Geek Posted June 29, 2011 Posted June 29, 2011 <div class="KonaBody"><p><img src="http://osxdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/macbook-pro-raid-thunderbolt.jpg" alt="Thunderboot Supports External Boot Drives" title="macbook-pro-raid-thunderbolt" width="620" height="410" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-18074" /></p> <p>Thunderbolt equipped Macs are able to boot from external Thunderbolt drives. This means that you could run a full Mac OS X, Windows, or Linux installation from an external drive connected to a Mac with Thunderbolt connectivity, and because of Thunderbolts speed, it would be extremely fast. How fast? Theoretically, Mac OS X running on an external Thunderbolt drive should be just as fast as booting from an internal drive, but using an external SSD would actually be <em>faster</em> than an internal spinning hard drive. </p> <p>This also opens the door for further <a href="http://osxdaily.com/2011/03/12/how-to-install-dual-boot-mac-os-x-10-7-lion-and-10-6-snow-leopard/">OS X dual booting options</a>, multiple OS booting, and general ultra-fast expansion on hardware that is otherwise limited with internal expansion options. Currently, Thunderbolt comes on the MacBook Pro and iMac, but it is expected to gain further traction with inclusion on upcoming MacBook Air, Mac Mini, and Mac Pro hardware refreshes. </p> <p>Bootability has been confirmed <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/anandshimpi/status/86048109284700160">by Anandtech</a>, who verified that external Thunderbolt drives are bootable when <a href="http://www.anandtech.com/show/4473/apple-thunderbolt-cable-promise-pegasus-raid-system-available-now">researching</a> the massive Pegasus 12TB RAID setup, shown above attached to a MacBook Pro.</p> <p>This was found via <a href="http://www.macrumors.com/2011/06/29/thunderbolt-supports-booting-from-external-disk/">MacRumors</a>, they also mention that Thunderbolt supports Target Disk Mode, an option that was otherwise limited to Firewire equipped Macs. </p> <p><strong>Update:</strong> Demonstrating the speed of Thunderbolt vs FireWire and USB 2.0 is this recent benchmark chart from <a href="http://www.macworld.com/article/160819/2011/06/pegasusr6thunderbolt.html">MacWorld</a> that shows off an external Thunderbolt drives incredible speeds:</p> <p><img src="http://osxdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/thunderbolt-benchmark.gif" alt="Thunderbolt Benchmarks" title="thunderbolt-benchmark" width="597" height="298" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-18081" /></p> <p>Those read and write speeds are as fast if not faster than many internal SSD’s!</p> </div> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Iy7o1Q0thyk8V0zRPzcWWYcojYI/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Iy7o1Q0thyk8V0zRPzcWWYcojYI/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Iy7o1Q0thyk8V0zRPzcWWYcojYI/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Iy7o1Q0thyk8V0zRPzcWWYcojYI/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=GmGBZSo51Tk:8uWF5qMoaeI:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=GmGBZSo51Tk:8uWF5qMoaeI:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?i=GmGBZSo51Tk:8uWF5qMoaeI:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=GmGBZSo51Tk:8uWF5qMoaeI:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?i=GmGBZSo51Tk:8uWF5qMoaeI:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=GmGBZSo51Tk:8uWF5qMoaeI:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=GmGBZSo51Tk:8uWF5qMoaeI:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/osxdaily/~4/GmGBZSo51Tk" height="1" width="1"/> View the full article
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