G-Tech Thunderbolt Drive Experience?

Hi All,
Been looking for a fast reliable Thunderbolt hard drive to use as the Boot drive on a 21" mid 2011 iMac.
At the moment the top of my list is the G-Tech 4Tb, does anyone have any real-world experience of these drives?
Any comments gratefully received
Thank You.

In order to use any ThunderBolt devices successfully, they must be attached to a ThunderBolt port that was there when your Mac was manufactured.
The "plug-compatible" Mini Displayports on your Mac Pro (tower) 2012 model graphics card do not support ThunderBolt -- they provide only the Graphics subset, and cannot work with any other devices.
Your Mac does not have ThunderBolt -- and never will.

Similar Messages

Any experience with LaCie Thunderbolt drive?

LaCie's thunderbolt drive is getting reasonably good reviews on the Apple store -- http://store.apple.com/us/reviews/H7150ZM/A.
Good, save for the fan noise. It sounds like in some units, for some people, it's intolerable.
Anyone here have experience with it? I'm considering it as my primary video editing drive.

1 TB, 7200. Only have 3-weeks experience but no problems so far. Huge improvement in FCP X performance. Attributed most of my problems with lock-up, dropped frames, beachball, etc. to disk drives. FCP X simply won't work reliably with USB, FW400 on my system. FW800 (pure) is okay. TBolt is better choice. LaCie has 2 drives inside metal case - significantly more drive noise than my WD FW800. Not a major issue for me but could be problematic if you're trying to record naratives while editing.

Lacie 2big thunderbolt drive won't stay asleep

I am connecting a Lacie 2big Thunderbolt drive to a 15" Macbook Pro late 2013. When the computer sleeps, the drive spins down and then immediately spins back up again, on and on. The drive will not stay asleep, but constantly powers down and then back up, down and then back up, on and on. Ejecting the disk first has no effect. In an odd twist, if I connect the disk through the thunderbolt port on a lacie esata/thunderbolt adapter that has an esata drive also connected and powered on, then the disks will power down and stay down when the computer sleeps. If, however, there is not a powered on esata disk connected to the hub, then the lacie thunderbolt drive will not stay asleep.
I contacted Lacie technical support and they replied "The automatic shut-off feature is based off the drive detecting a current being maintained across the Thunderbolt port. If your computer, even when powered off, keeps a little current running through, the drive may not know it is supposed to shut off or on. "
Has anybody else had this problem or connected this drive and had it work properly?

I have two of the LaCie 2big Thunderbolt devices (I hesitate to call them 'drives' because each device has two disk drives in the enclosure) and when I put my MBP to sleep (which is seldom) the drives 'sleep' (no spinning sounds).
I'm not sure why your device would be "detecting a current being maintained across the Thunderbolt port" - unless that's something new in the Retina machines (which I don't have!).
If I were you, I would work your way up the tech chain of command at LaCie - I've owned their drives for decades and have always had good luck with their technical support, even if I had to notch it up a bit to get satisfactory results.
Good luck,
Clinton

External Thunderbolt Drives Eject Randomly and Name Changes to Blank

I Have two external thunderbolt drives connected to the trash can mac pro ... sometimes they eject randomly with one drive renaming itself to blank ...
Anyone ?

Aloha,
It was a long week. Here is an update.
Had the opportunity to go to the Apple Store yesterday and purchase new thunderbolt cables, and hooked everything up this morning.
I disconnected the Seagate drive from the sled, and brushed the contacts.
The Seagate hard drive did not boot on my iMac and Disk Utility could not see it. That said, when booted to my wife's iMac, Disk Utility could see the drive, but I could not verify or repair it. The data from my wife's iMac is attached.
Also, I tried to run Data Rescue 4. It would not see the drive. I do have Disk Warrior, if that is a reasonable option to try.
Additionally, the LaCie (now connected to my iMac with a new thunderbolt cable) has not yet been ejected. The computer has gone to sleep several times and I have awakened it.
I very much appreciate your thoughts and time, And I look forward to your thoughts, To include any experience in getting the data off of the Seagate. It contains seven years worth of photographs, which I would hate to lose. I also got the message about redundant backups. There may be some of the backup in Crash Plan.
Mahalo nui loa
WRL

