RABid Posted June 8, 2022 Share Posted June 8, 2022 I have a Mac M1 Air with an external USB C 1TB drive. Sadly the external drive is already full. I just ordered a 2 TB external drive and I wanted to order a small hub so I could plug in both. Sadly, I cannot find a USB C hub that allows two USB C drives. Many have two ports but one is always marked as power input. My M1 Air has two USB C ports but I usually have power plugged into one. I've looked at most of the Anker hubs, my favorite brand, but have not found one that allows two USB C drives. Can anyone here suggest a hub that will do what I want? The smaller the better. Quote This post edited for speling. My Sweetwater Gear Exchange Page Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anderton Posted June 8, 2022 Share Posted June 8, 2022 2 hours ago, RABid said: I have a Mac M1 Air with an external USB C 1TB drive. Sadly the external drive is already full. I just ordered a 2 TB external drive and I wanted to order a small hub so I could plug in both. Sadly, I cannot find a USB C hub that allows two USB C drives. Many have two ports but one is always marked as power input. My M1 Air has two USB C ports but I usually have power plugged into one. I've looked at most of the Anker hubs, my favorite brand, but have not found one that allows two USB C drives. Can anyone here suggest a hub that will do what I want? The smaller the better. Would this sucker do the job for you? Quote Craig Anderton Educational site: http://www.craiganderton.org Music: http://www.youtube.com/thecraiganderton Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/craig_anderton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RABid Posted June 8, 2022 Author Share Posted June 8, 2022 13 hours ago, Anderton said: Would this sucker do the job for you? Yes. Thank you. I don't know why I could not get any to show up. I actually ended up with this one which showed up in the comparison section of the one you linked. Exactly what I need for two drives, SD card slots for my camera and hardware samplers, and HDMI connection. I will use velcro tape to connect everything to the back of my monitor. Quote This post edited for speling. My Sweetwater Gear Exchange Page Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RABid Posted June 8, 2022 Author Share Posted June 8, 2022 Well, I knew the USB C ports on Mac's were slower than spec, but I did not expect it to take two hours to copy 850GB of data from a 1TB Samsung T7 to a 2TB T7, each plugged directly into the M1 Air's 2 USB C's ports. That is with absolutely nothing else running. It also drained the battery from 100 percent to 34 during that process. And wow did that T7 I was copying to get hot. Quote This post edited for speling. My Sweetwater Gear Exchange Page Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anderton Posted June 8, 2022 Share Posted June 8, 2022 Ah, young grasshopper, you have learned the meaning of "up to." 1 1 Quote Craig Anderton Educational site: http://www.craiganderton.org Music: http://www.youtube.com/thecraiganderton Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/craig_anderton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KuruPrionz Posted June 8, 2022 Share Posted June 8, 2022 2 hours ago, RABid said: Well, I knew the USB C ports on Mac's were slower than spec, but I did not expect it to take two hours to copy 850GB of data from a 1TB Samsung T7 to a 2TB T7, each plugged directly into the M1 Air's 2 USB C's ports. That is with absolutely nothing else running. It also drained the battery from 100 percent to 34 during that process. And wow did that T7 I was copying to get hot. I have a Samsung 512 gb SSD and it writes slower than some of my spinners. Read speeds are swift, write speeds are not. Being an SSD does not automatically confer a faster write speed. Another SSD I have (don't remember what it is right now) writes very fast on the same port. So it might not be your Mac or your hub, just sayin'... Quote It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RABid Posted June 8, 2022 Author Share Posted June 8, 2022 The Samsung T7 is rated at 1000 mb/second and most reviews confirm this. Sadly, USB C on M1 Macs has been tested to top out at 480 MB/second. I don't know if this is the full data throughput of the port or if Apple has throttled data transfer speed and set aside bandwidth for video and other usages. I did watch some reviews of the Crucial SSD that is twice as fast as the T7. Most reviewers say don't bother paying extra for the Crucial if you are on a Mac because you are not even reaching optimum speeds of the 1000 mb/set SSD's. I just did not realize it was that slow until I spent 2 hours copying my drive. Then I started researching true USB C speeds on the M1 Macs. They seem to operate at USB 2 speed. 