Sata data cable splitter Imac

[geoffrywillhardt]

So Im planning on installing two 2.5" SSD's in place of my one 3.5"HDD in my 27" Imac. Im hoping to use the Sata connections that are already there from the HDD for one drive and then daisy chain off the Disc drive ones for the second drive. Im having trouble figuring out if there is an adaptor that i can attach to the cables that are already in place to split between the two so I dont have to dig too deep into the mac to attach new cables. Im hoping to retain use of the superdrive but if its not possible I know i could always get an external superdrive. Thanks 

[AbydosOne]

6 minutes ago, geoffrywillhardt said:

So Im planning on installing two 2.5" SSD's in place of my one 3.5"HDD in my 27" Imac. Im hoping to use the Sata connections that are already there from the HDD for one drive and then daisy chain off the Disc drive ones for the second drive. Im having trouble figuring out if there is an adaptor that i can attach to the cables that are already in place to split between the two so I dont have to dig too deep into the mac to attach new cables. Im hoping to retain use of the superdrive but if its not possible I know i could always get an external superdrive. Thanks 

Short answer: No, there isn't.

 

Slightly longer answer: Yes, there is, but they're really finicky and not very reliable and only work with certain SATA chipsets that support SATA port multipliers (which I'm willing to bet money that Apple didn't implement) and they're a more complicated solution that what you're looking for. See here.

[Windows7ge]

Unlike the older IDE standard that could effectively daisychain 2 or 3 devices SATA isn't capable of this (Except for what AbydosOne mentioned - I didn't even know that was a thing, ever). For SSDs you really want each to have its own SATAIII link anyways. I can't recommend a SATA data splitter even if it was still in use today.

[Snipergod87]

As others stated you cant daisy chain off 1 cable.

1 SATA port on motherboard = 1 drive connected.

[RobFRaschke]

Internal SSD for boot and programs, second SSD external by USB, you won't know the difference most of the time. DRASTICALLY easier.

[geoffrywillhardt]

Thanks for all the help everyone, guess im gonna loose the superdrive cause i want to raid 0 the ssds for maximum performance and the superdrive really isnt used that much. 

[AbydosOne]

10 hours ago, geoffrywillhardt said:

Thanks for all the help everyone, guess im gonna loose the superdrive cause i want to raid 0 the ssds for maximum performance and the superdrive really isnt used that much. 

You really don't need to RAID-0 your SSDs unless you have a specific workload that require that level of throughput. RAID-0 drastically increases your chances of data loss; if one drive fails, it's all gone, especially with SSDs which usually fail without warning.

 

Can you even create a bootable RAID-0 with MacOS?

[Lady Fitzgerald]

1 hour ago, AbydosOne said:

You really don't need to RAID-0 your SSDs unless you have a specific workload that require that level of throughput. RAID-0 drastically increases your chances of data loss; if one drive fails, it's all gone, especially with SSDs which usually fail without warning...

I agree. Also, unless you are moving some really huge files within the RAID 0, you will never notice the the increased speed. You will be better off sticking to a single SSD instead having a "superdrive".

 

You can mitigate the danger of data loss by frequently backing up the drive or RAID but, then again, you should be doing that with all data on any kind of drive and RAID. Any drive, no matter its age or size, is subject to sudden, irrecoverable data loss at any time without any warning.

 

The only way to reasonably ensure your data is safe is for it to exist in three separate places. For most people, this means on the computer, on an onsite backup drive, and on an offsite backup drive. For a drive to be a true backup drive, it must be kept powered down, disconnected from the computer, and stored away from the computer except while updating the backup.

 

RAID is NOT a backup. RAID 1 and up is redundancy that protects you from data loss due drive failure (up to the point of the failure tolerance of the RAID). It will allow a computer to keep chugging along should one (or more, depending on the RAID level) drive should die.

 

However, drive failure is not the only cause of data loss. User error (such as accidental deletion), viruses and other  malware (such as ransomware), power surges, PSY failure, flood, fire, theft, asteroid strike (ok, that one is a stretch), etc. all can cause data loss. RAID will not protect from those. Only backups can do that.

[geoffrywillhardt]

yes Mac os high sierra has Raid0 boot support, yes I backup regularly. I am working with large video and photo files, and large libraries of photos from shoots. Might sound crazy but I split time between Mac and PC but try to have the Mac in front of clients because it "looks" more artsy and pro even though my PC can run circles around the mac hence the reason I want to upgrade it and make it as snappy as I can without going out and spending thousands on a new mac that still wont perform as well as a pc.