-
Thunderbolt Array connections question
Hi all, I can’t figure this out to save my life.
I have a Promise Pegasus R6 array. It only has a thunderbolt out. I really really REEEAALLLY want to hook that array up to a PC (I know, heresy) but I can’t find any way to do that. Adapters I find go TO thunderbolt, but I either need a way for a PC to read thunderbolt OR adapt the thunderbolt out to something a PC can recognize.
Anyone tried to do this? Any advice?
-
4 Replies
-
A few years back, we used a Thunderbolt 400 PCI card in an HP PC and that worked fine with a LaCie thunderbolt drive, so I can’t see why it wouldn’t work with the Promise R6.
I see StarTech do a range of these, including the faster 800 speed versions. https://www.startech.com/en-us/cards-adapters/pex1394b3
-
This depends on how long you need to access this RAID on a PC. If its like permanently, then get a Thunderbolt 3 card for your PC. That may or may not be possible depending on your PC’s motherboard, and your appetite for opening the PC and inserting a card in it.
So the other option is, via a network with a Mac. You could get a mac Mini and a 10GigE or a GigE Ethernet adapter to connect that to your PC over Ethernet. Then you connect to the drive to the Mac Mini, connect the PC and Mac Mini over Ethernet, and share the drive. So the Mac Mini is working like a ‘server’.
Its not absolutely necessary to buy a new Mac. If this is a temporary requirement, then you could borrow one, buy a used one cheap too. It has to have a reasonably capable dual core CPU with even 8GB RAM will do. It can be a MacBook Air too. All you need is an Ethernet adapter for the Mac, assuming that on the PC side you already have a Ethernet port.
-
Mike, you are confusing Thunderbolt with Firewire.
You’ve linked to an old Startech Firewire card. That won’t work in this case.
-
You’re quite right! I started out looking for the PCI card we used, then got distracted by the profusion of Thunderbolt cards and as you say, got myself in a mix up between the old FireWire 400/800 and Thunderbolt 2 & 3.
Apologies everyone that read my reply!!
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up