Copying Thunderbolt Drives

[Ben Dossett]

If I have two 2TB drives Daisy Chained together by thunderbolt, Drive A and Drive B. Drive A is connected to computer with FW800 Cable. If I copy the contents of Drive B to Drive A would they transfer at Thunderbolt Speed or FW800 Speed? If I copied from A to B would it make a difference?

[Kenny M]

Hello Ben,
Copying data between drives connected over different interfaces will cause the transfer rate to drop to the slowest connection. In your example copying data from Drive A connected over thunderbolt to Drive B connected over firewire will cause the thunderbolt to transfer at about 60 - 80MB/s. This is due to firewire only being able to write data at that transfer rate. The same would happen if the firewire drive is the source since it is only capable of being read at 60 - 80 MB/s.

[Ben Dossett]

I was afraid of that.

Thanks!