The Plugable Thunderbolt 3 NVMe external SSD is currently listed on our Best External Hard Drives and SSDs page as the top Thunderbolt 3 option. In our Plugable Thunderbolt 3 NVMe external SSD. The G-RAID with Thunderbolt 3 is a high-performance, dual Enterprise-class 7200RPM hard drive storage system featuring Thunderbolt 3, USB-C™ (supports USB 3.1 Gen 2) and HDMI® connectivity for ultimate flexibility. With removable drives, this ultra-fast, high-capacity storage solution is designed for the most demanding applications while easily supporting multi-stream HD, 2K, 4K and HDR.
Summary :
What is a Thunderbolt hard drive? Do you know Thunderbolt interface? Is Thunderbolt the same as USB-Type-C? If you don't understand these questions, you can read this post, in which MiniTool introduces Thunderbolt interface and Thunderbolt hard drive to you.
Quick Navigation :
Introduction to Thunderbolt Hard Drive and Thunderbolt Interface
As the name implies, a Thunderbolt hard drive is a hard drive with a Thunderbolt interface, which is a technology developed by Intel in collaboration with Apple.
Thunderbolt is a data transmission protocol combining PCI Express data transmission technology and DisplayPort display technology. Therefore, it can transmit data and video signals at the same time.
So far, the Thunderbolt interface has developed to the third generation: Thunderbolt 3. Thunderbolt 1 and 2 are integrated with Mini DisplayPort (a physical port), while Thunderbolt 3 is integrated with USB Type-C (a physical port). Therefore, Thunderbolt 3 is incompatible with Thunderbolt 1 and 2.
In this post, I will mainly focus on Thunderbolt 3, because Thunderbolt 1 and 2 are not popular due to the following reason: their physical ports are Apple Mini DPs, which cannot be used in other electronic devices; therefore, not many manufacturers support them.
Further Reading:
Thunderbolt interface is usually used as an interface for connecting external devices. Therefore, people usually compare it with the USB interface.
Do you really know USB-Type-C and Thunderbolt 3?
Adobe pro download windows 10. Since the USB Type-C specification was released in 2014, many new 3C devices such as Android mobile devices, laptops, desktops, and even game consoles have begun to use this connection port.
USB Type-C port can accommodate multiple protocols. The more protocols it accommodates, the more functions it can implement. The USB Type-C port can accommodate the following protocols:
Data Transmission Protocols: USB 2.0 (480Mbps), USB 3.0 (5Gbps), USB 3.1 (10Gbps), USB 3.2 (20Gbps), and Thunderbolt 3 (40Gbps). With these data transmission protocols, the USB Type-C can transfer data. In addition, these protocols also partly determine how fast your external hard drive can be.
USB PD (Power Delivery) Protocol: It is one of the current mainstream fast charging protocols. It can increase power transmission through USB cables and connectors to expand the power supply capability of the USB cable bus. The power delivered can reach up to 100W. With this protocol, you can use the USB-Type-C to charge your phone and computer fast.
Display Port Protocol: It is a digital video transmission protocol that can transmit audio and video simultaneously. With this protocol, you can connect peripheral displays via corresponding adapters to output video and audio, or you can connect external discrete graphics cards to expand graphics performance.
At the same time, you have to face the fact that most of USB interfaces mounted on devices can only transfer data and use USB 3.0 protocol (not to mention USB 3.1 and USB 3.2). Some advanced USB interfaces may integrate USB 3.0 and DP (Display Port) to achieve both data and video transmission.
Only a few full-featured USB interfaces can integrate USB 3.0, DP, and USB PD to realize data transmission, video transmission, and fast charge.
As for Thunderbolt 3 interface, it is the top-level presentation of the USB Type-C interface. It uses Thunderbolt 3 protocol, which must integrate PCI-E data transmission technology and DP technology, but optionally integrate USD PD. In addition, the Thunderbolt 3 protocol is compatible with USB 2.0, 3.0, and 3.1.
Do you know what SSD drive is? This article will explain some SSD Terminologies and help you to fully understand SSD disk.
Best Thunderbolt External Hard Drives
After learning about USB-Type-C and Thunderbolt 3, you may want to know about Thunderbolt 3 hard drives. Thunderbolt 3 is currently the fastest interface in external storage devices. Due to the high transfer rate, the Thunderbolt 3 interface is usually mounted on SSDs to meet the demand for high-speed external disks.
