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Buying Samsung T5 Question

wicked271 said:
I have a 500 gb T5 and had no problems with Catalina. I just use it as is without any formatting nor did I install Samsung's software.


@Boyd01 what Mac do you use it with? I have a macbook 13" 2016 and the T5 is very delicate, keeps disconnecting with just a small touch or movement. I've been thinking of buying a bigger storage and looking at the T7. Waiting for Black Friday :D
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Could it be an old firmware issue? have you tried updating the t5's firmware? ive had my T5 for 3 days now and no disconnecting of any sort..
 
Guys i have a question, What is the difference between the Samsung T5 and this Samsung USB C thumb drive: https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Duo-...36760&sprefix=usb+c+thumb,aps,220&sr=8-6&th=1

Obviously the Thumb Drive is 256 but it seems so much compact being able to just plug into the side of the MacBook as opposed to have the T5 connected to the Macbook with the USB Cable, And how does that flash drive cost only 40? it seems to good to be true
 
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Benz63amg said:
Guys i have a question, What is the difference between the Samsung T5 and this Samsung USB C thumb drive: https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Duo-Plus-128GB-MUF-128DB/dp/B07DW33DNN/ref=sr_1_6?crid=PWV378SAA9OF&dchild=1&keywords=usb+c+thumb+drive&qid=1604536760&sprefix=usb+c+thumb,aps,220&sr=8-6&th=1

Obviously the Thumb Drive is 256 but it seems so much compact being able to just plug into the side of the MacBook as opposed to have the T5 connected to the Macbook with the USB Cable, And how does that flash drive cost only 40? it seems to good to be true
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Performance, potentially reliability, and potentially longevity. They have slower read speeds and vastly slower write speeds, and may use lower quality flash. The exceptions would be several of the high-end flash drives, some of which use SSD controllers, but I do not think any of these are offered in a USB-C only version, and these tend to be physically larger, heavier, and they get extremely hot with sustained usage. If you are doing a lot of writes, anything except the fastest of flash drives gets annoying fast. (Obviously you want to back up the data regardless of if you are using a flash drive or SSD.)
 
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ght56 said:
Performance, potentially reliability, and potentially longevity. They have slower read speeds and vastly slower write speeds, and may use lower quality flash. The exceptions would be several of the high-end flash drives, some of which use SSD controllers, but I do not think any of these are offered in a USB-C only version, and these tend to be physically larger, heavier, and they get extremely hot with sustained usage. If you are doing a lot of writes, anything except the fastest of flash drives gets annoying fast. (Obviously you want to back up the data regardless of if you are using a flash drive or SSD.)
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Higher end flash drives such as?
 
ght56 said:
SanDisk Extreme Pro

Kingston Hyper X

Corsair Voyager GTX


These still are not nearly SSD fast, but they are way faster than your average flash drive, especially in regard to writes.
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I see, thanks for the links. These don’t seem to be usb c as you said earlier so these are definitely not a replacement for a T5. So the Samsung duo I linked to above is not in the same league as the T5 Right? I mean I was blown away when I saw on Amazon that the Samsung dou 256gb is only 40 bucks and it plugs straight into the USB port on the MacBook and wouldn’t require a cable attached
 
Benz63amg said:
I see, thanks for the links. These don’t seem to be usb c as you said earlier so these are definitely not a replacement for a T5. So the Samsung duo I linked to above is not in the same league as the T5 Right? I mean I was blown away when I saw on Amazon that the Samsung dou 256gb is only 40 bucks and it plugs straight into the USB port on the MacBook and wouldn’t require a cable attached
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It is not remotely comparable. The real-world write speed might be as little as 1/100th of the speed of the T5. It would not have comparable longevity. The flash it uses also might not be as good.

That said, if you are using it mainly as a music library or something like that, provided you have your files backed up elsewhere, it would work just fine as you wouldn't really need absolute speed or reliability for something like that.
 
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ght56 said:
It is not remotely comparable. The real-world write speed might be as little as 1/100th of the speed of the T5. It would not have comparable longevity. The flash it uses also might not be as good.

That said, if you are using it mainly as a music library or something like that, provided you have your files backed up elsewhere, it would work just fine as you wouldn't really need absolute speed or reliability for something like that.
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I'll keep my T5, I read too may bad reviews on that Samsung Duo and other comparable USB C Flash Drives.
 
hi all, hope someone can advise
new to Mac and just brought iMac 2020 27inch,
I am looking at buying either the t5 or t7.
I need to get all my photos music, etc from my old win pc and put it on a ssd
can I load from win pc to the ssd then onto the Mac?would it be this easy?
I have an old hard drive but can only read on the Mac and not save.
hope you can advise
 
RE robbie's post 37...

T7 will be the faster drive.

