present). I have passport style backup drives here, but they are typically connected for short periods of time (i.e. during backups). My 3TB media drive on my Mac Mini server that is on 24/7 (save sleep mode) has its own power supply and I definitely find that preferable since I may have as many as three of these connected at any given time to the USB3 bus.

 

[unlinked]

What is being planned for USB 4.0?

The 3.1 spec was released last year with a reversible connector , more watts and the same speed as Thunderbolt.

 

[imageWIS]

Not exactly.

There is a license in the sense that manufacturers must sign a license to use the parts, committing to approved designs, and gaining certification before being sold to customers. The ecosystem requires all devices to be certified.

Hi-speed design does entail higher development costs due to materials and test equipment required for validation. There are also certification costs.

There is also complexity. In addition to the Thunderbolt controller chip, there is quite a bit more going on inside than a simple USB-to-SATA bridge. Take a look at some of the reviews and teardowns showing the insides. USB-to-SATA controllers are simple in comparison. I don't think Thunderbolt will ever be reduced to as simple a solution, though the complexity is being reduced.

Overall system cost is higher due to circuitry, cabling, DisplayPort, power management, and overall bandwidth.

Yes, the controller is sole-sourced from Intel, and yes the controller is more expensive than a USB-to-SATA bridge chip, but not $100 more.

Close examination of the Apple Ethernet and FireWire dongles do indicate reduced complexity as there is no daisy-chain capability, so simple bus-powered devices could be less expensive but still ore costly than USB.

Can't they make two classes of devices:

1) More expensive daisy-chain compatible
2) Less expensive 'end' or no-chain device, like portable HD's?

 

[phoenixsan]

I have.....

more faith in WD than in Sonnet, so I am totally buying this drive.....

Like the small form factor and the capacities. Hope initial batch dont have quality or performing issues....

 

[g4cube]

Can't they make two classes of devices:

1) More expensive daisy-chain compatible
2) Less expensive 'end' or no-chain device, like portable HD's?

Already have that today. There are rules for single port and dual port devices. Yes, single port devices are less complex, and usually cheaper.

There are many single ended devices available from several manufacturers. A quick Google search or visiting http://www.thunderbolttechnology.net can give you an idea, though not all devices are listed there. See the Products tab.

One thing that is nice about that website is that only certified, available products are listed. No pipe-dream pre-announcements! Only limitation may be that not all products are available in all markets. A quick email to the manufacturer may help identify local sources for the product.

 

[olowott]

wishing thunderbolt was cheap

 

[SlCKB0Y]

... Until maverick wipes off everything...

Mavericks hasnt caused data loss.

 

[GSPice]

whereas adding 3rd party drives that never existed until now is more of an unknown factor without more information about power draw, etc.,

Ah, but that's the beauty of protocol standards.

Making "unknown factors" quite known since 1996.

 

[CHNO-Chris]

Here you go....
This clever drive enclosure lets you hot swap your RAIDed drives.

No TB version yet though.

Its on their roadmap. Should be Thunderbolt 2 as well.

Sell loads of these to photographers for obvious reasons....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MipztLcoSOE

 

[macduke]

Looks like a good option - and it can be powered by USB 3.0 since they're 2.5" drives, and Seagate has obviously spec'd them to have appropriate current draw.

As I look around though, I only need big OR fast. Not big AND fast, otherwise I'd end up wasting that speed (RAID 0) on incremental backups - and RAID 0 is obviously not good for backups.

I think what I need is a fast SSD thunderbolt for video editing (if I can't fit the library projects on my internal flash), and a RAID 1 to archive everything on after I'm done. If the RAID 1 is USB 3.0, that'd be great for grabbing archived files. But I don't need portability for a huge drive.

What I ended up doing was clearing a bunch of space off my SSD and use that for a cache. I bought that Seagate 4TB RAID 0 portable drive and it is pretty fast. I like that the enclosure is metal—and I can see why! It can get fairly warm (borderline hot but not quite) when transferring hundreds of gigabytes for an extended period from my G-Drive.

Along with the Seagate I bought a 4TB WD desktop drive and am using CCC to run weekly backups. I still have the free version of CCC so I'm wondering if I should upgrade since it always warns about compatibility issues with Mountain Lion and Mavericks. Or maybe I should look at something else entirely.