IMac crashes when powering off external Thunderbolt drive

Hi,
I have an external LaCie d2 USB 3.0 drive that is connect to my iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011, 3,1 GHz Intel Core i5, 12 GB RAM) through Thunderbolt. Whenever I power off the drive by pushing the power button (yes I did verify: all partitions have been ejected correctly before in the Finder and verified in Disk Utility), the iMac crashes. It starts up again, displays a screen stating the computer was not shut down properly and then immediately restarts. After that it boots up fine.
This started occurring after having installed 10.10.2 Beta. I did file a report with Apple. As this was beta software I decided to completely reinstall the iMac from scratch (a complete fresh install, just imported my documents manually after) and everything was working fine again (10.10.1). Boom, after having updated 10.10.2 yesterday the problem is back.
I did manage to find a workaround: when I connect the drive through a UBS cable it works fine. Conclusion: this seems to be caused by a Thunderbolt related update in 10.10.2.
Question: is any one else with an external Thunderbolt drive experiencing this and has perhaps found a fix?
Thanks,
Kurt
Wed Jan 28 16:30:36 2015
*** Panic Report ***
panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff800341a46e): Kernel trap at 0xffffff80038e9774, type 14=page fault, registers:
CR0: 0x000000008001003b, CR2: 0x0000000000000000, CR3: 0x00000000066ee000, CR4: 0x00000000000626e0
RAX: 0x0000000000070001, RBX: 0xffffff8036919c00, RCX: 0x8883c87675b70011, RDX: 0xffffff81541e9088
RSP: 0xffffff817bb0be90, RBP: 0xffffff817bb0be90, RSI: 0xffffff81541e9068, RDI: 0x0000000000000000
R8: 0x0000000000987482, R9: 0xffffff8003a95740, R10: 0x000017d7912af429, R11: 0x000017d790927fa7
R12: 0xffffff817bb0bf50, R13: 0xffffff7f85328044, R14: 0xffffff7f8533e978, R15: 0xffffff8003ad66c0
RFL: 0x0000000000010202, RIP: 0xffffff80038e9774, CS: 0x0000000000000008, SS: 0x0000000000000010
Fault CR2: 0x0000000000000000, Error code: 0x0000000000000000, Fault CPU: 0x0
Backtrace (CPU 0), Frame : Return Address
0xffffff817bb0bb40 : 0xffffff800332fe41
0xffffff817bb0bbc0 : 0xffffff800341a46e
0xffffff817bb0bd80 : 0xffffff8003436683
0xffffff817bb0bda0 : 0xffffff80038e9774
0xffffff817bb0be90 : 0xffffff7f85328267
0xffffff817bb0beb0 : 0xffffff7f8532bad7
0xffffff817bb0bee0 : 0xffffff7f853281ed
0xffffff817bb0bf00 : 0xffffff80033624f9
0xffffff817bb0bfb0 : 0xffffff8003414dd7
      Kernel Extensions in backtrace:
         com.apple.driver.AppleAHCIPort(3.1)[93E1D2EC-50EE-3340-9676-0EA1E0B1AD45]@0xfff fff7f85324000->0xffffff7f8533efff
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIFamily(2.7.5)[DAF0353B-16D5-385A-A0F3-FD5CF3BA07F2]@0xfff fff7f84706000
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.9)[56AD16B5-4F29-3F74-93E7-D492B3966DE2]@0xffffff 7f83b24000
BSD process name corresponding to current thread: kernel_task
Mac OS version:
14C109
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 14.1.0: Mon Dec 22 23:10:38 PST 2014; root:xnu-2782.10.72~2/RELEASE_X86_64
Kernel UUID: DCF5C2D5-16AE-37F5-B2BE-ED127048DFF5
Kernel slide:     0x0000000003000000
Kernel text base: 0xffffff8003200000
__HIB text base: 0xffffff8003100000
System model name: iMac12,2

