Hey,Yes, you can boot up from an external drive, be it USB or TB.
I'm just saying, I don't know what that term is supposed to mean. It wasn't in reference to your post.Main=Primary=Boot
I understood this request based on typical usage and other responses in the thread.
It's not really 'subjective', just not as accurate as perhaps you would like, but others appear to be able to offer assistance.
To clarify, my answer is based on using an external drive to boot the OS, which for the duration of that session is 'main' (colloquial use). If you don't have anything to add, don't bother replying. If it's not clear, ask. Don't just criticise another post with nothing to add.
But USB3 doesn't support TRIM, whereas thunderbolt does.If you want to "boot externally", thunderbolt or USB3 is fine.
USB3 is considerably cheaper with next-to-no performance hit.
The most convenient was the Seagate GoFlex (now difficult to find). This gave you the option for swapping connectors, TB/USB3/FW800/USB2 and even eSATA, although that didn't work with the Mac...Can anyone recommend a thunderbolt enclosure that I can put a SSD in?
Generally, single-drive thunderbolt enclosures have become difficult to find. For some reason, empty tbolt enclosures aren't supposed to be marketed.
I believe Other World Computing may have one.
I wouldn't be surprised if the enclosure costs more than the drive that will go inside it.
USB3 (with an enclosure that supports UASP) remains "the better way to go"...
Can anyone recommend a thunderbolt enclosure that I can put a SSD in?
My iMac doesn't have USB 3.0 though :'(
And thanks everyone!
Pretty certain my MBP would boot from FireWire, but it is painfully slow.
It would be workable for a diagnostic session, but not to do any 'live' work. You need to consider the bus transfer speeds as well as the drive speed, so in this case the SSD would have virtually no advantage.
Thanks fishrrman. By chance any opinion on the Samsung Portable SSD T1 as to its viability???