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When are FINALLY coming more Thunderbolt hard drives out?!

L

lars666

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jul 13, 2008
1,218
1,413
Hi everybody,

okay, I know this maybe isn't a very productive thread and I'm sorry for this, but... when the hell will I finally have a choice for a good Thunderbolt hard drive? I am so sick of waiting. I don't have the choice for USB 3.0 on my iMac 2011 and I really need a good 3TB or (much better) 4TB drive (not a RAID one with two disks combined, but one single drive). I know there's the Seagate GoFlex 3TB Thunderbolt out there, but I currently have the USB 2.0 version of it and it always spins down and up every few minutes - it is a real pain using it as my iTunes library hard drive. (Lots of other Mac user have the same problem with this drive - believe me, I tried EVERYTHING - the Seagate "no sleep" settings, the OSX energy settings, a script which always should keep the drive running etc. pp.) Therefore, the Thunderbolt version of this drive is not an option. Which other 3TB and 4TB Thunderbolt options (again: single drive) stay? Almost no one. Give me a Thunderbolt enclosure to put my own 4TB hard drive in out, give me a Thunderbolt to USB 3.0 adapter which doesn't cost 200 dollars or so (!), give me a nice external Thunderbolt product and I am more than willing to pay good money for it (not to mention the 50 dollars cable) but hell ... give me SOMETHING!

Sorry again for the rant, but I get more and more pessimistic that Thunderbolt won't kick off and I'll have to wait forever. Do you guys expect that something will change soon? Do I miss a great product for my needs? Or do I even expect too much from Thunderbolt when using a 7200rpm hard drive and won't even see a difference to USB 2.0 as the drive is the bottleneck?

Thanks for listening. I'll keep on waiting and waiting and waiting ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0SmSfYo8iE
 
LaCie has a 6TB (Dual 3TB) Thunderbolt drive, but it is two Segate 7200rpm Baracudda drives.
 
MacinTosh.0 said:
Sorry but I couldn't help but picture Yoda when reading your thread title.
Click to expand...

Haha, sorry - no native speaker here and I was a bit in a hurry ... Thanks to MCAsan and mawyatt for the suggestion, I'll check it out. As long as I get 3/4TB as "real" size, I'm also willing to buy a two-drive-system and have another backup. I just don't want two 2TB drives or so, use them as 4TB and have an even twice as high risk for a total data loss ... Still not fully understanding the Thunderbolt speed differences in these RAID cases though: If I use two disks as RAID-0 (no mirroring) the speed will be higher than that of each individual hard disk, correct? If I use it as RAID-1 (with mirroring), will the (slower) speed be equal to that of each individual drive or even slower?
 
lars666 said:
Haha, sorry - no native speaker here and I was a bit in a hurry ... Thanks to MCAsan and mawyatt for the suggestion, I'll check it out. As long as I get 3/4TB as "real" size, I'm also willing to buy a two-drive-system and have another backup. I just don't want two 2TB drives or so, use them as 4TB and have an even twice as high risk for a total data loss ... Still not fully understanding the Thunderbolt speed differences in these RAID cases though: If I use two disks as RAID-0 (no mirroring) the speed will be higher than that of each individual hard disk, correct? If I use it as RAID-1 (with mirroring), will the (slower) speed be equal to that of each individual drive or even slower?
Click to expand...

You are welcome, and are correct regarding RAID 0 and 1. I use a LaCie 4TB Thunderbolt RAID 0 for speed and will probably use another for Time Machine backup, although I am thinking of a lower cost USB drive for TM backup since speed isn't an issue here. My decision will be soon.

I just got the LaCie drive so I can't say anything about relibility. It does use the Segate 7200rpm Baracudda drives. I had absolutly no issues with my MBPr and Thunderbolt Display and the LaCie, just plugged everything in and it worked.
 
Is your configuration only as an iTunes library?

If so, USB 2.0 is plenty fast enough.

Thunderbolt or USB 3.0 aren't going to make accessing your iTunes library any better, except for copying files.

Your quest for performance is commendable, but you may want to evaluate what your speed needs truly are.

