Looking for an external drive for TB1 and beyond?

[MacBook17]

First things first, here's what we're working with:

MODEL: Early-2011 MacBook Pro 17
PROCESSOR: 2.3 GB Intel Quad-Core i7
OS: El Capitan 10.11.6
RAM: 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR 3
HDD: SATA 750 GB (450 GB of free space)

Although it had to be returned to Apple twice for warranty HDD failures (early on), we've used this MBP 17 without issue ever since...and have only recently begun seeing clear signs of the [now] infamous 2011 AMD GPU issue(s).

As we've been pretty happy with this machine for quite a few years now, we never had much of a reason to look into external backups for restore disc imaging...until now, of course. Instead, we've made a practice of using whichever USB thumb drives were large (at any give time) to back up our personal files only. In other words, we don't know much at all about restoring disc images.

For its day, this machine came with a wealth of ports, which includes (1) so-called "Thunderbolt 2011" (a.k.a., Thunderbolt 1) port that has never been used. As this port is specified as having up to 10 GB/s transfer speed -- versus the 480 MB/s of its (3) USB 2.0 ports -- I'm thinking that purchasing an external HDD or SSD that's compatible with the the Thunderbolt 1 (TB1) port -- for use with Time Machine (or anything better) restore disc imaging -- would be our best option for this particular machine.

As there's probably a Mac mini and a large external display in our future, I want to make sure that we purchase an external drive that will solve our present MBP 17 backup issue and serve us well in the future. Although I barely even know what I'm asking for here, my best way to put it is that we're looking for a fast external drive that will not only work with TB1 transfers, but will also work with Thunderbolt 3 and USB 3/C transfer protocol(s).

Bearing in mind that we've never performed a disc image backup -- for use with the new machine we end up with -- please feel free to take us to "DOS-era School" in regard to this problem. 🤔

 

[justashooter]

You could use this:

OWC ThunderBay 4 mini - Thunderbolt 2

With four 2.5-inch drive bays, OWC ThunderBay 4 mini transforms your SSDs and HDDs into a pro-grade, Thunderbolt 2 storage solution in a compact design.

eshop.macsales.com

You do not have to use it as a RAID, it can be used with each disk as it's own. A single SSD would write at about 450-500MB/s. Certainly fast enough for any backup needs and any general use. It is backwards compatable with Thunderbolt and with an adapter can be used with Thunderbolt 3. It cannot be connected using any USB. There are not a lot of Thunderbolt 1/2 externals, and no single disk external Thunderbolt 1/2 enclosures that I know of. I have this enclosure and use it as a RAID, very pleased with it.

 

[MacBook17]

JustAShooter..... First, I really appreciate the post. Unless I'm missing the mark pretty badly, I've been reading that Thunderbolt (TB) ports were purposely built to be very flexible...meaning that TB 3 ports are backward compatible with TB2 and, even further back, TB 1 in-out transfers. As you now know, we have a single TB 1 port on this 2011 MBP 17, so we're looking [rather frantically] for an external storage drive that can store an image of our MBP 17's 750 GB SATA HDD and, just as importantly, remain just as effective with newer Mac machines.

I've seen external drives that claim to be compatible with Thunderbolt ports and/or USB 3.0 ports. They're very expensive, but that's nothing new when it comes to employing Apple's "outside the envelope" technology...which is really what Thunderbolt is. Anyway, I'd like to look at this as an opportunity to finally use Thunderbolt transfer speeds and, needless to say, enjoy the obvious benefits that come with it.

By the way, if you have any thoughts for an old vet who's been effectively "sheltered" by his MBP 17 for too many years, I'd appreciate any thoughts you might share about the issues associated with going from a 2011 Mac machine to a newer Mac machine...like the Mac Mini, for example.

Once again, that your for your time...

 

[justashooter]

Background - Thunderbolt was actually invented by Intel. Licensing to make thunderbolt products appears to be fairly expensive compared to versons of USB. Thunderbolt 3 uses USB-C connectors so as far as I know if a computer has Thunderbolt 3 that connections also supports USB3. But, a computer can have the exact same USB-C connector but be USB3 only.

The expense of thunderbolt is why a single drive enclosure is rare.