If your computer has a Thunderbolt 3 interface and you need a high-speed external disk to complete some data to HDDs, because SSDs have the risk of data loss when they are not used often.
1. Format to Right File System
If your computer is a Windows PC, you should format it to NTFS, exFAT, etc. If your computer is a Mac PC, you should format it to APFS, HFS+, etc. Whether it is Windows or MAC, they have their own disk management tools to help you format the Thunderbolt external hard drive to a right file system. Handbrake dvd ripper for windows 10.
Let's take Windows PC as an example. Follow the steps below to format your drive to NTFS file system:
Step 1: Press 'Windows + R' keys simultaneously to call out Run box. Then, type 'diskmgmt.msc' into the Run dialogue box and hit Enter key to open Disk Management.
Step 2: Right-click the partition on the Thunderbolt external hard drive and then choose Format.. from the context menu.
Step 3: In the pop-up window, choose NTFS file system and keep other parameters as default. Then, click OK button to start the reformatting process.
2. 4K Alignment
To make the Thunderbolt external hard drive 4K aligned, you need the help of a third-party program like MiniTool Partition Wizard, in which 4k alignment is a free feature. If your computer is a Windows PC, MiniTool Partition Wizard is suitable for you. Refer to the following steps to 4k align the drive:
Step 1: Click the above button to free download MiniTool Partition Wizard. Then, install and launch it on your PC.
Step 2: Go to its main interface and right-click the partition on the Thunderbolt external hard drive. Then, choose Align.
Step 3: Click the Apply button to execute the pending operations.
3. Back up the Thunderbolt SSD
The simplest way is to use Copy/Cut + Paste feature. But if the files are too many or large, you can clone the drive. To clone the drive, you may also need the help of MiniTool Partition Wizard. Please follow the steps below:
Step 1: Download, install, and launch MiniTool Partition Wizard. Then, go to its main interface and right-click the partition on the Thunderbolt hard drive to choose Copy.
Step 2: Choose an Unallocated space as the destination and click Next button. Then, follow the wizard to finish the process.
Step 3: Click the Apply button to execute the pending operations.
Want to get best performance from SSD (solid state drive) in Windows 10/8.1/8/7? You can find step-by-step tutorials from this post.
Thunderbolt External Hard Drive FAQ
Certainly not, the Thunderbolt 1 and 2 use Mini DisaplyPort interface, not USB-Type-C. Thunderbolt 3 uses USB-Type-C port and you can distinguish it from USB-Type-C port by a lightning sign. It is the top-level presentation of the USB Type-C port.
However, the Thunderbolt 3 interface and USB-Type-C port are very different, because the USB-Type-C may lack some features.
To take advantages of Thunderbolt interface, the best Thunderbolt external hard drives are always SSDs. Here are 3 Thunderbolt external hard drive SSDs recommended for you:
- Samsung X5 Portable SSD
- OWC Envoy Pro EX (VE) Thunderbolt 3 Portable SSD
- TEKQ Rapide Thunderbolt 3 Portable SSD
Bottom Line
Have this post answered your doubts about Thunderbolt interface and Thunderbolt hard drive? Do you have any difficulty in picking a suitable Thunderbolt external hard drive? Do you have difficulty in managing your hard drive?
If you have any problem, please leave a comment below or contact us via [email protected]. We will reply to you as soon as possible.
External SSD Thunderbolt Backup Drives
Shopping for a ultra-fast PC or Mac compatible Thunderbolt SSD storage solution? Never before has a personal computer interface offered the insanely fast data transfer speeds of the original 10Gbps Thunderbolt, 2nd-generation 20Gbps Thunderbolt 2 drives, and 3rd-generation 40Gbps Thunderbolt 3 storage.Minimally TWENTY times faster than the popular USB 2.0 spec, and double that of the competing 5Gbps USB 3.0 SuperSpeed standard, Thunderbolt outstrips the bandwidth requirements of nearly any single personal computer peripheral available today. Conventional hard drives can't fill a fraction of Thunderbolt's data pipeline. So, solid-state flash memory disk drives are the most logical pairing of the two technologies. A PC or Mac compatible Thunderbolt SSD external backup drive can really leverage the potential bandwidth available for the fastest data backups and file transfers you'll ever experience.
