G-Technology G-DRIVE 1TB External Hard Drive w/ eSATA, USB 2.0, Firewire 400, Firewire 800 Interfaces 0G00199

by G-Technology

Product Details

• Item Weight: 4.4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 4.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B002LITG7M
• Item model number: 0G00199
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #56 in Electronics > Computers & Add-Ons > External Data Storage > External Hard Drives
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 13, 2009

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

G-Technology, part of the Hitachi Global Storage Technologies family, manufactures the industry's most comprehensive line of external disk storage solutions designed for professional content creation applications. G-Technology's USB, FireWire, eSATA, series-SAS, and Fibre Channel systems support all levels of audio/video production. G-Tech’s focus on technology, quality and design has resulted in disk storage solutions with unmatched performance, reliability and style.

Small footprint and portability made perfect for laptop applications

High-speed professional interface with 3Gbit eSATA, FireWire 800, FireWire 400 and USB 2.0. View larger

Professional External Hard Drive

G-DRIVE high-speed interface external storage systems offer the ultimate in flexibility by providing 3Gbit eSATA, FireWire 800 (FireWire 400 via included cable) and USB 2.0 ports. G-DRIVE is the perfect high-performance solution for storage intensive applications including audio/video editing, digital photography, MP3 libraries and high-speed data backup. The system features a fan-less cooling system and the latest technology 7200 RPM SATA II hard drives with up to 2TB in storage capacity with up to 32 MB of cache.

Support for Professional Creative Applications

G-DRIVE supports professional music production tools including Pro Tools, Logic Studio, Cubase, Nuendo, Digital Performer, and many more.

The Ultimate in Desktop Performance

G-DRIVE is the highest performance single disk storage solution in the industry. When connected via the eSATA port, G-DRIVE provides data transfer rates in excess of 100 MB/second for today’s demanding content creation applications such as audio and video editing.

Featuring an all aluminum enclosure to give you a rugged and dependable backup solution

Rugged and Stylish Aluminum Enclosure

The G-DRIVE series is built to last, featuring a solid, all-aluminum base and enclosure that especially complements the recent line of MacBooks. It's a rugged and dependable backup solution with a stylish and clean design.

Easy to Setup and Time Machine Ready

G-DRIVE series is formatted at the factory HFS+ with Journaling and is Time Machine ready right out of the box. A simple initialization is all it takes to prepare G-DRIVE series for use with Windows systems.

The Best Warranty and Support in the Business

G-DRIVE series is backed by a standard 3-year factory warranty. See the included warranty card for details.

What's in the Box

G-DRIVE External Hard Drive, Universal AC Power Supply, 1.6 Meter eSATA Cable (black), 1.8 Meter FireWire 800 Cable (white), 1.8 Meter FireWire 400 Cable (white), 0.6 Meter USB 2.0 Cable (white), CD Manual, and 3-year factory warranty.

Technical Specifications

• Interface: 1x 3Gbit, eSATA, 2x FireWire 800 (9-pin), 1x USB 2.0, FireWire 400 via 800 to 400 cable
• Disk Drives: Type: SATA II
• RPM: 7200
• Cache: Up to 32MB
• Cooling System: Integrated heat sink
• Bridge: Oxford 934 chipset
• Size (LxWxH): 9.25" x 5.125" x 1.82" / 235 x 130 x 46 mm
• Weight: 2.6 lbs / 1.2 kg
• System Requirements: Mac OSX 10.3.x or higher or Windows 2000/XP/Vista

Which Hitachi External Storage Product is Right For You?

		G-SAFE	G-DRIVE	G-RAID	G-DRIVE mini	G-DRIVE mobile USB	G-DRIVE slim USB
Designed For		General Storage / Backup	Video / Audio Editing	Video / Audio Editing	General Storage / Backup	General Storage / Backup	General Storage / Backup
Capacities		500GB, 1TB, 2TB, 3TB	500GB, 1TB, 2TB, 3TB	1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 6TB	250GB, 320GB, 500GB	500GB, 750GB	320GB
Interfaces	USB 2.0
	FW 400	--				--	--
	FW 800					--	--
	eSATA				--	--	--
RAID Configurable			--	--	--	--	--

Product Description

Professional External Hard Drive. G-DRIVE high-speed interface external storage systems offer the ultimate in flexibility by providing 3Gbit eSATA, FireWire 800 (FireWire 400 via included cable) and USB 2.0 ports. G-DRIVE is the perfect high-performance solution for storage intensive applications including audio/video editing, digital photography, MP3 libraries and high-speed data backup. The system features a fan-less cooling system and the latest technology 7200 RPM SATA II hard drives with up to 2TB in storage capacity with up to 32 MB of cache. G-DRIVE supports professional music production tools including Pro Tools, Logic Studio, Cubase, Nuendo, Digital Performer, and many more. Easy to Setup – Time Machine ready. G-DRIVE is formatted at the factory HFS+ with Journaling and is Time Machine ready right out of the box. A simple initialization is all it takes to prepare G-DRIVE for use with Windows systems. The Best Warranty & Support in the Business-G-Tech's 3-Year WarrantyG-DRIVE is backed by a standard 3-year factory warranty and unlimited free technical support by representatives experienced with the latest content creation applications.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth every penny, December 14, 2009

By 

Mel D. (California) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: G-Technology G-DRIVE 1TB External Hard Drive w/ eSATA, USB 2.0, Firewire 400, Firewire 800 Interfaces 0G00199 (Personal Computers)

With my 300GB drive too small I went shopping for a new 1 TB drive (the first time in 3 years). Over the years, I've bought several Seagate/Lacie externals and Seagate/IBM (now Hitachi) internal drives. Some drives are certainly faster and quieter than others; some are downright annoying but you just can't tell from the specs alone which I why I rely on reviews.