The ThunderBay 4 Mini enclosure, which I posted the link to, will connect to your 2011 MacBook Pro, Apple computers with Thunderbolt 2 and, with an adapter, connect to Thunderbolt 3 computers. This is the adapter:

Thunderbolt 3 USB C to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter - Apple

Apple Store Search Results

www.apple.com

You can purchase just the enclosure and install your own SSD

But I know of no adapter for Thunderbolt 1 or 2 that will allow the plugging in of a Thunderbolt 3 Cable. So, you can plug in a Thunderbolt 1/2 device (ssd/hard drive enclosure) into a TB3 computer, but not a Thunderbolt 3 device into a Thunderbolt 1/2 computer.

The maximum speed of a single SATA 2.5 inch drive is around 550MB/s. With the overhead of most enclosures you will not reach that speed.

There are Thunderbolt 2 docks (which are backward compatible) but you would have to buy it used. There is a Belkin, and others, that would give you some USB3 ports, thunderbolt ports, etc. And they sell for $150+ on ebay.

 

[BrianBaughn]

This video might be of interest…however, I don't know what cable/port issues would arise on the OP's MBP model or what speeds would actually be achieved if it could be connected.

 

[chrfr]

This video might be of interest…however, I don't know what cable/port issues would arise on the OP's MBP model or what speeds would actually be achieved if it could be connected.

Without having watched the video, it's not possible to use bus-powered Thunderbolt 3 drives on older computers because the Thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapter doesn't pass power through it.

 

[BrianBaughn]

Is there a way to build an external NVMe drive for that old MBP that would be significantly faster than a USB 2.5" SSD?

Just spitballing.

 

[chrfr]

Is there a way to build an external NVMe drive for that old MBP that would be significantly faster than a USB 2.5" SSD?

Just spitballing.

The only way to really do that is to have a Thunderbolt 3 drive and then also buy a Thunderbolt 3 dock, the Apple TB2 to TB3 adapter, and a Thunderbolt 1/2 cable. The problem is that the Thunderbolt 3 dock still has to share the 10Gb Thunderbolt 1 connection of the 2011 computer so performance won't be optimized.

 

[JennMacAY]

Depends what you want to do, if it's primarily for backup then it might be worth looking at an entry level NAS from QNAP / Synology. Some QNAP NAS versions have a thunderbolt interface for direct access or an expansion port where you can add it later.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

Don't bother with thunderbolt. I doubt anyone even sells tbolt1 drives any more.
It's an obsolete technology at this point. You want USB instead.

What you need is an external USB3 SSD.
There are numerous ones available online.
Get one that is 1tb in size.

Or... buy a "bare" 2.5" SATA SSD
and
Buy this enclosure:

SABRENT 2.5 Inch SATA to USB 3.0 Tool Free External Hard Drive Enclosure [Optimized for SSD, Support UASP SATA III] Black (EC-UASP)

SABRENT 2.5 Inch SATA to USB 3.0 Tool Free External Hard Drive Enclosure [Optimized for SSD, Support UASP SATA III] Black (EC-UASP)

tinyurl.com

The drive just snaps into it.

Then...
Connect it to the MBP and use disk utility to format/erase it to "Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, GUID partition format".

Then...
Download CarbonCopyCloner from here:

Download CCC - Bombich Software

www.bombich.com

CCC is FREE to download and use for 30 days.
There is no better backup software out there, and it's remarkably easy to use.

Finally...
Use CCC to create a BOOTABLE CLONED BACKUP of your internal drive onto the external SSD.

You're now protected.
The SSD is AN EXACT COPY of the internal drive.
You can boot from it (use the option key at boot time), and it will look exactly the same as the internal -- you won't be able to tell the two of them apart.

 

[chrfr]

What you need is an external USB3 SSD.

The problem is that the 2011 Mac only has USB 2.0 ports. Using USB 2 in conjunction with an SSD will still be slow.

 

[iluvmacs99]

First things first, here's what we're working with:

MODEL: Early-2011 MacBook Pro 17
PROCESSOR: 2.3 GB Intel Quad-Core i7
OS: El Capitan 10.11.6
RAM: 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR 3
HDD: SATA 750 GB (450 GB of free space)

Although it had to be returned to Apple twice for warranty HDD failures (early on), we've used this MBP 17 without issue ever since...and have only recently begun seeing clear signs of the [now] infamous 2011 AMD GPU issue(s).

