Empty Thunderbolt disk enclosure with good boot-ability

Question

Empty Thunderbolt disk enclosure with good boot-ability

Which of Thunderbolt single-disk but not populated with disk from factory disk enclosures available currently on market provide good boot-ability of bootable OS X clones?

Thunderbolt seems to be more macOS-native than USB 3.0, this I got so from Carbon Copy Cloner Bombich which I can also comprehend.

We search for such to boot Mac from external disk hdd/ssd with clone made using CCC stored on that disk. So far USB 3.0 disk docking stations are used, in rare situations bootability however fails, working replacement is needed when in troubles. As soon as in a problematic situation it must be ensured that minimal possible number of blocks in chain questionable - ideally none.

Posted on Dec 16, 2017 10:49 AM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Dec 16, 2017 11:01 AM in response to Community User

Thunderbolt enclosures are pretty expensive, but the best ones you can find are at OWC. Seagate may still have their single-drive Thunderbolt sled - check at Amazon or eBay.

USB 3.0/3.1 is pretty much as fast as Thunderbolt 1 or 2 and much less expensive. With much searching you may find special adapters to convert the SATA connector on an SSD drive to Thunderbolt 2. Also, much less expensive is an adapter cable for SATA to USB 3.0.

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Answer 2

den.thed

Level 9

77,122 points

Dec 16, 2017 11:11 AM in response to Community User

Are you looking for 2.5" or 3.5" drive enclosures...?

Decent USB 3.0 enclosures like the OWC Elite Pro's are very reliable.

External Hard Drive Enclosures For 3.5-Inch Drives From OWC

OWC Mercury Elite Pro mini 2.5" Bus-Powered... at MacSales.com

Thunderbolt enclosures are way more expensive than USB 3.0 enclosures.

For 3.5" drives

OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual USB 3.1 Gen 1 &... at MacSales.com

OWC ThunderBay 4: Four-Bay Professional-Grade External Drive

For 2.5" drives

OWC ThunderBay 4 mini

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Answer 3

Dec 16, 2017 11:42 AM in response to Community User

Sorry for these gaps in elaboration. As of this minute backups here are on 2,5 and 3,5 inch disks. It must not be enclosure for 3,5 inch unless it will be easier to find such and presented capabilities are provided. If enclosure will be 2,5 it is going to be connected with 3,5 drives using short SATA and power cables. Maybe eSATA-cable - this still needs to be checked.

I did lot of search on online retailers, and not happy with finding therefore this thread here. From this it concludes also yes me is aware of fact Thunderbolt devices are not cheap. Reliability of infrastructure used in backup plan here has priority.

Yes so also 2-bays dock station from OWC (2-bay dock would be fine too) but encountered reports on Amazon it would fail relatively quickly, so 'm not sure. Me was also in contact with SATA-Thunderbolt adapter vendors to ask the question regarding boot-ability on macs, one negative answer got in other case no answer.

Thanks den.thed for proposals, will check them.

USB 3.0 and above enclosure is no option as have got already two. Goal is to have Thunderbolt-based connection to by bootable clones.

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Answer 4

den.thed

Level 9

77,122 points

Dec 16, 2017 5:34 PM in response to Community User

What USB 3.0 drive docking station do you currently have...?

I have cloned 2.5" drives in two different Sarbrent 3.0 enclosures and they are both boot reliably.

https://www.sabrent.com/product/EC-UK30/usb-3-0-to-2-5-inch-sata-hard-drive-encl osure/

https://www.sabrent.com/product/EC-3025/usb-3-0-to-2-5-inch-sata-hard-drive-encl osure/

Plus a clone on an external Seagate 1T 3.0 drive and it also boots reliably.

Seagate Backup Plus Slim 1 TB 2.5" USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive Black - STDR1000100 - Walmart.com

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/seagate-backup-plus-slim-1tb-external-usb-3-0-2-0-p ortable-hard-drive

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Answer 5

Dec 20, 2017 1:11 PM in response to Community User

Thank you very much for all your friendly and valued suggestions. Unfortunately no of suggested solutions meets presented expectations which appears to be aligned with results of my search made prior to raising this discussion.

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