As for drive spinup/spindown...that is another issue altogether.
 
@mawyatt: Thanks for the additional info. I'll definitely check this drive out if it is something for me.

@g4cube: I know, of course, that my music and my movies won't start playing faster, USB 2.0 is enough for that - but, as you mention, copying files is quicker. (Or at least I hope it will be although the 7200 HD surely stays the bottleneck.) As I copy a lot on the drive for iTunes, more speed would be so convenient for me that I think it's worth to keep looking for a Thunderbolt drive.

Thanks for the comments!
 
So, will Apple's cable go directly from the iMac to the LaCie drive without an adapter?
Click to expand...

It does on my 15" rMBP. There is nothing to adapt. The cable plugs into the thunderbolt ports on the Mac and LaCie enclosure.
 
I'm in the same boat at the OP. I'm also considering drives with a FireWire 800 interfaces as this is about twice as fast as USB 2.0. FireWire isn't supported on newer iMacs however. So I'm also looking at drives with both a FireWire and USB 3.0 interface, the LaCie d2 Quadra v3 is one of these.
 
lars666 said:
Or at least I hope it will be although the 7200 HD surely stays the bottleneck.) As I copy a lot on the drive for iTunes, more speed would be so convenient for me that I think it's worth to keep looking for a Thunderbolt drive.
Click to expand...

FireWire 800 will give you close to the speed of the drive. and will be cheaper, and currently easier to find

for a traditional single hard drive using thunderbolt instead of FW800 will probably only get you minimal gains.
If you're using a SSD or RAID, it's a different story though.
 
waw74 said:
FireWire 800 will give you close to the speed of the drive. and will be cheaper, and currently easier to find

for a traditional single hard drive using thunderbolt instead of FW800 will probably only get you minimal gains.
If you're using a SSD or RAID, it's a different story though.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, waw74, good to know!
 
I heard a rumor that owc is expecting a thunderbolt to USB 3 adaptor by the end of the year. Hopefully the rumor is true, I guess we will know in a couple of months.
 
lars666 said:
Hi everybody,

okay, I know this maybe isn't a very productive thread and I'm sorry for this, but... when the hell will I finally have a choice for a good Thunderbolt hard drive? I am so sick of waiting. I don't have the choice for USB 3.0 on my iMac 2011 and I really need a good 3TB or (much better) 4TB drive (not a RAID one with two disks combined, but one single drive). I know there's the Seagate GoFlex 3TB Thunderbolt out there, but I currently have the USB 2.0 version of it and it always spins down and up every few minutes - it is a real pain using it as my iTunes library hard drive. (Lots of other Mac user have the same problem with this drive - believe me, I tried EVERYTHING - the Seagate "no sleep" settings, the OSX energy settings, a script which always should keep the drive running etc. pp.) Therefore, the Thunderbolt version of this drive is not an option. Which other 3TB and 4TB Thunderbolt options (again: single drive) stay? Almost no one. Give me a Thunderbolt enclosure to put my own 4TB hard drive in out, give me a Thunderbolt to USB 3.0 adapter which doesn't cost 200 dollars or so (!), give me a nice external Thunderbolt product and I am more than willing to pay good money for it (not to mention the 50 dollars cable) but hell ... give me SOMETHING!

Sorry again for the rant, but I get more and more pessimistic that Thunderbolt won't kick off and I'll have to wait forever. Do you guys expect that something will change soon? Do I miss a great product for my needs? Or do I even expect too much from Thunderbolt when using a 7200rpm hard drive and won't even see a difference to USB 2.0 as the drive is the bottleneck?

Thanks for listening. I'll keep on waiting and waiting and waiting ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0SmSfYo8iE
Click to expand...



I just purchased the Seagate Thunderbolt drive. I have not had any issues with the drive spinning down. I like it actually, it is very fast and has a lot of space.
 
I just picked up a Seagate Back-Up plus with FW800. they offer the connection upgrade to TB if I really need the extra speed. Seems to be a good middle of the road trade off for me at the moment.
 
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