I moved my whole Lightroom catalog onto the Seagate so I have it with me anywhere I go. The drive actually came with a USB Y cable and regular cable, so my guess is some older machines might need extra power? The drive is a little thicker than my previous portable drive but it's not bad. Definitely feels substantial when you hold it. Very dense! I like it so far. People I've shown it to can't believe they fit 4TB RAID 0 in that size. I formatted it EXFAT so it works on Macs and PCs. Using BlackMagic speed test I get around 230 read and 210 write average on several runs. I'll take it!

I also bought the Seagate data recovery plan on Amazon. It was $39 for 3 years of coverage and actually also covers the WD since it was made on the same purchase, even though it was a different brand. The service will retrieve as much as data as possible off the broken drive and send it back to you on a new drive!

So to recap, I've got the portable drive on my person when I go to work or to meet with a client or home to KC or on vacation (so it's usually off-site), my desktop WD 4TB at home with a weekly backup every Sunday, a replacement and recovery service in case one of them crashes, and my most cherished photos (wedding, daughter's birth, etc) in Dropbox on a paid 100GB plan. Works for me, hope this helps others decide if they're in a similar situation. I feel well protected and can finally put this dilemma behind me. It's funny how running out of drive space can be stressful. Seems to happen every 2-3 years so I should do a better job of anticipating it next time. Hopefully by then Thunderbolt is a few bucks cheaper (hah).

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Ah, but that's the beauty of protocol standards.

Making "unknown factors" quite known since 1996.

Any single device can meet requirements. Try adding several and see what happens. Don't assume a typical user is going to know what the power limits are and even if they do, if you have no AC power option, you'll be limited on how many you can connect at once if your drives have no AC option. In other words, you're not convincing me that he's all wrong in his preferences.

 

[GSPice]

Try adding several and see what happens. Don't assume a typical user is going to know what the power limits are

Oh we're talking about those kinds of typical users? Well then I take everything back! I mean who knows what chaos could ensue if they plug in too many devices without enough power?

And if they are wise enough to be using AC-powered USB devices (whew!), we can only hope that a typical user also knows that they can't plug in more than 127 devices of those into a single controller!

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Oh we're talking about those kinds of typical users? Well then I take everything back! I mean who knows what chaos could ensue if they plug in too many devices without enough power?

Image

And if they are wise enough to be using AC-powered USB devices (whew!), we can only hope that a typical user also knows that they can't plug in more than 127 devices of those into a single controller!

I honestly don't know WTF you're trying to get at. The original poster says he'd prefer model with an external power supply since putting a significant additional load on a power supply will wear it out sooner than not doing so. While power supplies aren't exactly the same as a bearing being loaded down with more weight, they do wear faster with heavier loads even if "in spec". A spec is just a reasonable estimate made based on predicted loads. That doesn't mean there isn't more wear at the higher end of that spec. Frankly, I've not seen you or anyone else post a SINGLE thing that disproves what he said either. You're just wasting my time with these posts with redundant information and a snarky pointless attitude when what you say is just plain misleading and frankly wrong in context of the original post. Yes, heavier loads DO wear parts faster. Whether that's significant enough for someone to avoid them is another matter, but it doesn't invite the kind of immature displays I've seen in this thread which says more about society than anything else, I'm afraid.

 

[GSPice]

I honestly don't know WTF you're trying to get at. The original poster says he'd prefer model with an external power supply since putting a significant additional load on a power supply will wear it out sooner than not doing so. While power supplies aren't exactly the same as a bearing being loaded down with more weight, they do wear faster with heavier loads even if "in spec". A spec is just a reasonable estimate made based on predicted loads. That doesn't mean there isn't more wear at the higher end of that spec. Frankly, I've not seen you or anyone else post a SINGLE thing that disproves what he said either. You're just wasting my time with these posts with redundant information and a snarky pointless attitude when what you say is just plain misleading and frankly wrong in context of the original post. Yes, heavier loads DO wear parts faster. Whether that's significant enough for someone to avoid them is another matter, but it doesn't invite the kind of immature displays I've seen in this thread which says more about society than anything else, I'm afraid.

Cool story, bro

 

[g4cube]

Got my 2TB "My Passport Pro" from Frys today and have some quick observations:

• It's a bit thicker and heavier than my 2TB LaCie Thunderbolt/USB Rugged drive, which has a single HDD inside
• There are 2 x 1 TB 5400RPM drives inside each with a 16MB cache
• AJA shows just 209.4 R / 206.7 W when performing the 16GB disk test (MB/sec)
• The 2TB LaCie performs at 119.1 R / 118.7 W using the same AJA test config (MB/sec)

I have a few other 2TB drives to test, and some other tests I'll do over the weekend if I have time.

