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zoran

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jun 30, 2005
4,809
134
My mid2010 iMac has only got a fw800 port, and believe it or not, backing up in TMachine my 8TB data is sluggish... it takes ages. So i was wondering if its possible to find a way in order to make my backups faster. Perhaps opening of the case and connecting the HD sata ports to my external HD backup case... just some thoughts :)
 

zoran

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jun 30, 2005
4,809
134
Very interesting, but i dont understand how the eSATA cable is connected under the iMac?
Also how much faster is that eSATA connection compared to FW?
And what do u mean by "...the cost of their service dwarves the value of the machine"?
 

jerwin

Suspended
Jun 13, 2015
2,895
4,652
Very interesting, but i dont understand how the eSATA cable is connected under the iMac?
Also how much faster is that eSATA connection compared to FW?
And what do u mean by "...the cost of their service dwarves the value of the machine"?


Come on, it's $159 plus shipping.

eSATA runs at regular SATA speeds. (3.0 Gb/s in the case of a SATA II machine). Firewire 800 is, of course, only 0.800 Gb/s.

USB 3.0 promises 5 Gb/s (plus you can connect more than one drive). The first imac to support USB 3.0 was iirc the 2012 lineup. The 2011 imacs have thunderbolt, but only usb 2.0.
 

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
29,279
13,377
OP:

There's simply no practical way to do what you propose to do.
(Not saying it can't be done, see berenod's reply 5 above).

If you "want more speed", the only real solution for a 10-year-old iMac is...
... buy a newer, faster iMac.
 

Berenod

macrumors regular
Apr 15, 2020
125
170
Indeed. On the 2011 you have at least a Thunderbolt port (or 2 on the 27"), which gives you some options, albeit on the expensive side.
Thunderbolt to usb3 adapters exist, as do external storage solutions
I think the Delock TB to usb3 is around 100$.
For you, the firewire at roughly 1,5 times the speed of usb2 is the best you'll get without some serious modifications ..
 

USB3foriMac

macrumors 6502
Apr 15, 2020
317
119
Singapore
You can upgrade to USB 3 for a small fee with a bit of DIY.
See my thread here:
This also applies to the 2010 model.
 

zoran

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jun 30, 2005
4,809
134
The eSATA option looks interesting, the problem is that i have no idea how it can be done!
I can't find OWC's "how to" install video, if there was one available at the time. Was there?
 
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