Same issue:
- 4TB LaCie d2 Thunderbolt & USB3.0 drive (model # 9000303)
- iMac (27’’ mid-2011), Thunderbolt firmware version 25,1 and Port Micro firmware version 2.1.3 (as seen in System Information)
- OS X Yosemite 10.10.2
Unmounting LaCie d2 disk partitions is OK: the drive spins down and goes to sleep without problem. However when I take the power off (with the small switch at the rear of the unit), the iMac experiences a kernel panic.
This issue did not occur with Yosemite 10.10.1, and does not occur either with another LaCie drive (8TB LaCie 2big Thunderbolt drive, model # 9000246). So the issue is specific to OS X 10.10.2, and only certain models of drive(s).
We need a fix from Apple - the Operating System should be rock-solid in any circumstances.
Curiously, OS X does not write a kernel panic log with every occurrence. It’s only after the 3rd or 4th kernel panic that it would actually produce this log:
===============
Sat Jan 31 15:57:30 2015
*** Panic Report ***
panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff802241a46e): Kernel trap at 0xffffff80228e9774, type 14=page fault, registers:
CR0: 0x000000008001003b, CR2: 0x0000000000000000, CR3: 0x000000002565b000, CR4: 0x00000000000626e0
RAX: 0x0000000000070001, RBX: 0xffffff804e6e9000, RCX: 0xcb694f8798fc00ec, RDX: 0xffffff81e115d088
RSP: 0xffffff820d1f3e90, RBP: 0xffffff820d1f3e90, RSI: 0xffffff81e115d068, RDI: 0x0000000000000000
R8: 0x0000000000987939, R9: 0xffffff81e115d068, R10: 0x0000031b3cf5cc6a, R11: 0x0000031b3c5d5331
R12: 0xffffff820d1f3f50, R13: 0xffffff7fa4295044, R14: 0xffffff7fa42ab978, R15: 0xffffff8022ad66c0
RFL: 0x0000000000010202, RIP: 0xffffff80228e9774, CS: 0x0000000000000008, SS: 0x0000000000000010
Fault CR2: 0x0000000000000000, Error code: 0x0000000000000000, Fault CPU: 0x0
Backtrace (CPU 0), Frame : Return Address
0xffffff820d1f3b40 : 0xffffff802232fe41
0xffffff820d1f3bc0 : 0xffffff802241a46e
0xffffff820d1f3d80 : 0xffffff8022436683
0xffffff820d1f3da0 : 0xffffff80228e9774
0xffffff820d1f3e90 : 0xffffff7fa4295267
0xffffff820d1f3eb0 : 0xffffff7fa4298ad7
0xffffff820d1f3ee0 : 0xffffff7fa42951ed
0xffffff820d1f3f00 : 0xffffff80223624f9
0xffffff820d1f3fb0 : 0xffffff8022414dd7
      Kernel Extensions in backtrace:
         com.apple.driver.AppleAHCIPort(3.1)[93E1D2EC-50EE-3340-9676-0EA1E0B1AD45]@0xfff fff7fa4291000->0xffffff7fa42abfff
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIFamily(2.7.5)[DAF0353B-16D5-385A-A0F3-FD5CF3BA07F2]@0xfff fff7fa365a000
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.9)[56AD16B5-4F29-3F74-93E7-D492B3966DE2]@0xffffff 7fa2b24000
BSD process name corresponding to current thread: kernel_task
Mac OS version:
14C109
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 14.1.0: Mon Dec 22 23:10:38 PST 2014; root:xnu-2782.10.72~2/RELEASE_X86_64
Kernel UUID: DCF5C2D5-16AE-37F5-B2BE-ED127048DFF5
Kernel slide:     0x0000000022000000
Kernel text base: 0xffffff8022200000
__HIB text base: 0xffffff8022100000
System model name: iMac12,2 (Mac-942B59F58194171B)

Booting permanently from external (USB 3 or Thunderbolt) drive?

I'm interested in upgrading my 2010 iMac to one of the new 2012 models, specifically for their USB 3 and Thunderbolt port offerings.
My question is; if I have an external USB 3 or Thunderbolt drive enclosure with an SSD, can I *safely and reliably* boot from this external drive for as long as I own the iMac (ie, never use the 1 TB internal HDD that comes with the iMac)? I'm not interested in Fusion Drive, as I'd rather pay that $250 toward a speedier SSD and external drive that I can own and freely move among different machines.
But I've read different accounts in other forums about the reliability of using USB as your primary external boot source, namely since it relies on the CPU and you'll get slightly diminsihed performance and/or errors over time. Maybe Thunderbolt is the way to go? Any advice on this?
I see posts like this one (http://fortysomethinggeek.blogspot.ca/2012/10/blacx-5g-usb-30-update-fastest-usb -30.html) and it gives me hope, but I don't want to have to deal with random crashes attributable solely to my use of an external drive as my primary boot source. Is anyone else using this kind of external-only setup, and can you please let me know your thoughts and experiences thus far?
Thanks!

