Will external Thunderbolt hard drives connected via Thunderbolt not dismount (or reliably re-mount) after Studio Max wakes up from sleep?

[Ladd]

I am considering the purchase of an OWC Thunderbay four-bay external drive case to hold four 4TB hard drives. These drives are currently in an older four bay enclosure that connects to the Mac via USB 3.0 and the case/drives are NOT happy if the Studio Max goes to sleep and wakes up.

Will a newer external case that is rated Thunderbolt 3 and connected to one of the Thunderbolt ports on the back of the Studio Max NOT have this sleep issue?

If it won't solve the problem, then I might as well not purchase a new enclosure and simply never let the Studio go to sleep.

 

[lcubed]

fwiw, we haven't seen this issue when using a OWC thunderbay mini loaded with 4x4TB SSD drives configured with RAID4.

call OWC and ask their support folks

 

[handheldgames]

I am considering the purchase of an OWC Thunderbay four-bay external drive case to hold four 4TB hard drives. These drives are currently in an older four bay enclosure that connects to the Mac via USB 3.0 and the case/drives are NOT happy if the Studio Max goes to sleep and wakes up.

Will a newer external case that is rated Thunderbolt 3 and connected to one of the Thunderbolt ports on the back of the Studio Max NOT have this sleep issue?

If it won't solve the problem, then I might as well not purchase a new enclosure and simply never let the Studio go to sleep.

Searching across multiple forums, this appears to be an issue with the Thunderbay 4 (non mini). I'll test when I have time as I never use sleep.

 

[handheldgames]

@Ladd: In follow-up. I just put the Mac Studio to sleep and the two 3.5" hard disks in the Thunderbay 4 in JBOD were spun down and the enclosure powered itself down. The Sonnet Breakway Box / Highpoint SSD7101A also powered down. Upon wake, both thunderbolt enclosures powered up and all disks remounted.

Luckily, I found a "used" Thunderbay4 on Amazon that was purchased earlier this year for $265 + $10 shipping. The unit arrived in "like new" condition. While deals at that price don't come along every day, it's worth keeping an eye on Ebay / Amazon to see what shows up.

 

[Ladd]

Thanks for the information. It had never occurred to me to check Amazon for open box or used items; I found one for $369, which while much more than your great deal, was significantly less expensive than ones found on eBay.

 

[handheldgames]

Thanks for the information. It had never occurred to me to check Amazon for open box or used items; I found one for $369, which while much more than your great deal, was significantly less expensive than ones found on eBay.

You're welcome, happy to help you find tech as a discounted price with a no hassle return policy. Deals on Ebay can be found, but it requires checking daily to look at new listings. YMMV.

 

[haralds]

My Thunderbolt OWC Envoy M2 works totally fine.

 

[Ladd]

My Thunderbolt OWC Envoy M2 works totally fine.

I have vague memories reading that spinning disk have more issues than solid state. It is possible that solid state disks have NO issues.

 

[handheldgames]

I have vague memories reading that spinning disk have more issues than solid state. It is possible that solid state disks have NO issues.

USB is the issue.

 

[Ladd]

My OWC Thunderbay 4 (Thunderbolt 3) external case arrived yesterday and after loading it with four spinning disks, it has so far has reliably recovered from two sessions of sleep; first was 8 minutes and second was overnight.

When doing the first test, I put the Studio Max to sleep and the enclosure spun down the drives. Interestingly, about 4-5 minutes later, all the drives spun up and then 30-45 seconds later spun back down. The three monitors connected to the computer gave no indications of waking up, so I have no idea what was going on. I will check later today to see of the backlit keyboard which powers down when the computer goes to sleep wakes up at the same time as the disk spin-up.

 

[AlteMac]

I've had no issues with SSD's dismounting after sleep, connected by TB or USB. That includes 4 in an OWC Thunderbolt Mini.

 

[Ladd]

I've now had the four-bay OWC Thunderbay 4 (Thunderbolt 3) enclosure for more than a week and loaded with four spinning drives it has reliably gone to sleep and woken back up numerous times.

On a related note, I have replaced the fan in the back of the enclosure with a Noctua NF-A9 FLX 92mm fan. The kit comes with two speed reducing cables and I am using the one that slows the fan down to 1050 RPM and the fan noise is now much less than the hard drive noise. The supplied three-pin connector for the fan fits the one inside the OWC case so installation was a snap.