As we've been pretty happy with this machine for quite a few years now, we never had much of a reason to look into external backups for restore disc imaging...until now, of course. Instead, we've made a practice of using whichever USB thumb drives were large (at any give time) to back up our personal files only. In other words, we don't know much at all about restoring disc images.

For its day, this machine came with a wealth of ports, which includes (1) so-called "Thunderbolt 2011" (a.k.a., Thunderbolt 1) port that has never been used. As this port is specified as having up to 10 GB/s transfer speed -- versus the 480 MB/s of its (3) USB 2.0 ports -- I'm thinking that purchasing an external HDD or SSD that's compatible with the the Thunderbolt 1 (TB1) port -- for use with Time Machine (or anything better) restore disc imaging -- would be our best option for this particular machine.

As there's probably a Mac mini and a large external display in our future, I want to make sure that we purchase an external drive that will solve our present MBP 17 backup issue and serve us well in the future. Although I barely even know what I'm asking for here, my best way to put it is that we're looking for a fast external drive that will not only work with TB1 transfers, but will also work with Thunderbolt 3 and USB 3/C transfer protocol(s).

Bearing in mind that we've never performed a disc image backup -- for use with the new machine we end up with -- please feel free to take us to "DOS-era School" in regard to this problem. 🤔

I own a Mac Mini 2011 which has become my main home server. It is also equipped with a StarTech Thunderbolt 1 hub which I bought for just $10 at the non-profit electronics recycling facility and which is also hooked up to my TB RAID server to take advantage of the TB's throughput as well as a USB 3 NexStar TX dock for imaging backups, because the StarTech has a few USB3 ports incld. It was the only way I could upgrade my Mini 2011 to have USB 3 ports as well as a digital audio out port as well.

Having said that, I would not suggest putting any money on TB1 hubs or drives, because it is outdated tech and even on a used market, they are SO OVERPRICED for what they will do. Unless of course like me, you can pick it up for $10 and you can pick up also a RAID server for TB1 for like $50 without drives to really take advantage of TB1. I wouldn't pay more than $40 for the TB1 hub, just because you can get a brand new external USB 3 SSD drive for just a little bit more money and USB3 with USAP is only somewhat slower than TB1 drives.

USB 3 with UASP is not much slower than TB1. I know, I have both. You might just grind your teeth with USB 2 backing up to a USB 3 drive, unless you can get a TB1 adapter for cheap and turn your TB1 port into a USB 3 port for faster xfers. StarTech sold an adapter that do just that -- Adapts a TB1 to USB3 plus having an extra display port or Ethernet port and it's much cheaper than a full fledged TB1/2 hub on a used market. And it's currently selling on eBay as well and if you pair it with a NexStar TX USB 3 dock and supports UASP, then you can just insert a bare SATA drive and back away faster compared to USB 2. Below is a link to give you an idea of the prices.. It used to be $99 back in the days when it first came out. It's funny how inflation jacked the price up for New Old Stock.

Startech.com Thunderbolt To Gigabit Ethernet Plus Usb 3.0 - Thunderbolt Adapter | eBay

 

[BrianBaughn]

It's looking like the OP should just get something reasonably priced that works with the old MBP and not worry about future compatibility.

 

[Fishrrman]

"The problem is that the 2011 Mac only has USB 2.0 ports. Using USB 2 in conjunction with an SSD will still be slow."

Yes.
But he's not going to own that 2011 Mac forever.
Probably not more than 1-2 years.

And...
When it's time to "move on" to something newer, he can take that USB3 drive (which of course works fine with USB2 as well), and just plug it in, and it will become... "faster".

 

[MacBook17]

"The problem is that the 2011 Mac only has USB 2.0 ports. Using USB 2 in conjunction with an SSD will still be slow."

Yes.
But he's not going to own that 2011 Mac forever.
Probably not more than 1-2 years.

And...
When it's time to "move on" to something newer, he can take that USB3 drive (which of course works fine with USB2 as well), and just plug it in, and it will become... "faster".

Unless there's something that I'm totally unaware of, I want to make it clear that we will not be attempting to work on our older MBP 17 to lengthen its service life. The need to create a disc image, or other form of large backup, comes from an imminent video failure. So far, we've been able to bypass the AMD GPU issue by repeatedly restarting the MBP 17 until, eventually, the video is controlled the Intel GPU...at least, that's what we assume is happening. Regardless, the AMD GPU is definitely failing, so we're fairly desperate to order a good backup drive.

