Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

kat.hayes

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 10, 2011
1,447
52
I have a 2017 iMac Pro and will be upgrading to the Studio soon. I have external hard drive docking stations, and enclosures that I use with my iMac and I am not even sure which speed my current iMac is capable with regards to USB/Thunderbolt. I think all of my stuff is Thunderbolt 2.

1. I am assuming that the Thunderbolt 2 and 4 cables are the same physically and I will still be able to use the Thunderbolt 2 with the Studio even though it will be slower?

2. I use Carbon Copy Cloner to do large backups with external drives, will I see much difference with the speed of a backup if I upgrade to faster Thunderbolt 4 enclosures and cables?

Thanks
 

ColdCase

macrumors 68040
Feb 10, 2008
3,364
276
NH
I have quite a few drives in TB enclosures that I migrated from an iMac Pro to a Studio without issue. Even brought along the same insomnia issue, would have thought Apple would have fixed the OS by now.

I don't think CCC is limited by TB interface speed, its more by the drives you are using, unless you are running several CCC instances at the same time or are using SSD for backup.
 
  • Like
Reactions: kat.hayes

dcmaccam

macrumors 6502
Sep 14, 2017
272
47
West Coast of Scotland
I have a 2017 iMac Pro and will be upgrading to the Studio soon. I have external hard drive docking stations, and enclosures that I use with my iMac and I am not even sure which speed my current iMac is capable with regards to USB/Thunderbolt. I think all of my stuff is Thunderbolt 2.

1. I am assuming that the Thunderbolt 2 and 4 cables are the same physically and I will still be able to use the Thunderbolt 2 with the Studio even though it will be slower?

2. I use Carbon Copy Cloner to do large backups with external drives, will I see much difference with the speed of a backup if I upgrade to faster Thunderbolt 4 enclosures and cables?

Thanks
Thunderbolt 1 & 2 cables have the same form factor. Thunderbolt 3 & 4 have the same (USB C type) form factor. I use the Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter to connect my Lacie Thunderbolt 1 drive to my M1 Macbook Air and also my iMac
 
  • Like
Reactions: kat.hayes
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.