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I ordered a Seagate t-bolt connector.

Reason and Resolution for disconnect of Samsung 512GB SSD

I tested Samsung 830 series 512GB SSD with Seagate TB desktop and Seagate portable TB adapter. With Seagate portable TB adapter you get always disconnects when the cable, adapter etc gets hot.

I did some measurements with scope on the 5VDC supply line of the SSD, it show a voltage drop from 5VDC down to 1VDC, exactly when the SSD disconnects and the error messages are shown.

IMG_0065.jpg


I have 2 solutions to overcome this issue, one is not to recommend, the other looks like this

P1010089crop.jpg


As this is a rather complicated subject and the explanation is a couple of pages long, I have all detailed info with pictures on my blog.

http://wolfgangtechnology.blogspot.co.at/2012/06/mac-with-seagate-thunderbolt-adapter.html

I hope I do not violate any rules on this board with displaying the link to my blog.

Happy reading, hope it works for everyone. Send me some feedback for errors, missing information or corrections.

I would appreciate if someone knows where I could find TB-connectors male and female without electronics and without cable to build a TB-breakout connector for measurements.

regards, Wolfgang
 
^ you rule!!

I honestly love hackers like you that can figure that crap put and fix it. That's honestly awesome.
 
wolfgang123usa said:
I tested Samsung 830 series 512GB SSD with Seagate TB desktop and Seagate portable TB adapter. With Seagate portable TB adapter you get always disconnects when the cable, adapter etc gets hot.

I did some measurements with scope on the 5VDC supply line of the SSD, it show a voltage drop from 5VDC down to 1VDC, exactly when the SSD disconnects and the error messages are shown.

Image

I have 2 solutions to overcome this issue, one is not to recommend, the other looks like this

Image

As this is a rather complicated subject and the explanation is a couple of pages long, I have all detailed info with pictures on my blog.

http://wolfgangtechnology.blogspot.co.at/2012/06/mac-with-seagate-thunderbolt-adapter.html

I hope I do not violate any rules on this board with displaying the link to my blog.

Happy reading, hope it works for everyone. Send me some feedback for errors, missing information or corrections.

I would appreciate if someone knows where I could find TB-connectors male and female without electronics and without cable to build a TB-breakout connector for measurements.

regards, Wolfgang
Click to expand...

nice work.

I was able to make the connection much more stable using a fan and a lacie lbd with a better psu.

setup is mac mini- lacie t-bolt little big disk- seagate t-bolt all on top of a laptop cooler fan.
 
I find it interesting you were using the Elgato Thunderbolt Cable and still got disconnects. I was unable to replicate disconnects with the Elgato cable.
 
magnet disconnecting the drive?

I was wondering if anybody else had this particular problem. I bought the BackPack aluminum shelf for my iMac and i noticed that when i had the seagate thunderbolt adapter sitting on top of it, my ssd would get disconnected. putting the adapter right on top of my iMac also seems to disconnect the drive. it's perfectly fine when it's on top of my desk. is this an issue because of the magnet inside the adapter?
 
I initially posted to say how appalled I am at the price of Thunderbolt peripherals and cables (£200+ for my Seagate T-bolt setup, vs £70 for the same with USB3). I am also not impressed with its bulk, nor how hot it runs.

But, I have been running OSX on an SSD through the T-bolt adapter for a few weeks now, and it has been 100% rock solid throughout. No hitches, glitches, hiccups, disconnects, data loss nor corruption of any kind. Works flawlessly.

This is with the Apple T-bolt cable, btw. And a Sandisk Extreme 240GB SSD.
 
Chippy99 said:
I initially posted to say how appalled I am at the price of Thunderbolt peripherals and cables (£200+ for my Seagate T-bolt setup, vs £70 for the same with USB3). I am also not impressed with its bulk, nor how hot it runs.

But, I have been running OSX on an SSD through the T-bolt adapter for a few weeks now, and it has been 100% rock solid throughout. No hitches, glitches, hiccups, disconnects, data loss nor corruption of any kind. Works flawlessly.

This is with the Apple T-bolt cable, btw. And a Sandisk Extreme 240GB SSD.
Click to expand...

that does make sense as I have had the best results with the same cable the seagate t-bolt adapter and the mushkin enhanced chronos deluxe 240gb ssd. the sandisk and the mushkin are very much alike.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226226


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171568



careful shopping allows for about 400usd

the ssd is 229
the cable is 49
the adapter is 99


total of 377 plus tax and shipping for a 240gb ssd.



After all my tests I am using the lacie little big disks 2 of them.


3 samsung 256gb ssds in a raid 0 and a 600gb intel ssd in the last spot. truly great results.


a 3 drive raid0 for osx 768gb sized ssd is really nice to use.

using the lacies without fans for months now. the lacie fan is really nasty sound high pitch.
 
philipma1957 said:
that does make sense as I have had the best results with the same cable the seagate t-bolt adapter and the mushkin enhanced chronos deluxe 240gb ssd. the sandisk and the mushkin are very much alike.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226226


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171568



careful shopping allows for about 400usd

the ssd is 229
the cable is 49
the adapter is 99


total of 377 plus tax and shipping for a 240gb ssd.