FYI: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases
| Akitio Thunderbolt Drive | Monster Thunderbolt Drive |
|---|---|
| Akitio SSD Neutrino Drive 120GB Thunderbolt SSD | Monster Digital SSD 256GB-512GB-1TB |
| G-Technology Thunderbolt Drive | Oyen Digital Thunderbolt Drive |
|---|---|
| GTech TBolt SSD 1TB SSD Combo Interface | Oyen SSD Mini Pro 256GB Solid-State Portable |
| Transcend Solid-State Drive | Silicon Solid-State Drive |
|---|---|
| Transcend Combo SSD Thunderbolt + USB 3.0 | Smallest Thunderbolt SSD Ever Silicon Power Mini Drive |
Shopping For TunderBolt External SSD Drives
In the 2020's we now have 3 generations of Thunderbolt: The original 10Gbps TBolt and 2nd generation 20Gbps Thunderbolt 2 using the mini DisplayPort interface. The new 40Gbps Thunderbolt 3 spec has adopted the smaller and more widely used Type-C USB 3.1 connector. In fact, Thunderbolt 3 incorporates SuperSpeed+ USB 3.1 10Gbps protocols so that either Thunderbolt or USB-C peripherals can be used on a modern Windows or Mac computer's Thunderbolt 3 port.Who Manufactures Thunderbolt Backup Peripherals?
Major brands include Akitio, G-Technology, SiliconPower, Monster Digital, OWC and LaCie external Thunderbolt SSD backup drive offerings shown above. These laptop-size affordable consumer drives have a single Thunderbolt port for use directly connected to your computer - or at the END of the device chain. To get dual, pass-through ports, you generally have to move up to the multi-drive RAID array type of Thunderbolt data storage products.One of the notably rising entrants into the external SSD drive market is Akitio who was recently acquired by OWC. They've long been a maker of USB, eSata, and FireWire drive enclosures for assembling DIY backup drives. Introducing a single-port Thunderbolt portable SSD drive like the Neutrino shown here (using an Intel OEM SSD) is the first step in recouping their investment, a 256Gb is available as well (using a SanDisk OEM SSD). Akitio has delivered a nice range of standalone Thunderbolt and Thunderbolt 2 and 3 drive enclosures for homebuilt storage solutions using the SSD or HDD drives of your choice.
DIY Thunderbolt SSD Storage
Alot of folks want to cobble their own Thunderbolt data backup drive together with the HDD or SSD drive of their choosing. Unfortunately, at least for single drives, there aren't many choices of standlalone Thunderbolt drive enclosures available. For multi-drive RAID arrays using 2 or more drives, the selection of Thunderbolt enclosures is better, but costlier.| G-Technology Thunderbolt Enclosure | Seagate Thunderbolt Drive Sled |
|---|---|
| 2.5' Thunderbolt SATA Case Ruggedized Thunderbolt Enclosure | Backup Plus Thunderbolt Drive Adapter For Laptop Size SSD or HDD |
Seagate's Thunderbolt drive sled has sadly been discontinued. It let anyone cobble thier own affordable Thunderbolt SSD solution by simply plugging a bare 2.5' laptop SATA SSD drive directly into the portable adapter's SATA connector. It should be noted the Thunderbolt drive converter only has a SINGLE Thunderbolt port like many of the more affordable Thunderbolt storage products for home consumers. It's not capable of daisy-chained with other Thunderbolt devices.
Best SSD For Thunderbolt?
Several factors determine which SSD is the best match for Thunderbolt drives. A Solid-State drive in general relies on several components that determine a SSD's performance: Whether it's a SATA I/II or III 6G drive interface chipset, and which controller chip: Marvell, Indilinx, SandForce, etc. are the brains of the operation. Other factors in the solid-state drive market involve how fast the onboard NAND Flash Memory is, and the clock speed controlling it. Look to Samsung, WD, Crucial and Sandisk for the fastest off-the shelf SSD's shipping this year.It's important to note that LARGER capacity SSD's 480GB and up offer BETTER performance than the smaller models: More banks of chips inside a higher-capacity SSD drive allow more simultaneous reads and writes across the banks of flash memory. As such you'll often see spec sheets quoting different maximum data transfer rates depending on the size of the drive. With solid-state storage, bigger is better - and faster.
