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Thunderbolt 3 external drive as start up drive?

I have a 2015 iMac 27". Can I use an external Thunderbolt 3 HD as a start up drive? I would have to get Apple's Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter. And would I get Thunderbolt 2 speed or would it be slower with this set up?

Posted on Jan 31, 2020 10:37 AM

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4 replies

Jan 31, 2020 11:21 AM in response to BluSky

I have to agree, I'm upgrading to a new iMac in the next few months (I'm in savings mode right now) and will configure the iMac with a 512 GB SSD and then use a OWC Thunderbay 4 Thunderbolt 3 in a RAID 5 configuration for most of my external storage. The SSD will just have Mac OS on it, my applications and data files that I access daily. The Thunderbay drive will have all of my large libraries such as all my video, photos and music libraries.


I will also keep 2 external USB 3 drives for my Time Machine and Bootable clone backups.

Thunderbolt 3 external drive as start up drive?

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