After all my tests I am using the lacie little big disks 2 of them.


3 samsung 256gb ssds in a raid 0 and a 600gb intel ssd in the last spot. truly great results.


a 3 drive raid0 for osx 768gb sized ssd is really nice to use.

using the lacies without fans for months now. the lacie fan is really nasty sound high pitch.
Click to expand...

Interesting to note the price variations between the US and UK.

Here, the prices for me were

Tb adapter £100 = $155
240GB SSD £150 = $230
Cable £39 = $60

So basically the cable and the TB adapter are way overpriced over here.

By the way, regards the LaCies - do you know if they run sata3 or sata2? It would be good to see 1GB/s from 2 SSD's in raid0.
 
Would it be possible to connect the mac mini to a desktop PC in target diskmode using this adapter and a gender changer?
 
Chippy99 said:
Interesting to note the price variations between the US and UK.

Here, the prices for me were

Tb adapter £100 = $155
240GB SSD £150 = $230
Cable £39 = $60

So basically the cable and the TB adapter are way overpriced over here.

By the way, regards the LaCies - do you know if they run sata3 or sata2? It would be good to see 1GB/s from 2 SSD's in raid0.
Click to expand...

no sata II the samsung 470 / 810 series 256gb were the best for it around 400 mbs read and write for 2x 256gb in a raid0
 
philipma1957 said:
no sata II ... around 400 mbs read and write for 2x 256gb in a raid0
Click to expand...

A little disappointing that, to be honest. I get 370MB/s from my "cheap" Seagate TB adapter and a single drive. I'd have expected better from raid0, even in SataII mode.
 
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Putting my new vertex 4 through its pace in attobench and benched really slowly, to a crawl, eventually the drive disappeared from bootcamp.

In osx formatted fine once, but if I try to repartition again it will not allow me to do so and the drive disappears.

Not a very good impression of the drive so far, whereas my Kingston Hyperx Ssd and mushkin chronos have been solid.

Update: Updated firmware on the Vertex 4, but still encountering errors. Reading/writing on the drive over the thunderbolt adapter is extremely flaky. I would get read and write errors in Windows 7. In OSX when I open file explorer I would see the partition fade in and out and I would constantly get connect/disconnect error messages.

I plugged the drive into my Thermaltake BlacX 5G USB adapter and the OS picks it up and reads/write to it fine. Looks like the drive is a bad pairing to the Seagate Thunderbolt adapter? Since it works fine when connected to USB 2.0 interface.

As soon as I perform a Blackmagic Speedtest the drive instantly disconnects after 5-10 seconds, I am wondering if it has anything to do with the drive's power draw...
 
Last edited:
I don't have the know-how as wolfgang does, and was thinking about getting a Seagate Desk Goflex adapter, but after all is said and done even if the Desk adapter works with the Vertex 4 honestly it's not worth the money or the hassle.

What I want to do is mess with RAID0 on 2 SSDs through a couple of Seagate Goflex adapters, but it's more trouble than it's worth. Maybe down the road when the Mushkin Chronos 256 is cheap enough I'll rethink this idea, since I know for sure that drive works with TB adapter.

Does the Samsung 830 256GB SSD have any issues with the TB adpater, can anybody confirm it's status on the iMac?
 
plucky duck said:
I don't have the know-how as wolfgang does, and was thinking about getting a Seagate Desk Goflex adapter, but after all is said and done even if the Desk adapter works with the Vertex 4 honestly it's not worth the money or the hassle.

What I want to do is mess with RAID0 on 2 SSDs through a couple of Seagate Goflex adapters, but it's more trouble than it's worth. Maybe down the road when the Mushkin Chronos 256 is cheap enough I'll rethink this idea, since I know for sure that drive works with TB adapter.

Does the Samsung 830 256GB SSD have any issues with the TB adpater, can anybody confirm it's status on the iMac?
Click to expand...

buy this

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...ils?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1339883167&sr=1-2&seller=


should be good works with my minis the price is great!
 
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paulrbeers said:
If only monoprice.com would release a thunderbolt cable....

----------

Also, this seems like the perfect device for adding an external SSD to a base 2011 iMac. Rather than tearing apart the iMac to add an SSD, you could just hang this off the outside. Just a thought.
Click to expand...

Obviously he may have no idea and his info might be garbage but his response gives me hope.




Daniel-M: Hello thank you for contacting Monoprice Tech Support. My name is Daniel, please give me a moment while I review your question. How are you doing today?

You Good Ty

Daniel-M: Good to hear.

Daniel-M: and we're attempting too, but apple has a tight hold of their pattens. so can't guarantee anything.

You Patents?

Daniel-M: yes sorry patent.

Daniel-M: not a word i spell very often.

You Any idea when I should check back or what the price might be?