Haven't been able to run a test that shows the 233 MB/sec that WDC promotes.

Was surprised to find a small fan; missed that in the reviews, though checking back, I see that the reviews mentioned that. Fan did not come on while I ran some quick tests.

 

[dwdrummer959]

Ssd

More details:

Disk model is WD10SPCX. OOTB (RAID 0) I was getting 220MB/s Writes and Reads. I just swapped out the top one with a 512GB Samsung 840 EVO and that drive by itself is doing 263 MB/s Writes and 385 MB/s Reads. As a reference, my Mid 2012 15" Retina MBP with 512GB internal SSD gets anywhere from 280-400 MB/s Writes and 300-450 MB/s Reads. Tested using Disk Speed Test (1GB Stress)

Also, if anyone is interested this is the SATA-PCIe chip it uses: http://www.asmedia.com.tw/eng/e_show_products.php?item=118.

 

[GSPice]

Just got the 2TB WD My Passport Pro.

Pros:
Easy setup
Real fast (> 300MB/s transferring a 400+ GB FCP X Library)
Real cheap $/GB compared to external thunderbolt SSDs ( $1+/GB vs. $0.15/GB).
No lag scrubbing through optimized HD video in FCP X.
Real fast rendering. No noticeably slowing down FCP at all.

Cons:
Chunky (two drives, so understandable)
Loud - I'm gonna have to watch this one. When idle or low activity, it's barely noticeable. But once it was transferring non-stop for several minutes, it's like the fans kicked into high gear and they made a high pitched whine until the transfer was complete. I'd hear what I thought was a beep a couple times over the 400GB transfer - I'm spoiled with Retina silence, so I'm definitely not used to hard drive or fan noise.

 

[hfg]

More details:

Disk model is WD10SPCX. OOTB (RAID 0) I was getting 220MB/s Writes and Reads. I just swapped out the top one with a 512GB Samsung 840 EVO and that drive by itself is doing 263 MB/s Writes and 385 MB/s Reads. As a reference, my Mid 2012 15" Retina MBP with 512GB internal SSD gets anywhere from 280-400 MB/s Writes and 300-450 MB/s Reads. Tested using Disk Speed Test (1GB Stress)

Also, if anyone is interested this is the SATA-PCIe chip it uses: http://www.asmedia.com.tw/eng/e_show_products.php?item=118.

RE: 2TB WD My Passport Pro

Do you know if this enclosure (JBOD drive) will boot Windows on a Mac?

I have been looking for a dual-drive Thunderbolt enclosure to house a Windows bootable SSD and a Windows data hard disk as a external standalone Windows subsystem for my iMac. I would swap one of the hard drives for the SSD as you have done (of course deleting the RAID-0 join first).

Thanks,
-howard

 

[GSPice]

Update

Background:

Apr. 15: New out of the box, configured drive as RAID 0 on my sig machine (10.9.2).

Apr. 15: Transferred 400+GB file to the drive, 300+MB/s transfer rate. Unplugged drive until..

Apr. 21: Connected drive, not using it, but within minutes receive the "don't eject drives without dismounting" error. Worried, thought "did it go to sleep and dismount on it's own?"

Reconnected, no problem. Within another several minutes, same thing. Could not reconnect/mount this time. Looked at WD Drive Config utility, and says that the drive 2 stripe failed. Nice. Had passed all diagnostic tests before.

Erased both drives with Mac's disk utility, and used the WD Drive Config utility to setup as RAID 0 again.

Restored lost data via Time Machine (epic win)

Apr. 23: Worked for a few hours in FCP, backed up everything before going to bed.

Apr. 24: Opened notebook to find drive had dismounted from stripe failure again. Created RMA with Western Digital.

Western Digital says I'll get a replacement drive within 3-5 business days. At this point, if I set this one up and get another failure within the 3-year warranty period, my confidence with this drive will be a bit shaken.

 

[Bezbozny]

I m thinking of buying this drive. I ve read the whole thread but still haven't found out of the drives inside can be replaced by the user. Does anyone know if the drives are connected with some kind of proprietary connector or not?

Edit : I just saw that the seagate

http://m.bestbuy.com/m/e/product/detail.jsp?skuId=5127078&pid=1219111161080&pcatId=abcat0504001

Has double the capacity, the same speed and it's less expensive... I really can't see a reason to go for the wb one.