To my dismay, I discovered through my research that every brand/model of drive has received poor reviews. There wasn't a clear choice to make. It would seem that computer reliability has increased to the level that the hard drive is the weak link in the system now. Since my existing external was a Seagate 300GB firewire, I went with a 1TB FreeAgent from Seagate. Boy was that a huge mistake. Users are very unhappy with that product and so was I: it appears that Seagate doesn't build their firewire drives for mac compatibility anymore. If you need firewire, avoid Seagate.

Having a reliable backup drive is more important than ever so I crossed my fingers and went with G-Tech based on its feature set and my previous positive experience with Hitachi drive mechanisms (they own G-Tech).

Enclosure Pros:

- eSATA/FW800/FW400/USB2
- every kind of cable included (a rarity now and a great value for the money)
- large on/off button
- sturdy metal case
- no annoying fan
- the drive mounts to sled with a heat-sink that protrudes from bottom of case for improved cooling
- hundreds of ventilation holes at front and sides of case
- combo power/activity light
- attractive case

Mechanism Pros:

- very quiet drive
- fast 69MB/s read, 58 MB/s write (over FW800 w/ MacBook Pro 2007) - haven't tested eSATA yet
- HFS+ formatted for instant use on Macs

Cons:

- none to date

Some people have complained that the enclosure is larger than the typical upright design (5" x 9 1/4" x 1 3/4"). There are easily larger units to be found out there so I guess the complaint comes down to the fact that the drive is designed to sit horizontally on the table. I've seen the Seagate FreeAgent drives with their flimsy stands forcing you to lay the drive down on the desktop. The WD case seems to have the best design for vertical orientation but I don't think that's important as other features.

I'm very happy with the enclosure (G-Tech: please don't change a thing!). My advice to those that take issue with the size, is to get a G-Tech mini or other tiny USB2 based 2.5" drive. All 3.5" based externals tend to take up desk space one way or another.

Summary:

After buying this unit, I may never buy a drive in a plastic enclosure again. This is a solidly made unit compared to the flimsy offerings on the store shelves today.

This product is a winner: fast, quiet, reliable and cleverly designed. An excellent value.

PS. Why companies like WD even conceive of stuffing two already hot drives into the same raid enclosure with no fan is beyond me. G-Tech has a much better design for a raid enclosure.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Bad controller so it's going back, October 2, 2009

By 

Zino Davidoff "zino" (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: G-Technology G-DRIVE 1TB External Hard Drive w/ eSATA, USB 2.0, Firewire 400, Firewire 800 Interfaces 0G00199 (Personal Computers)

I can't recommend this drive. Despite the beautiful case design and build quality, the HD controller has failed and makes it impossible to work on. My Adobe apps crash, the computer freezes, and the drive becomes unresponsive. I'm working to have it replaced by G-Tech. At least their customer service is answering their email, and I'm hopeful the "NEW" design will be better.

For now, I Recommend buying another brand.

UPDATE:
They (finally) sent me a new drive enclosure with my 'old' hard drive installed into it. The new one's working well, although for some reason Retrospect finds it incompatible, as it's always 'busy' and inaccessible. But I've been using it as a boot-drive on a Powerbook and it's been fine.

So the controller problem, which they've been aware of, may be a past issue. Still, I'm done with G-Tech for now. I'm going back to Other World Computing (MacSales) for external drives at reasonable prices.

One word of advice if you DO have a problem: The email support guy is okay but doesn't follow up. I waited for weeks after the drive was promised by email, then phoned them. They person I spoke with saw how long I'd been waiting and got me a NEW device promptly, so CALL them after you've sent in the drive for service.

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Most unreliable drive I've ever experienced., December 1, 2009

By 

Cass (MARYLAND) - See all my reviews

This review is from: G-Technology G-DRIVE 1TB External Hard Drive w/ eSATA, USB 2.0, Firewire 400, Firewire 800 Interfaces 0G00199 (Personal Computers)

This drive has had an easy life in my home. However, it began to fail to mount after a few months. I paid to ship it back to G-Tech for repair, and all seemed fine when I got it back. A month later when I went to use it again, it failed to mount AGAIN. I called G-Tech, and they said it was repaired with a faulty part (widespread problem). They said they'd send me an email to get it repaired again. I never got the email, and I haven't been able to get this resolved.

I paid $350 for this drive just over a year ago for reliability. It has been anything but reliable. Even if I do get it repaired again, I will never be able to trust it.