Imac Late 2012 & WD elements cable

[wood1e1968]

Hi

I am using a WD elements as an external hard drive, and I believe it is connected via a USB 3 cable, I think .

Is it possible to get a Thunderbolt 2 cable? And if it is would it be worth it?

And for future reference, I am looking at moving up to a Mini Mac 2018 so would it be worth getting a Thunderbolt 3 cable for the WD elements? If one exists?

 

[tyc0746]

Does the WD Elements drive have a TB2 interface/bridge/port alongside the USB one (like the picture below), if not what are you going to plug the TB2 cable in to?

Even if it does, if it's a spinning HDD (rather than an SSD) then you won't see any performance improvement as it's the speed of the HDD that's the limiting factor...not the interface/cable (100Mbps for a HDD vs 400Mbps for the slowest SSDs - and USB-3 can support 1000Mbps).

 

[wood1e1968]

I do not know.

The cable at computer end has some form of USB... not sure which version. And at the WD Elements end it has a horizontal B style connector... I do not know what it is called.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

I do not know.

The cable at computer end has some form of USB... not sure which version. And at the WD Elements end it has a horizontal B style connector... I do not know what it is called.

WD elements enclosure is containing an HDD (mechanical/spining disk) and no TB interface.
End of the story.

If you want faster volume, search for an SSD (nvme SSD is faster than SATA SSD) which claims: "Thunderbolt 2/3 interface". It will come with proper thunderbolt cable as well.

 

[wood1e1968]

ok so HDD (didn't know that is what I got) cannot work with Thunderbolt?

So I have to upgrade to an external SSD for that.

Thanks alot.

 

[wood1e1968]

So nvme SSD is buying what looks to me like an internal SSD card and then buying a case to enclose it and connect to the computer?

 

[Fishrrman]

My guess is that a WD elements drive has only a USB3 connection.

It doesn't matter, anyway.

If it's a platter based drive inside, USB3 is "all you need".
It WILL NOT be any "faster" with a thunderbolt connection.

If you "want faster", you need an SSD.
For a 2012 iMac, again, "all you need" is USB3.

Either buy a pre-assembled USB3 SSD (like the Samsung t5 or t7, or others),
or
Buy a 2.5" SATA SSD and an enclosure like this:

SABRENT 2.5 Inch SATA to USB 3.0 Tool Free External Hard Drive Enclosure [Optimized for SSD, Support UASP SATA III] Black (EC-UASP)

SABRENT 2.5 Inch SATA to USB 3.0 Tool Free External Hard Drive Enclosure [Optimized for SSD, Support UASP SATA III] Black (EC-UASP)

tinyurl.com

Drop the drive into the case and snap the cover on.
Then use Disk Utility to erase/format it to Mac format.
If it's going to hold "just data" (not be a bootable drive), use HFS+ (Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, GUID partition format).

Hmmmm...
What kind of drive is INSIDE the iMac?
Just a platter-based hard drive?
In that case, I suggest you get the SSD (as above), and then set it up to become the NEW BOOT DRIVE for the iMac.
This is easy to do -- almost "child's play".
It will significantly speed up the iMac and make it "feel like a new Mac".
You'll come back to this thread and tell us "I never would have believed that this would make such a difference!"...

 

[wood1e1968]

My guess is that a WD elements drive has only a USB3 connection.

It doesn't matter, anyway.

If it's a platter based drive inside, USB3 is "all you need".
It WILL NOT be any "faster" with a thunderbolt connection.

If you "want faster", you need an SSD.
For a 2012 iMac, again, "all you need" is USB3.

