# WD Thunderbolt Duo external drive ?



## Opa (Jan 6, 2016)

In need of some new external drives for when I'm on long-term location (like 2 weeks or more). One thought is WD Thunderbolt Duo. The theoretical advantage is Thunderbolt connectivity but I'm not sure how much difference that will make for photo editing and my machine is a mid-2012 Macbook Air which isn't extremely powerful to begin with. The Thunderbolt Duo does not appear to have a USB3 or other port so can only connect via Thunderbolt which could be a limitation. One advantage is that this is plug & play for Macs.

How much difference does USB3 vs Thunderbolt make? 

Has anyone used one of these? Thoughts (from users or others)?

I'd also thought about Synology DS716+. We already use Synology in the studio but this might be overkill. It has USB3 for easy direct connect to a Mac as well as Ethernet that I could use via a small switch and Thunderbolt>Ethernet adapter. This would require a bit more build and setup and perhaps for not much better (or worse) performance.

Other recommendations?


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## clee01l (Jan 7, 2016)

I have the 4 Terabyte TB Duo. It is two full-sized (3.5") HDDs.  It comes formatted as RAID1 which means that there are two 2TB drives inside,  It also requires an external power source. It can be reformatted as RAID0 to give you a total of 4TB  This is how I have mine configured for my desktop.

A better option for a portable drive would be the WD Passport.  It is also available in 4TB (configured as a 2TB RAID 1.  These drives are smaller 2.5" drives and require only the power supplied by the computer. (I have one of these too.)  

As for speed, Thunderbolt comes in two favors, either are faster than USB3.  For reference, USB 2.0 tops out at 480Mbps. eSATA can deliver 6Gbps (older versions deliver 1.5Gbps or 3Gbps), USB 3.0 runs at up to 5Gbps and USB 3.1 should do 10Gbps. Thunderbolt2 can do 20Gbps while the original Thunderbolt was capped at 10Gbps.  Your limiting factor is going to be the TB port on the MBA.


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## Opa (Jan 7, 2016)

Thanks Cletus. I've got a couple of smaller Passports and quite like them. In this case though I'm thinking about instances when I'm in a location for an extended period, don't need extremely high portability (EG, if it weighs a bit and needs power that's fine), have a bit of space available in road cases, and want a bit higher performance. Would you buy your Duo again? Something else? I'm also thinking about the Pro since it'd also have USB 3.0.


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## Hal P Anderson (Jan 7, 2016)

From what I read, both Thunderbolt and USB 3 are faster than a disk can transfer data, so the limiting factor will be how fast your disk is.


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## clee01l (Jan 7, 2016)

I see no advantage of buying a USB capable device unless you plan to revert to Windows in the future. USB3.1 is not commonly available and when it is the connectors might be USB-C not USB-A to USB-B.  If you need to dumb down the device to get to USB. there is always an adapter available to convert one technology (TB) to another (USB) or vice versa. 

I haven't had my WD TB Duo that long. And I am gradually replacing my USB & Firewire devices with TB  I've had good luck with WD drives.  2-3 are 8 -9 years old with only one failure.    My computer is USB2/Firewire800/Thunderbolt(orig).  I've got a USB 3 Raid enclosure and a USB3 EHD and a FW EHD.  Also a Lexar Professional Workflow HR2 Four-bay Thunderbolt 2/USB 3.0 Reader Hub which routes my USB 3 drives through a TB port.

Currently, my WD TB Duo is being used for TimeMachine backups as my FW EHD is full and needed to be replaced as a TimeMachine device


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## babuja (Mar 18, 2016)

Thunderbolt is in theory faster then USB3...however, check some reviews regarding write/read speed performances to have a better idea. There are USB3 disks running faster the TB disks. Also consider Buffalo Drivestation DDR and Segate Backup Plus fast (bought USB3) for excelente performance...or G Raid USB 3 or thunderbolt


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## babuja (Mar 18, 2016)

Opa said:


> I'd also thought about Synology DS716+. We already use Synology in the studio but this might be overkill.



Not sure how this works...but write/read speed should be OK. But why to work from the NAS as main device if you can work with much faster speed with HDD device and only use NAS for backup/share ? Unless you use several desktops to access/edit photos doesnt look, for me, a good option.


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