Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Noob question... could this be used as a TimeMachine backup destination for a Macbook Air?

What would TimeMachine do if/when it wasn't connect?

And then would it start backing up whenever it was connected?

Thanks for lesson in TM 101.
 
...is made from a durable titanium metal case...

Uh, no. Aluminum is not Titanium.

Screen Shot 2020-05-19 at 12.39.45 PM.png
 
Noob question... could this be used as a TimeMachine backup destination for a Macbook Air?

What would TimeMachine do if/when it wasn't connect?

And then would it start backing up whenever it was connected?

Thanks for lesson in TM 101.

yes, you can use it for Time Machine backups, it will simply backup when connected. After each backup is complete, you can disconnect it.

I use a T7 for a secondary Time Machine backup drive that exact same way.
 
I have one of Samsungs older portable drives (wow its about 5 years old now) and its been wonky with one of the weird USB variants. Might look into this.
 
I was hemming and hawing between buying a T5 or a T7 Touch recently, and decided to just save a few bucks and go with the T5, since even the T5 was fast enough to edit 4K video directly off of, and I was only really looking to use it to edit 1080P video off of.

The only real improvement I'd notice in speed would be the initial transfer rate of moving my raw video footage over to it, and based on some of the reviews I looked at, it seemed like the speed increase of the T7 over the T5 was under certain conditions and also once the drive heated up a bit, it would throttle back the speeds.

Even so, now that this news has hit, I'm already second-guessing my decision a bit.

FWIW, I paid $90 for a red T5 500GB and paid another ~$10 to get a rubber bumper for it to give it some added shock/drop protection, and to reduce the risk of scratching my MacBook or iPad with it, if I put them in a bag next to each other.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Wags
View attachment 916690
Meh... I get better speed from my JEYI ThunderBolt 3 M.2 NVMe enclosure that I got on AliExpress for $80 (Plus the low cost of NVMe SSD on Amazon.)

Probably so, but a solution like that is more hassle and a lot less flexible. In particular you can't easily use it with an iPad, an older Mac, most windows machines, ...
[automerge]1589920661[/automerge]
I have one of Samsungs older portable drives (wow its about 5 years old now) and its been wonky with one of the weird USB variants. Might look into this.

The problem with SSD portable drives is always the power budget. USB-3 promises (doesn't always deliver especially on cheap laptops...) 4.5W, USB-2 promises 2.5W.
You get some drives that are only specced for -3, but that apparently work on -2 as long as you engage in low-power tasks (reading, very light writing) but then die of lack of power during substantial writing. You even get some drives that claim to be specced for -2 that work at first, but then as they get older and it takes a little more power to write those aging cells, again, random death.

Presumably Samsung have been in this game long enough, and care enough about their reputation that when this says it works on -2, it does work, and will keep doing so indefinitely...

As for your drive, you may be able to continue getting value out of it IF you can constrain use to a situation where it's connected to only USB-C or USB-3. (And if connected via hub, the hub is a powered hub with a beefy power brick...)
[automerge]1589921013[/automerge]
Substancially cheaper to buy a USB 3.x enclosure, and a good SATA SSD and put them together in the 2-5 minutes it takes to install them. Available in any size/brand you want online (Newegg, Amazon, etc), and ready to go in just a few minutes.

This was safe and reliable back in the HD days. It's something more of a gamble with SSDs. The SSD can get a lot hotter than an HD, and the enclosure can do a lousy job of cooling.
yeah, I was surprised it was the SSD that failed. I managed to split the drives in Terminal and the hard drive is still working fine as a Time Machine drive.

Well everyone has different experiences :)
For me it was the HD of my fusion drive that failed... But, again, cracked the two apart, use OS on the internal SSD, user directory on an external USB-3 SSD.
This is one thing so many people don't realize -- how flexible macs are in terms of cracking apart and reusing storage of all sorts; the OS is just so tolerant of booting from anywhere, backing up anywhere, storing user data anywhere. Let's see how much of that flexibility gets lost as T2-type machines become older and older...?
 
Last edited:
I have had 2 X T5 2TB for 2 years - I love them zero issues. I wish they had a 4TB so I would have to carry around 2 of them - but that's the only drawback for me.
 
Quick question: Could I use this to run my 2014 Mac mini system (is this what is meant by a "boot drive"?). It seems to have become slower and slower over the years. Trying to make do for the next 6 months-to-a-year while saving for a new Mac. And then I could use it as a portable SSD after upgrading. TIA.
 
All the Samsung Portable SSD disks are awesome, mostly from T5 and X5 (T1 had serious issues and T3 as well, albeit less).
 
As someone who edits photos & videos on my ipad pro while traveling, I am now looking for a back up solution. Now with iPad iOS you can connect an external hard drive. I was either thinking something like this Samsung, a lacie or a gnarbox. Anyone have any recommendation?
 
Noob question... could this be used as a TimeMachine backup destination for a Macbook Air?

What would TimeMachine do if/when it wasn't connect?

And then would it start backing up whenever it was connected?

Thanks for lesson in TM 101.
It would be a waste of money. You get a 2TB spinning hard drive for $60 and it's fast enough for backups.
 
  • Like
Reactions: chrfr
It would be a waste of money. You get a 2TB spinning hard drive for $60 and it's fast enough for backups.

Have you ever attempted actually restoring from a 2TB spinning drive? It takes forever, and sometimes even fails (happened to me several times).. Transfer rate is so slow.

It's night and day difference compared to an SSD like the T7.
 
You need a ****** 3rd party app from Samsung to have the fingerprint security.

You only need the Samsung software to setup the fingerprint security on your Mac or PC in the beginning.

From then on... you can use it on any computer or other device just using the fingerprint sensor for access.
 
  • Like
Reactions: G5isAlive
Well that's great .... But the damn thing still isn't for sale! 🤷‍♂️

I'm down for one in the gray to match my Space Gray MacBook once I can get one!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Huck
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.