Daniel-M: unfortunately i don't

You Ok Ty

You Goodbye

Daniel-M: I thank you for contacting Monoprice.com. Have a nice day.
 
plucky duck said:
I don't have the know-how as wolfgang does, and was thinking about getting a Seagate Desk Goflex adapter, but after all is said and done even if the Desk adapter works with the Vertex 4 honestly it's not worth the money or the hassle.

What I want to do is mess with RAID0 on 2 SSDs through a couple of Seagate Goflex adapters, but it's more trouble than it's worth. Maybe down the road when the Mushkin Chronos 256 is cheap enough I'll rethink this idea, since I know for sure that drive works with TB adapter.

Does the Samsung 830 256GB SSD have any issues with the TB adpater, can anybody confirm it's status on the iMac?
Click to expand...

I have no issues using a 256GB Samsung 830, Seagate Thunderbolt GoFlex 2.5" Adapter and any cable. I'm currently running Windows 7 off a 256GB in a Seagate GoFlex enclosure. I originally had issues with the 512GB Samsung 830, but changing to the Elgato Thunderbolt cable fixed my problems. YMMV with 6Gbps SSDs over 256GB.
 
shortcut3d said:
I have no issues using a 256GB Samsung 830, Seagate Thunderbolt GoFlex 2.5" Adapter and any cable. I'm currently running Windows 7 off a 256GB in a Seagate GoFlex enclosure. I originally had issues with the 512GB Samsung 830, but changing to the Elgato Thunderbolt cable fixed my problems. YMMV with 6Gbps SSDs over 256GB.
Click to expand...

That's good to know, thanks. Does Ssd on thunderbolt perform identical to that of an Ssd on an internal sata 3 controller?

How is it that the thunderbolt cable can have influence over the stability of an Ssd?
 
plucky duck said:
That's good to know, thanks. Does Ssd on thunderbolt perform identical to that of an Ssd on an internal sata 3 controller?

How is it that the thunderbolt cable can have influence over the stability of an Ssd?
Click to expand...

no the seagate is 80% or so of the internal's sata III speed with the same ssd.


the cable size may not be why it is more stable. but all cables drop power and signal the longer the cable the more the drop.

( must be identical wires to compare). so if the two cables are the same except for length the shorter one will have more power and better signal. long runs of 50 feet for cablevision are okay but 150 feet are not. I have a lot of charts for coax signal loss. all copper/metal cables lose over distance.

these cables are both short so I think the wire's shielding or wires quality .

are bigger factors. also the chips and firmware may be different. and shortcuts apple wire was unplugged and replugged many times.
 
philipma1957 said:
no the seagate is 80% or so of the internal's sata III speed with the same ssd.


the cable size may not be why it is more stable. but all cables drop power and signal the longer the cable the more the drop.

( must be identical wires to compare). so if the two cables are the same except for length the shorter one will have more power and better signal. long runs of 50 feet for cablevision are okay but 150 feet are not. I have a lot of charts for coax signal loss. all copper/metal cables lose over distance.

these cables are both short so I think the wire's shielding or wires quality .

are bigger factors. also the chips and firmware may be different. and shortcuts apple wire was unplugged and replugged many times.
Click to expand...

Actually the Elgato cable is getting far more use than the Apple cable(s). The Elgato is significantly shorter and more flexible, so it's definitely different materials. I would also hope that the $10 price increase over the Apple cable indicates better quality. Either way, my testing yielded very consitent and easy to understand results. Copy 10GB h.264 file from internal SSD to Seagate Thunderbolt + 512GB Samsung 830 only changing the cable. Elgato passed. Apple cable failed. Repeated on MacBook Pro same results.
 
shortcut3d said:
Actually the Elgato cable is getting far more use than the Apple cable(s). The Elgato is significantly shorter and more flexible, so it's definitely different materials. I would also hope that the $10 price increase over the Apple cable indicates better quality. Either way, my testing yielded very consitent and easy to understand results. Copy 10GB h.264 file from internal SSD to Seagate Thunderbolt + 512GB Samsung 830 only changing the cable. Elgato passed. Apple cable failed. Repeated on MacBook Pro same results.
Click to expand...

My elgato is sitting in a box have to hook it up.
 
Last edited:
I am from Canada, searched Newegg, Amazon, and Tigerdirect's Canada arm websites but can't locate an Elgato thunderbolt cable. Is there a US shop that carries it and ships to Canada?
 
Considering the following setup

I've just ordered a Seagate T-bolt adapter and am going to try the following:

Apple Cable
OWC Mercury Electra (120GB)

Going to clone the OS and try running from the OWC drive. I know that a Mushkin or a Crucial (250GB) would be better based upon what I've learned here but I'm going to run with what I have to hand for now and hope for the best.

Should I put the SSD in an Enclosure (Non GoFlex) or just use the rubber bands and plastic card route?

No way of knowing if it'll be stable enough to run the 2011 Mini until I try it out.
Has anyone else here tried a similar configuration, I wonder?
 
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