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I have a MacMini 2011 booting from a GoFlex drive connected to its Thunderbolt cable.

Recently I am considering adding a second monitor. The HDMI port is already taken by my current monitor. It seems that the Thunderbolt port can also work as a DisplayPort for a second monitor.

What can I do? Is it possible to drive two monitors from the same HDMI port? Is there any Thunderbolt/DisplayPort available? Any solution cheaper than buying an external Thunderbolt hub?

Also, the hubs I have seen (LaCie and Belking) only provide two Thunderbolt ports. One will be taken for the connection with my MacMini, the other for the drive, and once time more again, I will be short for a second display.

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Thunderbolt as a technology supports daisy-chaining devices (connecting one device into another). Unfortunately a number of the devices available like the 2.5" GoFlex adapter and the video converters don't have the second port to allow this.

Your option could be to get the 3.5" GoFlex adapter and mount your drive in that and connect the screen to the second port on that.

There are some HDMI splitters on the market but this will just send the same image to each screen.

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  • oh well, I was so afraid of getting exactly that answer. I noticed the 3.5 GoFlex during my research, which is 2 months after buying the 2.5... however the 3.5 requires an extra adapter for my disk and I was not sure if a monitor can be attached to the 3.5. Thanks anyway, I will wait some days before accepting your answer in case there is some other way
    – SystematicFrank
    Mar 7, 2013 at 12:44
  • Just connect the display to the Mac mini, then the drive to the display; that's what I do.
    – Kirk McElhearn
    Mar 7, 2013 at 13:28
  • The Apple Thunderbolt display comes slightly expensive to my budget. For a second monitor I would rather buy the exact same model (Dell 23") I already own for a fraction of the price. My only way around it is connecting the DisplayPort of my monitor to the disk... if it works. In any case, I hate dual display configurations with different size/shape/model monitors
    – SystematicFrank
    Mar 7, 2013 at 13:33

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