The point is to put our hard-earned into something that has a decent service life. I'm no hardware expert, by any means, but it seems to me that faster port/bus technology should be addressed whenever investing in computer hardware....so the machine I'm typing on right now, our old MBP 17, will be replaced as soon as we figure out how to effectively back it up.

 

[MacBook17]

There is a lot of great information here, and I want to thank everyone who contributed to this point.

After reading through the possible solutions outlined in this thread, it's clear to me that I'm misunderstanding something basic about Thunderbolt (TB) interfaces. I was under the impression that TB, although expensive, was meant to address some of the compatibility issues that come with other interfaces. For example, I was thinking that we could transfer data -- at the TB 1 rate -- to an external drive that's designed for TB 3. I was thinking, specifically, that all we needed was an adapter to go from a TB 1 (a.k.a., mini display) port to a TB 3 (a.k.a., USB-C) port.

After reading through the thread, it has become clear that we would need an external drive that was purposely designed for TB 1/TB 2 transfers to back up our old MBP 17 via our TB1 interface...which, obviously, changes things fairly dramatically.

Am I correct up to this point?

 

[iluvmacs99]

Yes, and that is because most of the external drives are nothing more than a drive in an enclosure attached to a SATA 3 interface, which maxes out at 6Gbit/s, which is under the 10Gbit/s that TB1 could theoretically deliver. So you won't be getting maxed up TB1 performance out of a single SATA 3 drive and so you'll be wasting money, unless you own TB RAID drives (which I do) or PCIe NVMe drives which are meant to address the SATA 3 throughput barrier. They are MORE expensive for those reasons, because you're dealing with bleeding edge stuff.

Having said that, USB 3.0 max throughput is 5Gbps, whereas USB 3.1 max throughput is 10Gbps, which is the same as the older TB1 interface. And the ports on the Intel Mac Mini 2018 are USB 3.1. So you see, there are plenty of USB 3.1 drives that are very affordable and that was what @Fishrrman recommended.

To give you an idea of how long it will take to clone your 750Gb HD

USB 2.0 = 3 hours 54mins (480Mbit/s)
USB 3.0 = 22 mins (5Gbit/s)
USB 3.1 = 11 mins (10Gbit/s)
TB3 = 2 mins (40Gbit/s)

Do you really want to pay bleeding edge prices for just a measly 9 mins faster transfer time between USB 3.1 (on the Intel Mac 2018 Mini) vs TB3?

As you can see clearly, USB 3.0 is a very clear upgrade from USB 2.0.

 

[chrfr]

After reading through the thread, it has become clear that we would need an external drive that was purposely designed for TB 1/TB 2 transfers to back up our old MBP 17 via our TB1 interface...which, obviously, changes things fairly dramatically.

Am I correct up to this point?

No, this is incorrect. However, Thunderbolt 3 is still expensive compared to USB 3; some of this may improve with Thunderbolt 4 and/or USB 4, but it hasn't so far, and so for most people USB makes much more sense as a drive interface than Thunderbolt, but the USB 2 speeds in the 2011 Mac are pretty intolerably slow nowadays.

With the Apple Thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapter, you can use Thunderbolt 3 devices on your 2011 computer as long as they are not bus powered. You could get a Thunderbolt 3 dock and use that with the Apple Thunderbolt adapter to connect a variety of external devices, including USB 3 disks. This is expensive, but the dock may be useful for you in the future depending on what computer you buy next and would definitely have more use in the future than the Thunderbolt 1/2 USB/ethernet adapter as seen in post 12 of this thread.

 

[MacBook17]

chrfr..... I recall talking to my brother, who manages HR software for various universities, and he was telling me that, back in the day, they had to backup an old server via USB 2.0 transfer. Recently, they had to do the same thing using a USB-C interface, and he said that it was essentially night and day, by comparison. In short, what once took more than a day to accomplish was done in a couple of hours, so I get your point about the relative speed of certain interfaces. I suppose that's why I wanted to take advantage of the TB1 port we have...