Thunderbolt RAID SSD - Power Pair
Want to fill as much of Thunderbolt's pipeline as possible? Think Striped RAID 0 SSD drive setups for peak performance. By striping Reads and Writes across multiple solid-state drives or modules, the highest level of drive transfer speeds become possible. Some may opt for premium top-performance PCIe NVMe SSD's, others may wish to leverage more economical drives paired to get the Thunderbolt drive capacity they need and still fit their budget.The direct 10Gbps pipeline that Thunderbolt taps into via the PCI-Express system bus offers mind blowing backup and data copy speeds compared to USB 3.0 or FireWire provided it's matched with equally fast solid-state SSD storage technologies. A growing range of enterprise, professional and consumer PC and Mac SSD Thunderbolt backup solutions are now shipping.
A Thunderbolt SSD flash memory drive is the best technological match for the insanely high bandwidth that a Thunderbolt inferface provides. With no moving parts, high reliability, zero latency and near-zero access times, they're a perfect match for this cutting-edge computer peripheral interface from Apple and Intel.
Currently, a few of the best choices in solid-state backup are LaCie 512GB Thunderbolt SSD dual-drive array which also now offers a 1 Terabyte version for demanding, Pro users. These LaCie high-end models combine dual 256GB/512GB SATA III Solid-State drives for mirrored or striped RAID 0 performance that delivers mind-blowing transfer speeds - at a price. Their Little Big Disk SSD drives also have TWO TBolt ports on the back for daisy-chaining with other devices.
| Akitio Thunderbolt Drive | Monster Thunderbolt Drive |
|---|---|
| Akitio SSD Neutrino Drive 120GB Thunderbolt SSD | Monster Digital SSD 256GB-512GB-1TB |
| G-Technology Thunderbolt Drive | Oyen Digital Thunderbolt Drive |
|---|---|
| GTech TBolt SSD 1TB SSD Combo Interface | Oyen SSD Mini Pro 256GB Solid-State Portable |
| Transcend Solid-State Drive | Silicon Solid-State Drive |
|---|---|
| Transcend Combo SSD Thunderbolt + USB 3.0 | Smallest Thunderbolt SSD Ever Silicon Power Mini Drive |
Shopping For TunderBolt External SSD Drives
In the 2020's we now have 3 generations of Thunderbolt: The original 10Gbps TBolt and 2nd generation 20Gbps Thunderbolt 2 using the mini DisplayPort interface. The new 40Gbps Thunderbolt 3 spec has adopted the smaller and more widely used Type-C USB 3.1 connector. In fact, Thunderbolt 3 incorporates SuperSpeed+ USB 3.1 10Gbps protocols so that either Thunderbolt or USB-C peripherals can be used on a modern Windows or Mac computer's Thunderbolt 3 port.Who Manufactures Thunderbolt Backup Peripherals?
Major brands include Akitio, G-Technology, SiliconPower, Monster Digital, OWC and LaCie external Thunderbolt SSD backup drive offerings shown above. These laptop-size affordable consumer drives have a single Thunderbolt port for use directly connected to your computer - or at the END of the device chain. To get dual, pass-through ports, you generally have to move up to the multi-drive RAID array type of Thunderbolt data storage products.One of the notably rising entrants into the external SSD drive market is Akitio who was recently acquired by OWC. They've long been a maker of USB, eSata, and FireWire drive enclosures for assembling DIY backup drives. Introducing a single-port Thunderbolt portable SSD drive like the Neutrino shown here (using an Intel OEM SSD) is the first step in recouping their investment, a 256Gb is available as well (using a SanDisk OEM SSD). Akitio has delivered a nice range of standalone Thunderbolt and Thunderbolt 2 and 3 drive enclosures for homebuilt storage solutions using the SSD or HDD drives of your choice.
