iMac - Does an External SSD with passthrough exist?

Question

Level 3

809 points

iMac - Does an External SSD with passthrough exist?

I have an external USB 3 HDD attached to my iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015) to which I have daisy chained an older USB 2 HDD. Both have their own power supply.

Can anyone recommend an External SSD that I can connect to my iMac and then daisy chain the aforementioned two HDDs to it. Preferably the External SSD would be powered by the iMac. I haven't seen any offered anywhere myself, but I may be asking the wrong questions.

My iMac also has a mini-displayport to which I have an external DVI-D monitor attached by means of a small adaptor.

If I can, I want to create a bootable version of Mojave on the External SSD so as to be able to run some older software for my Stereo 3D projects that bit quicker.

Posted on Sep 16, 2021 9:31 AM

Reply

Answer 1

den.thed

Level 10

91,012 points

Sep 16, 2021 10:08 AM in response to El Deanio

You need to get a USB 3.0 4 or 7 port self-powered hub to connect your external drives up to.

for example, I have a Sabrent USB 3.0 4 port self-powered hub, that works fine for connecting multiple USB 3.0 drives to.

https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Individual-Switches-Included-HB-UMP3/dp/B00TPMEOYM/ref=asc_df_B00TPMEOYM/?

Reply

Answer 2

Jack-19

Level 8

46,188 points

Sep 16, 2021 9:33 AM in response to El Deanio

Sorry, what you want in an SSD does not exist.

Reply

Answer 3

HWTech

Level 9

68,708 points

Sep 16, 2021 11:03 AM in response to El Deanio

What you need is a powered USB3 hub with UASP support. Here is some information about UASP:

https://blog.startech.com/post/all-you-need-to-know-about-uasp/

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/usb-3-uas-turbo,3215.html

Reply

Answer 4

HWTech

Level 9

68,708 points

Sep 17, 2021 1:03 PM in response to El Deanio

If a manufacturer or vendor doesn't specifically mention UASP support (or any specific feature), then I would say it does not have that feature since it would be a very good selling point to distinguish the product from the competition.

I have personally found these vendors to provide good products and tend to list important technical specifications: Plugable, StarTech, and Anker, although I did have issues with an early USB3.0 device from StarTech although I never did confirm if the issue was with the StarTech device or my at the time new Mac Mini). OWC has some nice quality products, but the OWC products are also sometimes missing some nice technical features (at least for me).

Reply