First and foremost: Are you using OPTION to try to select the USB-DVD to boot from?
The MacBook Air has to, and has to place a set of Apple supplied drivers on USB I think or has USB DVD support.
http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp
one feature Boot Camp Assistant has been broken never worked part of 10.6.6, to download drivers to put on CD/USB. So that is 5 months status: broken and unacknowledged officially.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4407
A nice normal walk-thru install, what I think most expect -
http://www.simplehelp.net/2009/01/15/using-boot-camp-to-install-windows-7-on-you r-mac-the-complete-walkthrough/

Boot windows 7 from an external ssd/thunderbolt drive

I have an iMac 27", Mid 2011, 3.4 Ghz i7 Quad core with a 2TB internal HDD OSX 10.7.5 and a MacBook Air 2014 - Mavericks.
I want to create either a 64Gb USB 3 Flash stick or, if necessary (as I would have to buy it) an external thunderbolt drive to run Windows 7 rather than partition my internal hard drive on either computer.
Basically I want to create a totaly portable windows boot drive to run windows 7 and some software I need for work (I just really hate using my slow, POS, work laptop) to run on either mac as I need it
Is this possible?
Will bootcamp recognise either of these types of drives to switch between OSX and Windows - I know USB drives are not recognised?
Can someone point me in the right direction on idiot proof instructions on how to create this?
Thanks for your help in advance

That is true, and may indeed work. You'll likely know during the installation of Windows if it allows you to select a partition on an external drive to install it to.
I'd be very interested in hearing your results.

Cinema Display hookup via a Thunderbolt drive

I believe it's possible to run a Cinema Display from my MBP via a Thunderbolt drive, going from the MBp to the TB and then, via a Mini-display to DVI cable, into the display.
I've hooked it up this way with the display also plugged into its power supply and usb'd into the MBP: nothing
When I click 'Find displays' I hear activity in the thunderbolt drive (a Lacie 2big) but that's about it. Nothing shows on the Cinema Display.
I'm doing somethin wrong probably, a familiar scene.
Anyone done this successfully?
(I'm running 10.7.3)

A dvi display with a resolution greater than 1920 x 1200 requires a dual link dvi adapter. I assume you are using a single link dvi adaper (or cable).

Can I create a windows 7 partition on a 1TB thunderbolt drive to use with my Macbook Pro?

I have a new Retina Display Macbook Pro with a 250gb SSD Drive that is quickly running out of space. My work recently gave me a new project to do some programming that can only be done in a Windows environment. With the price of Thunderbolt drives coming down I was wondering if I could build and boot to a Windows 7 partition on the Thunderbolt Drive and use that when I need to run Windows applications. Also what would the speeds be like? Would I be able to run apps like Photoshop and Illustrator? Also if that works would I be capable of creating a partition for my kids to install their games on?

Redgoat,
(1) USB 3.0/2.0 Drive will boot a windows 7 installation, (hold down option when you boot)
* I am not yet awake if thunderbolt drives will be detected by the macbook pro for booting purposes. I cannot see why not
(2) if you are concerned about speeds you can purchase a SSD USB 3.0 drive but a standard hard drive is quite reasonable with a USB 3.0 connection
and lastly MacBook Pro Retina are mean gaming notebooks and bootcamp is the best way to do windows gaming on it.

My G RAID thunderbolt drive mounted just fine onto my iMac this morning. And now it will not mount despite my various efforts. I don't know what else to do. Can someone help me with this?

My G RAID thunderbolt drive mounted just fine onto my iMac this morning. I copied some files from another drive onto the RAID drive, ejected it, and worked on another project for a few hours. When I went to mount the RAID drive again so I could work on the project associated with the drive (I'm a freelance video editor) it would not mount. I've tried everything. It boots up perfectly fine, the drive seems to have no hardware problems. It shows up on Disk Utility and in System Information but is listed as not mounted. I've verified it on Disk Utility and it tells me everything with the drive is fine. I've tried all the various restarting my iMac, ejecting and reconnecting the drive, shutting down the whole system and starting it back up, relaunching Finder, and nothing works. Starting to panic because this is a client's drive, I have no idea what the issue is, it worked perfectly fine only hours ago, nothing happened to it in the meantime, and I fear continuously connecting and ejecting it because I don't know what the state is with the data and if this is only going to further aggravate the problem. I've been up and down Apple and g-raid forums and can't get a straight answer anywhere. I need to know that the data is safe, the drive is undamaged, and how to get it to mount on my iMac. Can anyone out there help me with this??