1 Quote This post edited for speling. My Sweetwater Gear Exchange Page Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anderton Posted June 8, 2022 Share Posted June 8, 2022 480 MB/sec is the top speed for Hi-Speed USB 2. That was introduced 22 years ago. I guess sometimes the cutting edge uses a really dull knife. Quote Craig Anderton Educational site: http://www.craiganderton.org Music: http://www.youtube.com/thecraiganderton Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/craig_anderton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Emm Posted June 9, 2022 Share Posted June 9, 2022 I bought a 1 TB Crucial outboard drive, updated Carbon Copy Cloner and via Thunderbolt, made a mirror that totaled 384.x GB. It took 2 1/2 hours to complete. I'm glad to have it roll on the first take, but even with no previous frame of reference for SSDs, that seems a bit slow. Fortunately, I'm not on a deadline. I was debating putting some of my libraries on another SSD, but I'm a little wary of trusting an outboard source for something that vital. I'm not averse to making several backups so I'm covered in case of the unforeseen or the dreaded User Error™. Still.... 😬 I guess I should partially chalk it up to memories of Mirage floppies that ate the big cheese all the time. Flash drives seem more dependable by far, so SSDs should leap over that easily. I'll let you know. If it goes poorly enough, you'll know its me by the sound of a giant crow cawing like mad. Quote "I like that rapper with the bullet in his nose!" "Yeah, Bulletnose! One sneeze and the whole place goes up!" ~ "King of the Hill" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RABid Posted June 9, 2022 Author Share Posted June 9, 2022 9 hours ago, David Emm said: I was debating putting some of my libraries on another SSD, but I'm a little wary of trusting an outboard source for something that vital. I have an Intel iMac with a bunch of external drives, thunderbolt and USB. Never have an issue. Have the SSD through USB C on my M1 Air. Once a day I get a “Drive not ejected properly” message and it will sometime crash the program using it. Swapping cables and changing ports does not help. I don’t know if the problem is Apple power management wanting to shut it down for power conservation, the data stream getting out of sync, the cycling through device monitoring leaving a gap that causes disconnection, or just a bug in the chips that control the USB C ports. For my use it is not that big of an issue but I would never try using it live with the external SSD. I’ve watched it happen and the drive just disappears for a split second and comes right back. I just swapped the 1 TB drive for a 2 Tb. In a few days I will know if it is the 1 TB drive that has an issue. Quote This post edited for speling. My Sweetwater Gear Exchange Page Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RABid Posted June 10, 2022 Author Share Posted June 10, 2022 Well, I had to return the hub that I bought. While it did have 2 USB C ports on the hub along with XD card and other USB ports, the cable that connects to the computer is a dual USB C jack so I was gaining nothing. The description never mentioned that. I should have looked closer at the picture. On the good side, the Kohl's deal with Amazon for returning packages is ver handy. I have a Kohl's about 3 miles from home. Hand them the package and show them the Amazon email with the code and they give you $5 in Kohl's bucks to use during the next week. That pays for my gas. Quote This post edited for speling. My Sweetwater Gear Exchange Page Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anderton Posted June 10, 2022 Share Posted June 10, 2022 I think the one I linked to should work for you. 1 Quote Craig Anderton Educational site: http://www.craiganderton.org Music: http://www.youtube.com/thecraiganderton Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/craig_anderton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RABid Posted December 2, 2022 Author Share Posted December 2, 2022 I learned something. The primary spec for the HUB I want is not USB C, but Thunderbolt. Specifically, Thunderbolt 3 vs 4. My early model M1 Air has Thunderbolt 3. A limitation for Thunderbolt 3 is the number of USB C Thunderbolt 3 jacks a hub can have, and that is 2. Thunderbolt 4 allows for 4 USB C Thunderbolt 4 jacks on a HUB. So far I have not found any information on what happens when you connect a Thunderbolt 4 hub to a Thunderbolt 3 computer port. Do all 4 ports work because it is a Thunderbolt 4 hub, or do only two work because it is connected to a Thunderbolt 3 jack? I will find out once the Caldigit TS4 gets back in stock. Quote This post edited for speling. My Sweetwater Gear Exchange Page Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anderton Posted December 2, 2022 Share Posted December 2, 2022 50 minutes ago, RABid said: I learned something. The primary spec for the HUB I want is not USB C, but Thunderbolt. It trips a lot of people up that USB-C is a physical spec connector, not a port protocol. I'll be interested to see what happens with your adapter! Quote Craig Anderton Educational site: http://www.craiganderton.org Music: http://www.youtube.com/thecraiganderton Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/craig_anderton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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