If you're going to store Mac files on a Mac external drive, it should be "Mac formatted".
I recommend HFS+ (disk utility calls this Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, GUID partition format).

BUT... you CAN'T read/write to this format on a Windows PC.

Is there anything on the "old" hard drive now?
My suggestion:

- take the OLD drive, and erase it (format it) to "exfat"
- now you should be able to connect it to the Windows computer and copy the files you want to "move over" onto it.
- when the NEW SSD comes, erase (format) it as above.
- connect BOTH drives to the new Mac -- they should both mount.
- now, you should be able to copy the files from the old drive to the new one.
- when done, your files will be on the new SSD
- you might consider re-purposing the OLD drive to become "the backup" for the new SSD
YOU NEVER WANT TO TRUST YOUR FILES TO ONLY ONE DRIVE !!!

I recommend that you try CarbonCopyCloner to create a "cloned backup" of the SSD to the old drive.
(the old drive will also need to be formatted to Mac format to work with CCC)
 
hi thanks for the reply
my win pc has died I cannot boot it
so to confirm all my files are on an hdd external drive at the moment.which I used on my old win pc and which I can only view the files on my mac
what I wanted to do was somehow transfer the files from old ext hard drive and copy them to a Samsung t7 so I can read and write to the Mac..
so what your saying is I can copy the files from old hard drive to new ssd whilst they are both plugged into the mac
I would just need to format the new ssd as above before I do anything
I would leave the old hard drive as it is for future back up and safety
thank you
 
Since you will only use the new SSD on your Mac, I suggest you format as APFS, which is Apple's newest filesystem that is optimized for SSD's. This disk will only work on a Mac now, but I assume that's all you need.


Afterwards, yes you can simply drag all the files from your old Windows disk to the new SSD. A T7 will be almost as twice as fast as a T5 so if the prices are similar I'd go with the T7. However, for typical uses I doubt you'd notice much if any difference, they're both fast.

I also would echo what @Fishrrman said about backups, but you don't want some old drive for that. I know it's another expense when you've already spent a bundle on a new computer, but you really need at least two (preferably three or four) separate backups. Apple's built-in Time Machine works very well and can continuously backup both your internal and external disk in the background. But IMO you also need a bootable clone of your internal SSD. This will allow you to immediatly get back up and running from the external drive in an emergency (even on different Mac). Carbon Copy Cloner is an excellent tool for that, they have a free trial.
 
great thanks for the help and apologies if they seem silly questions-just new to all his and want to make sure I do it right,,thank you again
and yes I will end getting a new ssd to replace the old hdd at some stage
 
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"so to confirm all my files are on an hdd external drive at the moment.which I used on my old win pc and which I can only view the files on my mac"

If they are "readable" on the Mac, they should be "copy-able", as well.

In that case, buy the new SSD.
Then format/erase the SSD for the Mac (again, I recommend "Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, GUID partition format").
Then, connect the OLD drive to the Mac as well
BOTH drives should mount on the desktop

You should now be able to open and view the files on the OLD drive.
Just "grab and drag them" to the icon for the NEW SSD.
They should copy right over.

Re boyd's post above:
I suggested that robbie re-format and use the old drive as a backup because "some kind of backup" is better than no kind at all.

And I still suggest HFS+ for data storage drives, particularly platter-based hard drives.
APFS will seriously fragment platter-based hard drives (or so I've read).
 
Fishrrman said:
And I still suggest HFS+ for data storage drives, particularly platter-based hard drives.
APFS will seriously fragment platter-based hard drives (or so I've read).
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Right, but since the old drive is (evidently) the ONLY copy of his data, I think it should just be left alone and put in a safe place after copying the contents to the new Samsung external SSD.

I agree that APFS should not be used on spinning hard drives. But I can't see any reason not to use APFS on a new SSD such as the T5 ot T7, which is what I was talking about (and what I personally do on my on external SSD's).
 
hi all .
I got the t7 yesterday.
thanks for the help and advice above..
so to format the t7 on the Mac I need to change to either HFS+ or APFS on the t7(as above which was both suggested,,is there an outright winner here)
once I have formatted the new t7 all I want to do is transfer the files from the old hdd to the t7 and only open them on the Mac.
I will keep the old hdd as a back up but over time will move to another ssd for future proofing in case the old hdd fails along the line
any clarity on which way to format would be great or are both suitable,,thanks
 
robbie1056 said:
any clarity on which way to format would be great or are both suitable,,thanks
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"Apple File System (APFS), the default file system for Mac computers using macOS 10.13 or later, features strong encryption, space sharing, snapshots, fast directory sizing, and improved file system fundamentals. "

File system formats available in Disk Utility on Mac

In Disk Utility on your Mac, format disks or volumes using Apple File System (APFS), Mac OS Extended, MS-DOS (FAT), and ExFAT.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
 
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