So...was I at least onto something with TB 3 compatibility? Based on your words, it would seem that the only serious downside of employing a TB 3 (USB-C) to TB 2/TB 1 (mini port) adapter -- which I was kindly linked to in Post #4 -- is the loss of "bus" power for use by the external drive, right?

If this is correct, it would seem that spending the extra money on a TB 3 external drive would only be useful for imaging our present 750 GB SATA HDD, if, and only if, the external TB 3 drive has an external power supply jack design.

I hope that I'm also learning that there are certain bottle necks inherent with the use of...say...2.5" SSDs in a SATA enclosure, as per Posts 2 & 4. If I'm understanding the transfer concepts outlined in this thread, the SATA "bus" is considerably slower than the max transfer rate of TB 1 (10 Gb/s). I'm also gleaning from the thread that the 2.5" drives themselves are a bottleneck due to their transfer speed specifications...so is it reasonable to conclude that TB 3 transfer rates are nothing more than theoretical and, essentially, that there's no external drive(s) available that actually realize the 40 Gb/s that TB 3 is specified for?

I'm not trying to be argumentative here, I'm just hoping to gain a clear understanding of the Thunderbolt interfaces that Apple employs before dismissing the technology...

...and, by the way, I only know that RAID is a way to effectively employ multiple hard drives. Other than that, we have zero experience with RAID setups.

UPDATE: It's looking like a temporary solution for us might be a (mid-2015) MBP 15 with OS X High Sierra (10.13.6) presently installed. This machine comes with (2) USB 3.0, (2) TB 2 and (1) HDMI port. It also has a 1 TB SSD installed, so that will definitely affect our decision on the size of an external backup drive. Regardless, I think that a Mac Mini (with M1 processor) is probably in the cards for us, so I don't want to take any emphasis off of what a machine like that will allow us to do in the future. By the way, will a properly formatted SSD in the MBP 15 allow us to transfer and utilize the disc image copied from our old MBP 17?

 

[justashooter]

Unless there's something that I'm totally unaware of, I want to make it clear that we will not be attempting to work on our older MBP 17 to lengthen its service life. The need to create a disc image, or other form of large backup, comes from an imminent video failure. So far, we've been able to bypass the AMD GPU issue by repeatedly restarting the MBP 17 until, eventually, the video is controlled the Intel GPU...at least, that's what we assume is happening. Regardless, the AMD GPU is definitely failing, so we're fairly desperate to order a good backup drive.

The point is to put our hard-earned into something that has a decent service life. I'm no hardware expert, by any means, but it seems to me that faster port/bus technology should be addressed whenever investing in computer hardware....so the machine I'm typing on right now, our old MBP 17, will be replaced as soon as we figure out how to effectively back it up.

"will be replaced as soon as we figure out how to effectively back it up."

If that is what you were looking to do all along, then go buy an external USB3 solid state drive. Such as this:

SAMSUNG T5 Portable SSD 1TB - Up to 540MB/s - USB 3.1 External Solid State Drive, Black (MU-PA1T0B/AM)

The SAMSUNG T5 Portable SSD has the latest in SAMSUNG V-NAND flash memory technology. Its portable design, blazing fast transfer speeds of up to 540 MB/s, shock resistance, and secure encryption make it the best portable SSD on the market.

www.amazon.com

Or buy a bare SSD and the enclosure the Fishrrman suggested, I have also recommend that enclosure many times.

Use it on the 17 inch MBP just for the one backup you need to get your data using either Carbon Copy Cloner (my prefered cloning/backup program) or Apples Time Machine. Then you can use the migration tool that comes on the new Mac (which works with both CCC and Time Machine) to import all of your data.

Be aware that if you are using any third party programs that are 32 bit, they will not work on your new Mac which will have Big Sur on it.

You can then use the Samsung external SSD via USB 3 on your new Mac.

 

[justashooter]

MacBook17,

Transfer speeds are a relationship between the device (hard drive/ssd) and the type of connection. Hard drives are SLOW, but they have their uses.

