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Posted By: kevs What converters to get for new M1 Apple Air? - 02/20/21 12:45 AM
Just got the new Macbook air 13" Here is screenshot of things that go into the old 11: ethernet, and DVI to Display; and normal Hub. But 13" new laptop has far less ports and not USB 2. Does there exist one device that can take care of this all? I cannnot get back into action until this is solved, thankd!

The Apple tech on phone who helped with migration said to go to a Best Buy, and I did that and they had nothing, zero.

https://imgur.com/WE5Q9K9
Try Other World Computing If you don't see what you want, phone them. This company is excellent and they will steer you in the right direction.
Thanks Jon, I have hard time knowing how/ what to call these things, but OWC... Best Buy basket case, wasted lot of time there. If anyone have good links or ideas please send.
Call them something like this device. Start with this item at OWC and let the salesperson walk you through something that specifically fits your needs. You may even be able to eliminate your USB hub.
thanks Ira, will now if open that good start. May need to daisy chainer another usb 2 to it; and not sure how display with vga get in there. Nice unit would be perfect it had CF card reader port too, a VGA for displays, and few more old style USB
I you will take advice from someone who actually has an M1 Mac, a significant new feature in Thunderbolt 4 is it can be distributed, like a USB Hub, as well as daisy-chained. This means that using this OWC Thunderbolt 4 hub each of the Thunderbolt 4 ports can be distributed as 3 Thunderbolt ports each of which can be daisy-chained twice for a grand total of 12 Thunderbolt device connections. NOTE: Bootable external drives, must be a high quality SSD, directly connected to one of the two Thunderbolt 4 ports on the M1 Mac and won't work through either a hub or daisy-chain. I have no explanation but until Apple changes something that is the consensus discovery. Non-bootable drives work well through the hub.

Since I purchased the Thunderbolt 4 Hub, OWC has introduced this Thunderbolt 4 Dock which has the same number of Thunderbolt ports along with additional different other ports. The Thunderbolt 4 Hub is perfect for my M1 Mac mini, but If I had an M1 laptop, the Thunderbolt 4 Dock would probably be the better choice.
Thanks JOe, I just bought $50 new 1 TB , wd external for bootinng in to a laptop clone for in case the internal laptop HD fried.

Should I return it? Truthfully, I'd never have to boot into a backup latop HD ever, I don't do work on it, just email/ internet, just to replace, the apps etc desktop look, if internal HD fails, Do I even need bootable for that, did you understand that?

Thanks for link, not sure which I'll need. Sad they don't put CF card reader, I hardly photograph with SD, but I photograph all time with CF. Also, the VGA display issue not addressed on those Hubs, but at least start.
Your $50 WD external would not be a good fit with an M1 Mac mini or laptop as it is unlikely it would ever be bootable and therefore useless as a clone or backup in the event of the internal drive failure. You would need something like this or this. Your $50 WD could work as a TimeMachine drive but a 2 or 3 TB drive would be better.

If your internal drive should fail you would have to have a bootable external drive or your Mac would be useless for anything other than a paperweight or perhaps a hot dish coaster for the dining room table.

As far as the VGA adaptor goes there is this or this made by Apple that plug directly into one of the Type C Thunderbolt ports on either the Mac, the hub, or the dock.

For your CF card reader there is this or this that would plug into any type A USB port.
Darn Joe, Zero interest in spending 6-7 times more.... hmmm laptop maybe just back up for apps can copy back?

What need SSD to boot into? And no bootable anyhow current with SD etc ......

SD has me backing up currently my imac Mac HD, but not bootable...

What is the main difference between.a bootable and non bootable backup for a Mac HD, besides being able to work from bootable, which I've never had to Do in 20 years on Mac...
Originally Posted by kevs
Darn Joe, Zero interest in spending 6-7 times more.... hmmm laptop maybe just back up for apps can copy back?
The best I can offer is SSD prices are falling steadily and I am confident will continue to fall as the market matures but you are not likely to see a $50 1TB SSD any time soon, $150 1TB SSD maybe in a year or two.

Originally Posted by kevs
What need SSD to boot into? And no bootable anyhow current with SD etc ……
There are three reasons to have a bootable external drive:
  1. A fall back in case of a failure of the internal drive
  2. To have more than one macOS version available, perhaps to support a major app that won't run under the latest macOS version.
  3. You cannot make repair to the current boot drive so it is necessary to boot from another volume in order to make repairs. In which case you would need to boot from a different drive. If all you are using for repairs is Disk Utility then you could boot from the recovery drive, or possibly run TechTool Pro from an EDrive.


