User profile for user: nelsonmay
nelsonmay Author
User level: Level 1
29 points

Are there any bus powered HD enclosures with 2 thunderbolt ports?

Are there any bus powered HD enclosures with 2 thunderbolt ports? ? I have audio equipment as well as other electronics and had to give up my powered thunderbolt hub. I was getting too much RF interference though my monitors. I have an M3 MBP with three thunderbolt ports. I have multiple external drives I carry around. I am afraid to go to a powered drive bay because I don't think I can add anything else to my setup. I am running off a live wire power conditioner, but I think it can only do so much. One TB port has to run to my sound card, leaving me with two left.


This may be a bus power issue, but are there singe drive enclosures that have 2 thunderbolt ports for daisy chaining? If I could run 2 SSD drives from one port that would leave me an open port for other accessories.


This is a crazy ask, but I am trying to find a solution. I have an HDMI cable going to a monitor that has a TB/USB3 port. Can you configure it for use as a third port or does data not travel over HDMI?


I hae been searching, but I am only finding powered SSD enclosures for multiple drives.

MacBook Pro 16″

Posted on Sep 2, 2026 7:18 AM

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User profile for user: Servant of Cats
Servant of Cats
User level: Level 8
49,251 points

Sep 2, 2026 7:30 PM in response to nelsonmay

Thunderbolt enclosures are fairly expensive – and Thunderbolt is much faster than any single mechanical hard disk. Most of the Thunderbolt drive enclosures you'll find are:


  • Bus-powered Thunderbolt enclosures without daisy-chaining ports, for SSDs
  • Multi-drive Thunderbolt enclosures – sometimes for 2.5" and 3.5" drives; sometimes for M.2 NVMe SSDs. Some of these have daisy-chaining ports, but most of them also are wall-powered


So there's a good chance that you will not find the single-drive Thunderbolt enclosure (with a daisy-chaining port) that you are looking for.


It also seems that you have ruled out another possible solution: a powered Thunderbolt dock or hub, especially one of the ones that can split one Thunderbolt chain into three Thunderbolt chains.


I guess you've also ruled out attaching drives in USB enclosures via a powered USB-A or USB-C hub or dock.

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Are there any bus powered HD enclosures with 2 thunderbolt ports?

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