Hello--
I have a Western Digital External hard drive with a Thunderbolt interface that I need to connect to a MacPro as well as a PC via USB. Can anyone recommend a solution?
Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
Purchase a computer/motherboad/logic board that has Thunderbolt. Presently only motherboards/logic boards have Thunderbolt capability. There are no add-on cards/devices
Does the drive not have both ports? i.e USB and Thunderbolt?
Are you asking about formatting options?
What exactly is the issue?
The drive has only a Thunderbolt connection.
Take the disk out of its Thunderbolt enclosure and install it to a USB enclosure or dock
You could buy a PCIe expansion card for the PC. With Thunderbolt
Unfortunately there is no converter/adapter to go from Thunderbolt to USB 3.
Your only real choice is taking out the internal drive from the Thunderbolt enclosure and placing it in a USB enclosure.
Those devices connect to a computer with a Thunderbolt port. The do not convert a Thunderbolt accessory to another type of connection.
The hatter wrote:
The drive has only a Thunderbolt connection.
You bought a drive that has TB only connections, and DON'T have a computer with TB?
I assumed one of your computers must.
Simple solution: return the device and get an RMA (most TB only drives cost in the $80 range, sans-disk drive).
Or rebuild your PC based on one that does 🙂 something with M.2 and PCIe 3.0 in X99 or Z97 series.
The hatter wrote:
You bought a drive that has TB only connections, and DON'T have a computer with TB?
I assume the Mac Pro in the question does have a TB connection.
If it's a new one yes, old ones no. But there is a PCIe expansion card that offers TBolt, PC or Mac Pro (they say)
It can be connected via Ethernet, too, and accessed that way.
What PCLe card offers Thunderbolt? You can purchase an expansion chassis that has a Thunderbolt port to attached to a computer and has PCLe slots.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Sonnet%20Technologies/ECHOEXP3D/
Csound1 wrote:
If it's a new one yes, old ones no. But there is a PCIe expansion card that offers TBolt, PC or Mac Pro (they say)
Csound1 wrote:
If it's a new one yes, old ones no. But there is a PCIe expansion card that offers TBolt, PC or Mac Pro (they say)
Interesting I was under the impression TB was proprietary to Apple, and specs had not been published for other manufacturers to use, however, a little Googling shows HP makes one such card for Windows computers:
http://h30094.www3.hp.com/product.aspx?sku=10778991&mfg_part=F3F43AA&pagemode=ca
lllaass wrote:
What PCLe card offers Thunderbolt?
There are a few (Asus and one other I think) the Asus is much cheaper (£70) but has been 'temporarily' out of stock for a long time.
How to connect WD external Thunderbolt drive to MacPro