DIY Thunderbolt SSD Storage
Alot of folks want to cobble their own Thunderbolt data backup drive together with the HDD or SSD drive of their choosing. Unfortunately, at least for single drives, there aren't many choices of standlalone Thunderbolt drive enclosures available. For multi-drive RAID arrays using 2 or more drives, the selection of Thunderbolt enclosures is better, but costlier.| G-Technology Thunderbolt Enclosure | Seagate Thunderbolt Drive Sled |
|---|---|
| 2.5' Thunderbolt SATA Case Ruggedized Thunderbolt Enclosure | Backup Plus Thunderbolt Drive Adapter For Laptop Size SSD or HDD |
Seagate's Thunderbolt drive sled has sadly been discontinued. It let anyone cobble thier own affordable Thunderbolt SSD solution by simply plugging a bare 2.5' laptop SATA SSD drive directly into the portable adapter's SATA connector. It should be noted the Thunderbolt drive converter only has a SINGLE Thunderbolt port like many of the more affordable Thunderbolt storage products for home consumers. It's not capable of daisy-chained with other Thunderbolt devices.
Best SSD For Thunderbolt?
Several factors determine which SSD is the best match for Thunderbolt drives. A Solid-State drive in general relies on several components that determine a SSD's performance: Whether it's a SATA I/II or III 6G drive interface chipset, and which controller chip: Marvell, Indilinx, SandForce, etc. are the brains of the operation. Other factors in the solid-state drive market involve how fast the onboard NAND Flash Memory is, and the clock speed controlling it. Look to Samsung, WD, Crucial and Sandisk for the fastest off-the shelf SSD's shipping this year.It's important to note that LARGER capacity SSD's 480GB and up offer BETTER performance than the smaller models: More banks of chips inside a higher-capacity SSD drive allow more simultaneous reads and writes across the banks of flash memory. As such you'll often see spec sheets quoting different maximum data transfer rates depending on the size of the drive. With solid-state storage, bigger is better - and faster.
Thunderbolt RAID SSD - Power Pair
Want to fill as much of Thunderbolt's pipeline as possible? Think Striped RAID 0 SSD drive setups for peak performance. By striping Reads and Writes across multiple solid-state drives or modules, the highest level of drive transfer speeds become possible. Some may opt for premium top-performance PCIe NVMe SSD's, others may wish to leverage more economical drives paired to get the Thunderbolt drive capacity they need and still fit their budget.The direct 10Gbps pipeline that Thunderbolt taps into via the PCI-Express system bus offers mind blowing backup and data copy speeds compared to USB 3.0 or FireWire provided it's matched with equally fast solid-state SSD storage technologies. A growing range of enterprise, professional and consumer PC and Mac SSD Thunderbolt backup solutions are now shipping.
A Thunderbolt SSD flash memory drive is the best technological match for the insanely high bandwidth that a Thunderbolt inferface provides. With no moving parts, high reliability, zero latency and near-zero access times, they're a perfect match for this cutting-edge computer peripheral interface from Apple and Intel.
Currently, a few of the best choices in solid-state backup are LaCie 512GB Thunderbolt SSD dual-drive array which also now offers a 1 Terabyte version for demanding, Pro users. These LaCie high-end models combine dual 256GB/512GB SATA III Solid-State drives for mirrored or striped RAID 0 performance that delivers mind-blowing transfer speeds - at a price. Their Little Big Disk SSD drives also have TWO TBolt ports on the back for daisy-chaining with other devices.
For more affordable consumer options, the single-drive LaCie Rugged USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt SSD has high-speed combo interfaces for both USB 3.0/2.0 or Thunderbolt connectivity. The Thunderbolt Rugged series uses a single SSD drive for respectable performance - and the added value of flexibility to use it with older and non-TBolt equipped USB port Macs or PCs. The latest revision of the solid-state Rugged portable drive now includes a short, integrated Thunderbolt cable for quick connectivity, and still allows optional connection to a USB port if needed.
The Elgato Thunderbolt SSD Drive has been shipping for quite some time. ElGato also uses a single SSD drive module for more modest but still very snappy performance in either 120GB or 240GB capacities - but it's pricing hasn't dropped to be truly competitive with LaCie or other new arrivals in the marketplace. A new 512GB and 1TB SSD drive with combo Thunderbolt + USB 3.0 interface recently shipped, but the price is high.
Thunderbolt 3 External Ssd Hard Drive
Please visit the other pages of this site to explore the diverse market of PC and Mac compatible external SSD Thunderbolt drive options for budgets large and small.
Best Thunderbolt 3 Hard Drive