welcome to the BT community forum where customers help customers and only BT employees are the forum mods
in order for the forum members to help please can you post the adsl stats from your router you may need to 'show detail' to get all stats (if hub enter 192.168.1.254 in your browser and navigate to adsl or if HH4/5 then go to troubleshooting then logs and you are looking for 2 line together when hub last connected to internet and they will show your connection speed and noise margin or if netgear enter 192.168.0.1). Then run btspeedtester (MAC users may have problems). when first test completes then run diagnostic test and post the results ( do not reset the router).
Have you tried the quiet line test? - dial 17070 option 2 - should hear nothing - best done with a corded phone. if cordless phone you may hear a 'dull hum' which is normal
Someone may then be able to offer help/assistance/suggestions to your problem
If you like a post, or want to say thanks for a helpful answer, please click on the Ratings star on the left-hand side of the post.
If someone answers your question correctly please let other members know by clicking on ’Mark as Accepted Solution’.

I have 2 MacBooks at home that back-up to a Time Capsule. I'd like to buy an external Thunderbolt drive at work to have as an additional back-up. Will Time-Machine support autobackups to 2 different devices?

I have 2 MacBooks (1 Air and 1 Pro) at home that back-up to a Time Capsule. I'd like to buy an external Thunderbolt drive at work to have as an additional back-up (so that were there to be a fire/water damage/etc) I would not lose both the computer and the backup.
Will Time-Machine support autobackups to 2 different devices?
I'd like for it to be able to backup to an external Thunderbolt drive attached to my thunderbolt display when I dock the MacBook Air to it.
Does anyone know if this will occur automatically, or if I will have to manually select backup disk?
thanks

Yes, with Mountain Lion you can do this, but I will leave the explanation to Apple Support Communities contributor Pondini:
34. "Rotating" Time Machine backup disks

Can I use bootcamp and install Windows 7 on an external Thunderbolt drive

Hello,
I want to know if it is possible to install windows 7 on a thunderbolt external hard. I have a limited space on my harddrive and want to have windows 7 operate and store data on the thunderbolt drive.
Anyone know if this works or if its possible.
Thanks

i use a thunderbolt ssd for my boot disc and it appears that bootcamp appears to start ok. in disk utility i can partition the drive successfully so i would be really interested if this would work. personally i cant see any problems.
are you thinking about formating the drive and installing windows without bootcamp? that will definately not work!
however with bootcamp you stand a very good chance of achieving your wish. please keep us posted if you decide to do this.
i know of one way that can absolutely do it, but it means installing osx on your ext. first. i have vmware on my ext. running win 8.1 works seamlessly.
i run bootcamp from my internal hdd with win 7.

Is it possible to daisy chain a thunderbolt drive between 2 imacs?

is it possible to daisy chain a thunderbolt drive between 2 imacs?

You can connect two thunderbolt harddrives to one computer, but you cannot connect two computers to one harddrive. That would result in a data signal conflict.
Hope this helps

What is the file name of the thunderbolt driver?

Does anybody know the file name of the thunderbolt driver that will allow me to access a thunderbolt drive from Windows? The BIOS see's the Promise controller/drive, but device manager doesn't see it. The boot camp support files from Apple are not installing automatically - it fails with no specific error except try again. I'd like to try and load the thunderbolt driver manually. Does anybody know the file name and folder this driver would be in?
Thanks.
Stephen
27" iMac purchased from Apple in August 2013
32GB RAM
OS X 10.8.5
Promise R6 12TB
Windows 7 Pro

scroll down they have a special faq for thunderbolt in windows
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5219
found using this google search if you want other sources
https://www.google.dk/search?client=opera&q=name+of+the+mac+thunberbold+driver+i n+windows&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8#q=thunderbolt+driver+in+windows&spell =1

I've become locked out of my time machine back up--how do I override or re-format the thunderbolt drive?

How do I re-format thunderbolt drive used as time machine backup? Password is not working and I just need to do a new back up and am willing to reformat the drive but can't get past password dialog box.

Hi Oneontarider,
To reformat your external hard drive you would erase it using Disk Utility. See this article for directions -
Disk Utility 12.x: Erase a disk, CD, or DVD
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5849
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Brett L

G-Tech Thunderbolt Drive Experience?

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