External SSD on Late-2013 27" iMac

[GreenLimeCrush]

I have a late-2013 27" iMac and was hoping to improve its performance by installing macOS Catalina on an external SSD drive and connecting it via Thunderbolt. I bought:

1. Samsung 500GB X5 Thunderbolt 3 Portable SSD
   • includes Thunderbolt 3 (40Gbps) USB-C Cable) - this cable isn't compatible with a 2013 iMac
2. Apple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter
3. Cable Matters [Intel Certified] Thunderbolt Cable (Thunderbolt 2 Cable) in Black 3.3 ft / 1m

I understand this late-2013 iMac has Thunderbolt 1 ports, but thought the parts above would be backward compatible and when I plugged it it in would see the drive appear in Finder. Unfortunately, it does not appear.

I'm not sure where I've gone wrong.
Any advice or suggestion?

 

[PaulD-UK]

The Apple TB3><TB2 connector doesn't pass power through, and so a bus-powered external SSD like the X5 isn't receiving any power.

Quote:
"This adapter is bidirectional, which means you can use it to connect Thunderbolt 3 devices to a Mac that has a Thunderbolt or Thunderbolt 2 port. In that case... ,the device using Thunderbolt 3 must provide its own power."

About the Apple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter – Apple Support (UK)

Connect a Mac that has a Thunderbolt 3 port to a device that uses a Thunderbolt or Thunderbolt 2 cable.

support.apple.com

I use a TB3 external dock to provide power to external devices.

 

[4sallypat]

On my 2013 iMacs, I use an external TB drive from La Cie and Transcend.

My wife uses the La Cie TB2 drive with SSD instead of the spinning drive that it came with. Hers is a 500GB EVO SSD replacing the 2TB spinning drive.

On my iMac I have the Transcend TB drive with 256GB SSD that comes natively and we both boot from the external TB SSD that really moves quickly, boots 3x faster and no more spinning beach balls...

BTW we still use the internal spinning 1TB drive for storage / archives / music / photos, etc.....

My iMac with TB SSD.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

There's no "easy fix" for you because you BOUGHT THE WRONG DRIVE.
The X5 is (for all practical purposes) unusable on your iMac (because of the bus power issue, as mentioned by others).
You -could- buy a thunderbolt 3 dock, and see if that works, but they are expensive.

What you SHOULD HAVE BOUGHT was a USB3 external SSD.
That is VERY USABLE, and will get the job done right with a minimum of fuss and muss.

So either return the X5, or "set it aside" until the day comes when you have a newer Mac with thunderbolt3 ports (that would be at least a 2017 or 2019 iMac).

Then, get a USB3 SSD -- either one that's "put together and ready to go", or buy a bare SSD and a USB3 enclosure and "put it together yourself" (kids can do this).

Then use disk utility to erase the SSD.
Use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to clone the contents of the internal drive to the SSD.
Then, set the SSD to be the new boot drive.
Actually, not much to it (even I could do it!)

 

[GreenLimeCrush]

On my 2013 iMacs, I use an external TB drive from La Cie and Transcend.

My wife uses the La Cie TB2 drive with SSD instead of the spinning drive that it came with. Hers is a 500GB EVO SSD replacing the 2TB spinning drive.

On my iMac I have the Transcend TB drive with 256GB SSD that comes natively and we both boot from the external TB SSD that really moves quickly, boots 3x faster and no more spinning beach balls...

BTW we still use the internal spinning 1TB drive for storage / archives / music / photos, etc.....

My iMac with TB SSD.
View attachment 934364

Is a Thunderbolt 2 SSD backward compatible with the late-2013 iMac’s Thunderbolt 1 port?

 

[GreenLimeCrush]

OP:

There's no "easy fix" for you because you BOUGHT THE WRONG DRIVE.
The X5 is (for all practical purposes) unusable on your iMac (because of the bus power issue, as mentioned by others).
You -could- buy a thunderbolt 3 dock, and see if that works, but they are expensive.

What you SHOULD HAVE BOUGHT was a USB3 external SSD.
That is VERY USABLE, and will get the job done right with a minimum of fuss and muss.

So either return the X5, or "set it aside" until the day comes when you have a newer Mac with thunderbolt3 ports (that would be at least a 2017 or 2019 iMac).

Then, get a USB3 SSD -- either one that's "put together and ready to go", or buy a bare SSD and a USB3 enclosure and "put it together yourself" (kids can do this).

Then use disk utility to erase the SSD.
Use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to clone the contents of the internal drive to the SSD.
Then, set the SSD to be the new boot drive.
Actually, not much to it (even I could do it!)

Thanks. Great ideas. Luckily I can still return the drive.

 

[4sallypat]

Is a Thunderbolt 2 SSD backward compatible with the late-2013 iMac’s Thunderbolt 1 port?

Yes both the LaCie TB2 and Transcend TB2 are both directly compatible with TB1 ports.
Both includes a TB cable so it's very easy to boot from an external drive.
The only extra work was that the LaCie comes with a spinning drive so I had to open it up and replace it with a SATA SSD drive.
The Transcend TB2 drive comes standard with a SSD (128, 256 or 512GB) so it's a plug and play external drive.

Now that we boot from the external SSD, our iMac's internal spinning drive is used as an archive storage drive so we don't lose the 1TB storage...

 

[GreenLimeCrush]

Yes both the LaCie TB2 and Transcend TB2 are both directly compatible with TB1 ports.
Both includes a TB cable so it's very easy to boot from an external drive.
The only extra work was that the LaCie comes with a spinning drive so I had to open it up and replace it with a SATA SSD drive.
The Transcend TB2 drive comes standard with a SSD (128, 256 or 512GB) so it's a plug and play external drive.

Now that we boot from the external SSD, our iMac's internal spinning drive is used as an archive storage drive so we don't lose the 1TB storage...

Thanks for the advice. I just ordered the Transcend TB2 drive (512gb). I’ll let you know how it goes.

 

[GreenLimeCrush]

On my 2013 iMacs, I use an external TB drive from La Cie and Transcend.

My wife uses the La Cie TB2 drive with SSD instead of the spinning drive that it came with. Hers is a 500GB EVO SSD replacing the 2TB spinning drive.

On my iMac I have the Transcend TB drive with 256GB SSD that comes natively and we both boot from the external TB SSD that really moves quickly, boots 3x faster and no more spinning beach balls...

BTW we still use the internal spinning 1TB drive for storage / archives / music / photos, etc.....

My iMac with TB SSD.
View attachment 934364

I took your advice and bought a Transcend 512GB Thunderbolt drive...wow!!! What a difference...it feels like a new machine!!! No more “beach balling”!!!!

Thanks again.

Transcend 512GB Thunderbolt SSD SJM500 for MAC (TS512GSJM500)

 

[4sallypat]

I took your advice and bought a Transcend 512GB Thunderbolt drive...wow!!! What a difference...it feels like a new machine!!! No more “beach balling”!!!!

Thanks again.

Transcend 512GB Thunderbolt SSD SJM500 for MAC (TS512GSJM500)

Yes, the entire computing experience is transformed using the external Thunderbolt drive.

My wife has no idea that her iMac is running off the TB SSD drive - all she says is that there is no longer any waiting for programs and web pages to open.