Can I use an external Thunderbolt Display connected drive as my "content" drive?

I'm looking into updating my computer, and am considering a Retina MBP and a Thunderbolt display. What I want to know, is given that the rMBP is currently so limited in it's SSD capacity (at the low end), could I have all my music/photo/movie libraries stored on a big Thunderbolt drive that is plugged into the Thunderbolt Display? I realize that I'm only going to have access to these libraries while plugged in to the display, but I've got iTune Match running, so as far as music is concerned it's not an issue. I'm wondering if there are other ways that I can do the same thing with wireless network drives, Time Capsule, etc.? I'm not familiar with using external drives to do this. Until now, I've always preferred to have everything on one machine and back up to a Time Capsule. I'm looking for what people think is the best solution. Thanks.

I don't have a Thunderbolt RAID set-up yet but, yes, you could do what you're asking. I already store all my photos and most of my iTunes library on FireWire 800 drives. A Thunderbolt RAID would be just perfect (I have my eye on a few but just haven't made up my mind on whether to wait a year or so when the price goes down and continue to use my FW drives).
I'm not crazy about Retina display models right now. The GPU just doesn't seem to be able to handle all that's thrown at it, there are no third-party apps that I use that are Retina-ready, and, especially when you add the 768GB flash storage and 16GB of RAM, it's just too expensive. If you do get the RMBP, I suspect that you'll be using the ATD more than the 15" display - a friend of mine who plunked down the $4K+ for the full-featured RMBP calls it a 'piece of crap' and is looking for a buyer.
I have 3 FW800 drives that I use - a 1TB, a 2TB and an old 500GB that came out of my MBP. I'll soon be getting a 4TB RAID that's also FW800 (at less than half the price of a similar Thunderbolt model). But if you can afford the Thunderbolt external drives, go for it!
I also use my 2TB for my Time Machine backups. I will have two TM backups once I get my new 4TB.
Call back with any questions...
Clinton

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http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1948?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
Visit that link. It seems you should be able to but you would have to format the drive and install the operating system to it.
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<http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC007LL/A>

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Can you use any external display with a macbook?

hi all,
I was just wondering, can you use any external display with a macbook? (i.e. gateway, and dell displays?)

To original poster:
Yes.
Provided you have the appropriate ports and cables, that is. Some monitors do not have all vga, dvi-i, dvi-d, hdmi, etc. ports, and it can be misleading that all those technologies appear to be compatible via conversion cables (they aren't all meant to be compatible, so look it up on the internet before buying).
Cheers,
Sylvain
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IMac 27" with Thunderbolt Display connected, Boot Camp Problem

Hi everyone.
Let me start off by saying that I'm using a late 2012 iMac 27", 3.4 GHz i7, 680MX, 32 GB RAM, 1 TB Fusion, with a Thunderbolt Display connected.
I installed Windows 8 via Boot Camp, and it works just fine. Here comes my problem:
I have dual screens and I play Minecraft. Minecraft's full screen is basically crap, and therefore I disabled the iMac display. I used Windows-button+P to use only the secondary display. This turns the iMac display off entirely, and leaves the Thunderbolt Display on. Note: This is not possible in Mac OS X. Then I played a little Minecraft. When I was done, i wanted the main iMac display to come on again. I then used Windows-button+P again, to turn both displays on. Then bam, totally looked like the iMac display was broken. See the images below, to see how it looks:
1) http://cl.ly/image/1p2e3c1Z1z1C
2) http://cl.ly/image/2g0n1M1Y0t0g
3) http://cl.ly/image/2Q2P1c1J220d
4) http://cl.ly/image/113b3K2O1Z43
5) http://cl.ly/image/1q2v1s1n3w1f
This image-retention-like stuff stays there, even if I reboot into Mac OS X, and then it eventually disappears. I can reproduce this, by doing the same thing again, (windows-button+p) but only in Windows, because that you cannot turn of the main display in Mac OS X. Maybe this is the reason why you can't?
Anyone can tell me what I can do? I guess I could try reinstalling, but it seems more like a hardware issue, than a software issue.
Thank you for your time, and thanks in advance.
Another note: I'll try doing the opposite, and see if it happens on the Thunderbolt Display as well. (Windows-button+P, and then only using the main display)
//ifraaank

Ok, I am marking this as "answered", as I have solved it myself, while I still have no clue what lead to the problem in the first place.
I've been on the phone with Apple Care today, and they were as clueless as I was and had never heard of this before.
After we tried the usual stuff (unplugging all wires, PRAM Reset, SMC Reset), to no avail, I was told it could well be a hardware problem and that I should have the iMac examined at the Genius Bar, so an appointment was made.
I'll cancel that one though, as I was able to cure it by myself for now (and carrying around a 27" iMac in Munich's busy downtown pedestrian zone is not really fun).
This is what I did (and I'm so happy I tried):
In Display Settings, I switched the external display back to landscape mode and selected "mirror displays".
Then I rebooted, and voilà, the problem was gone (Apple logo on white background was showing).
I switched it back to 90 degrees rotation and no mirroring, and it's still all ok.
I booted Windows 7 in Bootcamp, then back to Snow Leopard, and it's all still fine.
I can still only wonder what messed this up in the first place, but for now I'm happy.

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Holler if you need specifics on how to do each. This was just an executive summary.

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You need to install more RAM, not an additonal hard drive.
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 Cheers, Tom

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Can I use an external Thunderbolt Display connected drive as my "content" drive?

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