I have a 5,1 Mac Pro and my wife has a newer mb air with thunderbolt. We would like to have one hard drive to connect to between the two computers to use for backups and media storage. My Mac Pro is stock (FireWire 800 is the fastest data transfer it has) and her mb air has thunderbolt. What is the best solution for this situation?
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External hard drive solution when using a 5,1 Mac Pro and 2013 Mb air?
- Thread starter jimmyducati
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You can buy an Apple Thunderbolt to FW800 adapter for the MacBook Air and use a FW800 drive for both Macs, but makes more economical sense to just buy a USB3.0 card for your Mac Pro and buy a USB3 drive for use with both. A current USB3.0 drive be faster than a FW800 one, some years that no one makes new FW800 drives.
This thread have everything you need to know about USB3 cards and Mac Pro: Mac Pro USB 3.x PCIe Cards
This thread have everything you need to know about USB3 cards and Mac Pro: Mac Pro USB 3.x PCIe Cards
I'd say a better investment would be a PCIe USB 3.0 card and buy a USB 3.0 hard drive. Costs about the same as the firewire adapter and adds functionality to your Mac. Also means the hard drive will likely be cheaper and faster.