Early iMac vs New external drive

[Clave]

I have a 2013 iMac and a Rocket XTRM SSD external drive which I want for Time Machine.
There's no Thunderbolt 3 port, so I bought a standard USB-Thunderbolt 3 adapter - but no go.
"This must be connected to a Thunderbolt port"
Am I going down a never ending rabbit hole here? trying to find adapters etc?
I mean there are actual supposed 'Thunderbolt' ports on the back, but with a weird socket?
Keep looking, or just stash the drive until I get a new iMac?

 

[velocityg4]

You can try Apple's Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3 adapter. But as it's just Time Machine. I'd get a cheaper USB SSD. There are cheaper 3.1/3.2 Gen 2 NVMe models for future use. That will just be limited to 3.0/3.1 Gen 1/3.2 Gen 1 speeds for the time being. But still have higher IOPS than an SATA variant.

 

[wardie]

As it is Time Machine, I’d get yourself a HDD and save a load of cash for a background activity that - I certainly - don’t care how fast it is.

 

[Juicy Box]

I have a 2013 iMac and a Rocket XTRM SSD external drive which I want for Time Machine.
There's no Thunderbolt 3 port, so I bought a standard USB-Thunderbolt 3 adapter - but no go.

There is no power over the bus when using the bidirectional adapter.

It is an easy fix by using a TB3 dock.

Like this:
iMac > TB2 cable > Bidirectional adapter > TB3 cable > TB3 dock > TB3 SSD

I have this current set up for my boot drive on my Late 2012 iMac.

But...

If you just intend on using this SSD for just Time Machine, I would consider other options as the investment to get it working would probably not be worth to for most people.

Not sure what you are currently booting from, but if it is your internal drive, it might be faster to use the external SSD that you just got as your boot drive and use the internal drive as a bootable back up or for Time Machine.

 

[Clave]

As it is Time Machine, I’d get yourself a HDD and save a load of cash for a background activity that - I certainly - don’t care how fast it is.

Yeah, I already have that setup, but it keeps randomly un-mounting itself - I just can't have that level of unavailability - Time Machine is crucial every hour of every day.

 

[Juicy Box]

Yeah, I already have that setup, but it keeps randomly un-mounting itself - I just can't have that level of unavailability - Time Machine is crucial every hour of every day.

I don't think that has anything to do with the set up, but probably the specific equipment being used.

 

[Fishrrman]

" I just can't have that level of unavailability - Time Machine is crucial every hour of every day."

I've never used time machine, EVER.
And still have ALL of my data, going back to 1985.

 

[wardie]

Yeah, I already have that setup, but it keeps randomly un-mounting itself - I just can't have that level of unavailability - Time Machine is crucial every hour of every day.

As others said above that’s not normal I would check out the specific HDD/enclosure it sounds faulty. I doubt whether it unmounting is anything to do with the fact you’re using it for Time Machine or not.
Everyone’s appetite for backup risk varies, but personally I don’t just rely on TM. It’s handy as it keeps a time series nicely presented and frequent backups, but its not foolproof. I keep both a TM backup and a separate bootable clone backup of my machines via CCC (&offsite cold copy). Occasionally the TM backups get corrupted and need rebuilding, or the disks seem to fill to a point TM can’t deal with it anymore and need recreating. Programs like CCC also have a feature to keep prior versions of backups and can be scheduled regularly incremental.

 

[Clave]

Yeah, there's a lot of weird going on. The drive is a pretty generic WD, in a normal enclosure connected by USB. This morning it was fine with the nice green Time Machine icon, but starting back up in the evening, it has an orange generic drive icon... just why?

Does CCC backup every hour by the way? I don't know much about it...