Examples:
--A USB 3 enclosure with a hard drive, connected via USB 3 to a computer, will trans at about 41MB/s.
That same USB 3 enclosure with a 2.5 inch SSD, connected via USB 3.0 to a computer, will trans at over 450MB/s.
--I put a single SSD in my Thunderbay 4 Mini, which is thunderbolt 2, (which I sent you a link to in post #2), connected to my 2012 MBP with Thunderbolt 1 transfered at 476MB/s write and 518MB/s read.
--That same Thunderbay enclosure with a 4 disk RAID, plugged into my MBP, and it gets 755MB/s write and 810MB/s read.
--Take that exact same RAID setup plugged into a 2015 MBP with Thunderbolt 2 and it gets 984MB/s write and 1181MB/s read.
--The internal Samsung SSD in my MBP, which is a SATA3 connection, runs at about 470MB/s write and 500MB/s read. So SATA does not run "considerably slower" than Thunderbolt.

As for 40gb/s Thunderbolt 3, with NVMe SSD's such as:

Best M.2 SSDs for gaming in 2025: my top picks for blazing fast storage

Our choices for the best NVMe M.2 SSDs give you blisteringly fast load times.

www.pcgamer.com

They have speeds that exceed 3,000 MB/s. These connections are also useful when you are running RAIDs, etc. But NVMe's have their problems too, such as running hot, which can slow them down.

 

[MacBook17]

MacBook17,

Transfer speeds are a relationship between the device (hard drive/ssd) and the type of connection. Hard drives are SLOW, but they have their uses.

Examples:
--A USB 3 enclosure with a hard drive, connected via USB 3 to a computer, will trans at about 41MB/s.
That same USB 3 enclosure with a 2.5 inch SSD, connected via USB 3.0 to a computer, will trans at over 450MB/s.
--I put a single SSD in my Thunderbay 4 Mini, which is thunderbolt 2, (which I sent you a link to in post #2), connected to my 2012 MBP with Thunderbolt 1 transfered at 476MB/s write and 518MB/s read.
--That same Thunderbay enclosure with a 4 disk RAID, plugged into my MBP, and it gets 755MB/s write and 810MB/s read.
--Take that exact same RAID setup plugged into a 2015 MBP with Thunderbolt 2 and it gets 984MB/s write and 1181MB/s read.
--The internal Samsung SSD in my MBP, which is a SATA3 connection, runs at about 470MB/s write and 500MB/s read. So SATA does not run "considerably slower" than Thunderbolt.

As for 40gb/s Thunderbolt 3, with NVMe SSD's such as:

Best M.2 SSDs for gaming in 2025: my top picks for blazing fast storage

Our choices for the best NVMe M.2 SSDs give you blisteringly fast load times.

www.pcgamer.com

They have speeds that exceed 3,000 MB/s. These connections are also useful when you are running RAIDs, etc. But NVMe's have their problems too, such as running hot, which can slow them down.

JustAShooter..... Thanks for correcting me about the SATA vs TB 1 transfer speeds -- that's why I'm here.

Once again, I know very little about RAID setups, so, my apologies, but some of the figures you're achieving via RAID are Greek to me.

At this point, I'm still working on a decision between a modern USB external drive and a modern TB external drive. I'm even checking into the possibility of a brand that claims to employ both USB and TB 3 data transfer. Obviously, I need to look into the fine print, but sometimes buying for the future pays off. Believe it or not, we purchased an upgraded version our the MBP 17, and look at how long we've gotten good service out of it.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"so the machine I'm typing on right now, our old MBP 17, will be replaced as soon as we figure out how to effectively back it up."

I provided you with EXACT INSTRUCTIONS on how to do that in post 10 above.
Go back and re-read it again.

You DO NOT want to back up the MBP onto a thunderbolt 1 drive, because new Macs will not be able to use such a drive without an adapter (tbolt2 to tbolt3 adapter).

USB3 will be EASIER (just plug it in) and FASTER on the new Mac.

How much are you going to over-think this?
Just buy a USB3 drive and do it...

 

[MacBook17]

Money is a important question for us -- and many others, I suspect. No one on our end had any experience with Thunderbolt interfaces, so the thread was started, primarily, to obtain information about that subject. It continues to serve that purpose, so I see this discussion as a productive thing.

In addition, I see forum threads as something that should be kept up to date. That takes participation from the original poster (OP).

Let me make this clear: no one is being forced to participate. I was thinking that the word "voluntary" was totally understood. Speaking for myself, I'm an overseas vet and I left being ordered around behind me a long time ago.

Enjoy your freedom ~ MB 17

 

[MBAir2010]

First things first, here's what we're working with:

who is "we"?
you purchased the MacBook, your problem!