Connecting bus-powered hard drive to Thunderbolt 2

Thanks very much. That looks promising.

You're welcome!

I'm not clear on the difference between Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C. I'll have to dig around for some more information.

https://satechi.net/blogs/news/thunderbolt-3-vs-usb-c-whats-the-difference-1

https://thunderbolttechnology.net/blog/difference-between-usb-c-and-thunderbolt-3

https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/what-thunderbolt-3-usb-c-mean-to-musicians/?

$49 for three inches of cable and two connectors.

That is kind of why I suggested just using the slower connection with the older Mac.

Sorry forgot to mention, that you would also need a TB 2 cable to go between the Apple adapter and TB 2 Mac.

Ah.... I would only use USB 3.0 cable or adapter with the older Mac and use the USB-C cable with the newer systems.

late edit: to add a USB 3.0 to USB-C adapter. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PXS1P7B/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?

They are Thunderbolt 2 ports. You can use them as mini Displayports too. Granted, there aren't many Thunderbolt 2 devices around. That is probably one of the reasons Apple dumped the port. But you can still find them, if you are willing to pay.

This is a good example: https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/external-drives/owc-drive-dock

I have the Thunderbolt 2 model (and older version I think). It works great. I can connect via Thunderbolt 2 on one cable and USB 3 on the other (not at the same time, of course). They also have a USB-C version, but its not Thunderbolt 3. The Thunderbolt 2 model is $100 more. I think I paid another $100 more for my older version.

I don't know of any Thunderbolt 3 equivalent to this device. OWC has this device: https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/express-4m2. It is certainly fast, but not as versatile. And it is even more money.

For most things, a pure USB drive is fine. But if you are doing something funky, like booting or building DIY fusion drives, I would recommend a true Thunderbolt 2. Internally, macOS sees a Thunderbolt drive as almost internal and can access all information about the drive and all features. A USB drive is just a dumb port.

Not sure where you’re going with this. Your Sandisk can connect to USB-3 or USB-C with no absolutely difference in speed or performance. All you need to do is use a free USB-3 port on your mini with the supplied cable from Sandisk. Enjoy...

To elaborate on what hcsitas said: the USB 3.0 ports included on 2012 and newer Mac minis support data speeds of up to 640 MB/s. Since the indicated drive has a peak speed of just 550 MB/s that drive will run just as fast on USB 3.0 Type-A as on USB 3.1 Type-C.

There’s also a Sandisk-supplied usb-c to usb-a cable...you can get it anywhere for peanuts in case you’ve lost it.

Furthermore, nothing on the disk spec stating connectability to Thunderbolt 2. My response was with your stated issue with USB 3 speeds when it was originally proposed as a solution. Fact is, there is none that apply to your “problem”.

In any case, have a nice day!

Perhaps some clarification is in order. Originally, I thought you were talking about a Thunderbolt 3 bus-powered hard drive. OWC has a couple of those, as does Samsung. A true Thunderbolt 3 SSD can be much faster than any USB drive. They are relatively inexpensive considering their speed, but they are only available as bus-powered devices, at least as far as I’ve seen. There are some self-powered external Thunderbolt 3 devices, but they are meant for the RAID market and priced accordingly. You probably could connect one of those self-powered RAID devices to an older Thunderbolt 2 machine using the adapter. But the power issues mean that you can’t connect a bus-powered Thunderbolt 3 device to a Thunderbolt 2 machine using the adapter. I know, because I’ve tried it. I don’t know the details of all possible adapters and drives. I can’t claim to have tried them all.

If you just want “storage” and you want it cheap, then by all means, go USB. But remember, it’s cheap. I bought a couple of bare USB/SATA adapters for doing Fusion tests and one of them just stopped working the other day. It was only about $15, so no great loss. But to be clear, Thunderbolt, even Thunderbolt 2, is a higher quality connection and protocol. It does things that USB can’t. It might not be worth it to many people to pay for the difference, as it can be a couple hundred dollars more.

I don’t know what Apple was thinking. Yeah, it is a convenient port. But USB-C is just one of a long list of issues about modern Macs that is just horribly confusing.

Looks like it could with Apple's TB3 to TB2 adapter, but only if the drive has a female Thunderbolt 3 connection.

connecting a USB-C drive to an older Thunderbolt 2 MacBook Pro - Apple

Replace the external hard drives USB-C cable with a USB 3.0 cable.