Originally Posted by kevs
SD has me backing up currently my imac Mac HD, but not bootable…
And no indication that is going to change any time soon.

Originally Posted by kevs
What is the main difference between.a bootable and non bootable backup for a Mac HD, besides being able to work from bootable, which I've never had to Do in 20 years on Mac...
  • one is bootable and the other is not.
  • With a bootable external drive you can have different macOS versions on each drive


When all is said and done the main reason many old time computer geeks feel naked unless their system is backed up with a bootable clone is their unwavering faith in the truth of McGillicuddy's corollary to Murphy's immutable law. Murphy's law is, of course, "If anything can fail it will fail" while McGillicuddy's corollary adds, "at the worst possible time." thus…
Originally Posted by Murphy's law & McGillicuddy's Corollary
If anything can fail it will fail at the worst possible time
Thanks Joe, interesting, for some reason, my brain was thinking main reason for the bootable was an easy recreation of your Mac HD,..

1- but that can be done if not bootable right?

2 - The real point as you state is to run repair, but since invention fo the Recovery drive that is less important now right?

3 - Other OS is not important, except for my old copy of Dreamweaver and I use Parallels for that. And being that I just renewed that at $50 per year ( still way better than subscribing to DW new with Adobe which is $200 year); maybe I don't even need parallels with a bootable back up.. since I'm using El Capitan with Parallels?

I guess Parallels is nice as you don't have to do a full reboot, which is a pita,
Originally Posted by kevs
1- but that can be done if not bootable right?
Sort of, it all depends on what and where the failure is.

Originally Posted by kevs
12 - The real point as you state is to run repair, but since invention fo the Recovery drive that is less important now right?
Yes and no. I have a recovery drive backup on a bootable thumb drive just in case. but that is the system only and does not include data and setup.

Originally Posted by kevs
13 - Other OS is not important, except for my old copy of Dreamweaver and I use Parallels for that. And being that I just renewed that at $50 per year ( still way better than subscribing to DW new with Adobe which is $200 year); maybe I don't even need parallels with a bootable back up.. since I'm using El Capitan with Parallels?
As far as I know you cannot use El Capitan on an M1 Mac, but then they just announced a beta Parallels that is running on an M1 Mac. You need to check with them.

Originally Posted by kevs
1I guess Parallels is nice as you don't have to do a full reboot, which is a pita,
See my previous response.
thanks Joe, point 1 I mean even if no failure, you can't restore your Mac HD unless bootable, which make it super easy where you see dock and everything come up real nice on restore-- But came come close right getting your Mac HD back to where it was right?

And Parallels, what suggesting, could one in Catalina, and later Big Sur, boot into El Capitan? If so then technically, I don't need Parallels.
Originally Posted by kevs
thanks Joe, point 1 I mean even if no failure, you can't restore your Mac HD unless bootable, which make it super easy where you see dock and everything come up real nice on restore-- But came come close right getting your Mac HD back to where it was right?
You could restore from a clone of the data volume, but your would first have to reinstall macOS and the run Migration Assistant to get all the applications, dat files and user settings. Then you still have to go through some re-installs, lots of setups, etc. I have done that several times recently and the entire process takes me for to six hours of dedicated work to get back almost to where I was.

Originally Posted by keys
And Parallels, what suggesting, could one in Catalina, and later Big Sur, boot into El Capitan? If so then technically, I don't need Parallels.
Nope you still need Parallels
Joe, Darn! Why you spending the six hours, you did not have a bootable backup? Darn... so without a bootable, getting you Mac HD back to good, is a bit of a harrowing time killer?

I think I'll risk it until those 1TB. get to $150 .. actually all I need it 1/2 TB for the new laptop.

My 27" imac mid 2015 hopefully still has a few Mac OS years ahead, how many versions? I don't know.... really then the hope for the imac 27" is that prices are lower on SSD externals and then super duper will be back in action....
But must have SSD for bootable? Pity.

Why need parallels, can't just boot into old OS? Fine though $50 year tolerable.
OWC, no one answers the phone, maybe BH photo better? BH always come on phone in 2 min.
Originally Posted by kevs
Why need parallels, can't just boot into old OS? Fine though $50 year tolerable.
You need Parallels because Intel processors and Mac silicon do not speak the same machine language and your old macOS will not boot an M1 Mac.
thanks.
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