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fwh32720

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 25, 2012
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I just got a 1TB Samsung T5 today and have it hooked up through USB and it is dreadful,y slow. Am I doing something wrong or is it just the USB 2.0 that is killing me? Are there adapter options that might help me? Thanks.
 
I just got a 1TB Samsung T5 today and have it hooked up through USB and it is dreadful,y slow. Am I doing something wrong or is it just the USB 2.0 that is killing me? Are there adapter options that might help me? Thanks.

I think the usb 2 is the issue.

I use a delock thunderbolt enclosure with a ssd inside on my 2011 imac, and it really speeds up the computer vs the internal hdd.

I would either look at a thunderbolt enclosure/ssd drive, or an internal ssd install (bring mindful of the runaway cooling fan issue if replacing the stock hdd.)
[doublepost=1508383177][/doublepost]FYI, there are some devices that will add usb 3 via thunderbolt, but as far as I know they will still not allow the usb 3 drive to be a boot drive, on any usb 2 only mac.
 
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I think the usb 2 is the issue.

I use a delock thunderbolt enclosure with a ssd inside on my 2011 imac, and it really speeds up the computer vs the internal hdd.

I would either look at a thunderbolt enclosure/ssd drive, or an internal ssd install (bring mindful of the runaway cooling fan issue if replacing the stock hdd.)
[doublepost=1508383177][/doublepost]FYI, there are some devices that will add usb 3 via thunderbolt, but as far as I know they will still not allow the usb 3 drive to be a boot drive, on any usb 2 only mac.

Thanks! I was looking around trying to find a thunderbolt 1to usb and couldn’t find one. I was looking to update my iMac in the not so distant future. My system is backed up on some old FireWire external drives (6 years old) and system hard drive also 6 years old so worry about failure.
 
This is from another thread, but this is what I am using:

Delock has a couple of thunderbolt 1 enclosures. I am using the corded version ($85), but there is also a bus powered version which was not available when I purchased mine. ($125).

One more thing, these do not include the thunderbolt cable, you will need to get one in addition to these drive enclosures.

AC Powered:
http://www.synchrotech.com/products...sd-drive-external-enclosure-delock-42510.html

Bus Powered:
http://www.synchrotech.com/products...sd-drive-external-enclosure-delock-42513.html

The big downside on the 2011 model is that this enclosure will end the thunderbolt chain. I have a Caldiget Thunderbolt station before the drive (to provide non-bootable USB 3 to the computer), and chaining works fine with it.
 
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I believe that thunderbolt two and thunderbolt one use the same connectors, and are cross compatible.

I have connected thunderbolt two devices to my Mac Mini that only has thunderbolt one with no problem.
 
USB3 is, in theory, ten times faster than USB 2, so it is no wonder it is like walking through molasses. Thunderbolt 2 and TB(1) use the same cable. Suggest you look for a TB caddy. Buffalo make a MiniStation TB caddy, but it is pretty pricey.

When I did this to my former 2011 iMac, I simply used a Silicon Power TB drive, 240GB,and sat it on a Twelve South Dock that mounted on the iMac leg. No case required. May have been better to look before buying the Samsung.


http://www.buffalotech.com/products/ministation-thunderbolt
 
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OP:

I wouldn't spend a lot of money looking for "solutions".

The -best- solution at this point is to... start shopping for something new!
 
USB 2 is too slow for an SSD boot drive. I tried this on a 2010, and it was painful. I ended up using Firewire, which was not fast, but much more tolerable with SSD than USB 2 with SSD.
 
All, a solution that worked for me. I'm using late 2013 iMac Mojave with regular 1Tb HDD that's got VERY slow despite only using 150Gb, so now trying to run whole system on Samsung 250gb T5 SDD. I formatted T5 as APFS and used Carbon Copy Clone ("CCC") to copy everything to the T5 and then set T5 as Startup Disk from Preferences. Boot time to Log In screen was snail-like 3-5 minutes with blank screen half that time! After raising the issue with Bombich Software (developers of CCC), eventually Mike Bombich himself suggested "You could boot back to the HDD, erase the entire T5 as HFS+, then clone the HDD --> SSD. Some people have reported that the HFS+ formatted T5 did not experience the startup delay. You can't install Mojave onto the T5 via the Mojave Installer without converting it to APFS, but you can clone your Mojave to an HFS+ formatted volume, and the format will not change." Tried that and Power On to login now 35 secs with log in and all apps loading instantly! Thank you Mike - great support and CCC is a great product!
 
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