Either buy a pre-assembled USB3 SSD (like the Samsung t5 or t7, or others),
or
Buy a 2.5" SATA SSD and an enclosure like this:

SABRENT 2.5 Inch SATA to USB 3.0 Tool Free External Hard Drive Enclosure [Optimized for SSD, Support UASP SATA III] Black (EC-UASP)

SABRENT 2.5 Inch SATA to USB 3.0 Tool Free External Hard Drive Enclosure [Optimized for SSD, Support UASP SATA III] Black (EC-UASP)

tinyurl.com

Drop the drive into the case and snap the cover on.
Then use Disk Utility to erase/format it to Mac format.
If it's going to hold "just data" (not be a bootable drive), use HFS+ (Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, GUID partition format).

Many thanks for that. For the clarification and options.

Completely unconnected, but strange how the rest of your response doesn't show until I click to include aa a quote in my response, see here: https://www.screencast.com/t/Zc85Wu1gV9

 

[wood1e1968]

@Fishrrman reading through your post again now has me thinking why not have a external boot drive? if it is that much quicker.

I had a look online as to what size I should use? some people mention something as small as a 16GB drive!

but I would need larger to allow the Office software/Adobe Photoshop + Other software to be installed

So what size would be good? as I would get a separare SSD for storing data/work, or keep my WD Elements.

Many thanks in advance

 

[tyc0746]

@Fishrrman reading through your post again now has me thinking why not have a external boot drive? if it is that much quicker.

I had a look online as to what size I should use? some people mention something as small as a 16GB drive!

but I would need larger to allow the Office software/Adobe Photoshop + Other software to be installed

So what size would be good? as I would get a separare SSD for storing data/work, or keep my WD Elements.

Many thanks in advance

How much space do the OS and your apps take up on your current machine?

That's at least the size of external SSD you need.

Yes, your data can be kept on the WD, but if you're regularly access large files, or work with folders full of hi-res assets (I'm regularly working with 1GB per section catalogue files before outputting them to PDF for press) and swap between them frequently then this will also be slower from the WD. A faster drive will also be useful as a scratch disk for Photoshop.

 

[wood1e1968]

So at the moment, my MAC HD is 684.82GB and so that's what I need as a minimum?

 

[wood1e1968]

Actually I just noticed that the drive is broken up as 'Documents' - 345GB - not sure what documents!! Maybe some leftover files etc that should now be on the external HD.

But the Apps and System are 30GB and other is 50GB.

So does this mean 30GB would be enough?

 

[tyc0746]

Actually I just noticed that the drive is broken up as 'Documents' - 345GB - not sure what documents!! Maybe some leftover files etc that should now be on the external HD.

But the Apps and System are 30GB and other is 50GB.

So does this mean 30GB would be enough?

You need an external SSD not a USB flash/thumb drive as these will be as slow as the HDD.

A 'small' 256GB one should suffice if you're happy to keep all your documents on another drive - or a 1TB one if you want to keep it all one one drive and use the WD as a Time Machine backup...

Not one of these (for 100MBps for $10)...

Something similar to these (to get 500MBps in a 500GB or 1TB drive for about $100-$140)...

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

How large is the internal drive?
1tb? Larger?

You can get a 1tb USB3 SSD (the ready-to-use type) for about $130 now.
Or... get a 1tb "bare" SATA SSD and the enclosure as I mentioned above.

Then, erase it.
- If you are using High Sierra or earlier, erase to Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, GUID partition format
- If you are using Mojave or later, erase to APFS with GUID partition format.

Then, download CarbonCopyCloner, which is FREE to download and use for 30 days (doing it my way COSTS YOU NOTHING).

Then, use CCC to clone the contents of the internal drive to the SSD.

Then, go to the startup disk preference pane and set the SSD to be the new boot drive.

Then... just reboot. You should now be running off the fast external SSD.

And that's about it.

 

[wood1e1968]

@tyc0746 and @Fishrrman many thanks for the detailed information.

I like the idea of just migrating the current hard drive, it will save have to 'setup/migrate software' etc. So a 1TB SSD it is. And this makes me a bit more portable as well.

I think this has saved me replacing my late 2012 iMac with a 2018 Mini Mac... well at least for a little while