Timemachine drive with TBold port

[zoran]

Which TBolt external drive would you suggest to work for the TimeMachine backup, for the latest 27" Core i7 iMac? It can be a case, not necessarily a branded external drive!

 

[Fishrrman]

There aren't all that many available, and probably any one you pick will work.

Having said that, I don't think it's worth the extra cost for a thunderbolt-based drive for backups (which don't require high speed), when a USB3-based drive would work just as well, for far lower cost...

 

[zoran]

Having said that, I don't think it's worth the extra cost for a thunderbolt-based drive for backups (which don't require high speed), when a USB3-based drive would work just as well, for far lower cost...

Just trying to use the two TBOLT ports that the iMac has and are not in use right now!

 

[ColdCase]

There aren't all that many available, and probably any one you pick will work.

Having said that, I don't think it's worth the extra cost for a thunderbolt-based drive for backups (which don't require high speed), when a USB3-based drive would work just as well, for far lower cost...

Besides USB3 being flakey, TB being solid. TB is a much better user experience, all TB devices just work with a Mac. USB3 can be spotty, especially with their funky sleep modes. Money not being much of an object, choose any drive/enclosure with a TB port. TB prices are coming down, especial TB1 devices, which are plenty for backups and single disks.

 

[zoran]

Is there something to propose?

 

[65535]

https://thunderbolttechnology.net/p...prod_tb_version_value_many_to_one=thunderbolt

Check out that list, see what you feel is an acceptable price point.

For backup having a Mirrored RAID is nice for extra protection, also having a traditional Cloned backup and a TimeMachine backup using a JBOD setup on a 2 disk unit.

Portable Thunderbolt drives are fairly reasonable in cost and are cool running and quiet.

I personally use an Airport TimeCapsule for backups for 3 machines, but I also have a LaCie 2Big Thunderbolt 6TB drive, a G-Tech G-Drive Mobile 1TB, LaCie Rugged 256GB SSD. No problems with any of them.

 

[zoran]

Besides USB3 being flakey, TB being solid. TB is a much better user experience, all TB devices just work with a Mac. USB3 can be spotty, especially with their funky sleep modes. Money not being much of an object, choose any drive/enclosure with a TB port. TB prices are coming down, especial TB1 devices, which are plenty for backups and single disks.

1. How do i know if my iMac has a TBolt1 or TBolt2 port?
2. What do you mean USB3 can be spotty?
3. Please elaborate concerning the USB3 funky sleep modes!
4. Suppose i have an ext drive that has 2 TB ports and i own 2 macs. Can i connect one Mac to make a TimeMachine backup on one port and the other Mac to make backup connected to the 2nd TBolt port? (Of course the drive would have 2 partitions so each would be dedicated to each Mac accordingly.)

 

[zoran]

Ive come down to these two but i don't really see their differences!
Lacie d2 Thunderbolt 2
LaCie d2 USB 3.0

 

[65535]

1. How do i know if my iMac has a TBolt1 or TBolt2 port?
2. What do you mean USB3 can be spotty?
3. Please elaborate concerning the USB3 funky sleep modes!
4. Suppose i have an ext drive that has 2 TB ports and i own 2 macs. Can i connect one Mac to make a TimeMachine backup on one port and the other Mac to make backup connected to the 2nd TBolt port? (Of course the drive would have 2 partitions so each would be dedicated to each Mac accordingly.)

1. You can open System Information and go to the Thunderbolt section on the left side menu, this will indicate 2x 10Gb/s or Thunderbolt 1 or 20Gb/s for Thunderbolt 2.
2. USB3.0 or USB in general sometimes will loose the connection and require a physical disconnect and reconnect to due issues communicating with the USB device.
3. Issues with USB are often caused by how they implement 'sleeping' for connected devices, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes devices never come back online until disconnected and reconnected.
4. I haven't tried that setup however at the very least the two computers could be set to share the drive and be linked over a Thunderbolt Bridge network connection which would facilitate 10Gb/s transfer between the two computers and plenty of speed between the computers and the drive.

Ive come down to these two but i don't really see their differences!
Lacie d2 Thunderbolt 2
LaCie d2 USB 3.0

Go for the Thunderbolt 2 model, it's a newer version of their single disk solution, not only will it allow you to use Thunderbolt it has a USB 3 connection as well. Considering they are the same price it's a no brainer.

 

[g4cube]

Ive come down to these two but i don't really see their differences!
Lacie d2 Thunderbolt 2
LaCie d2 USB 3.0

Differences?

One you connect with USB only, the other, you can connect via USB or Thunderbolt. The latter also permits you to daisy chain other Thunderbolt drives in the future.

Performance wise, the d2 with Thunderbolt and USB interfaces built-in, may be a little faster since it is a newer design, with newer HDD and bridge chips.

 

[65535]

Differences?

One you connect with USB only, the other, you can connect via USB or Thunderbolt. The latter also permits you to daisy chain other Thunderbolt drives in the future.

Performance wise, the d2 with Thunderbolt and USB interfaces built-in, may be a little faster since it is a newer design, with newer HDD and bridge chips.

They're actually both USB3/TB drives.

Just get the newer one. If you're feeling crazy you can add the SSD module.