The same applies to the Express Card situation. If users want to access a Thunderbolt device in such a case, they must shut down and reboot Boot Camp again. For example, Windows only recognizes these external devices during boot, so you can't plug it in and expect it to mount on the Windows desktop. Rizzo runs down the other issues with the Thunderbolt, Boot Camp and Windows mix from the Apple Thunderbolt FAQ. This would be like disconnecting a hard drive without dismounting it, which can cause messy problems, including data loss. So, preventing sleep is a feature (sort of) because if Apple allowed the Mac to sleep with a Thunderbolt drive plugged in, when Windows woke up, it would no longer see the device. Windows will 'forget' that the Thunderbolt device is there if it goes to sleep. In order for Windows (booting a Mac) to recognize Thunderbolt, it has to boot up with Thunderbolt already plugged in.
Rizzo said the sleep issue was a 'feature (sort of):'Īpple disables sleep because of a limitation of Apple's Boot Camp Thunderbolt drivers for Windows. They also had recognition issues with Express Card interfaces on MacBook Pro laptops. At MacWindows, readers reported problems of Macs failing to sleep when running Windows 7 or 8 while a Thunderbolt device was connected. It says: While it starts up, Windows 7 scans and activates devices connected directly to the Thunderbolt port.
