G-Technology G-Drive External Hard Drive Review

The 2TB G-Technology G-Drive eSATA external hard drive is the latest drive by G-Technology, who is part of the Hitachi Global Storage Technologies family. It has a striking appearance, but is it a home run or one for the bench? Read our G-Drive review to find out…

Design and Build

The design and build of the 2TB G-Technology G-Drive eSATA external hard drive is both beautiful and top quality. Its sensual yet sturdy metal case is slightly elevated and cleverly hides a heat sink. The 2TB G-Technology G-Drive eSATA external hard drive almost looks like a small and elegant baby rhinoceros, who will charge like lightning when the need arises. And boy does it ever.

The 2TB G-Technology G-Drive eSATA external hard drive has a rugged and stylish aluminium casing that wraps around the drive itself. The casing is very hard to scratch and protects the drive; it has hundreds of small ventilation holes that allow this tiny rhino breathe effortlessly and keep the temperature down. The sturdy nature of the drive makes it ideal for stacking it under other devices or objects, and it must be said that it looks fantastic next to an iMac.

On the front face you will find a stylish big “G” with a single white light underneath. This light is used to show drive activity, but unlike most other hard drives, this light does not blink – instead it gets brighter when the drive is busy working. This is a nice twist to the old-age and annoying blinking, but as much as G-Technology have gone to great strides and effort in the design, they may have gotten a bit overly-excited with the light, as it does get excessively bright during large data transfers. You may ask yourself “It’s only a small light, how bright could it really get?” and the answer is: Quite bright actually – They resemble the headlights of an oncoming car, which for might not be a real issue, but if you are someone who likes to work in the dark, then perhaps you may want to stick a small piece of black electrical tape over the light.

Inside the box

External hard drives often come with nothing more than a USB cable, but you will be pleasantly surprised to discover that G-Technology have provided every box with all the cables anyone will ever need to use this drive – and not the short ones manufacturers have made us come to expect, to the contrary, G-Technology have given us cables of generous lengths. Inside the box you will find:

1x 1.6 Meter eSATA Cable (black),
1x 1.8 Meter FireWire 800 Cable (white)
1x 1.8 Meter FireWire 400 Cable (white),
1x 0.6 Meter USB 2.0 Cable (white)
1x G-DRIVE External Hard Drive
1x Universal AC Power Supply
1x CD Manual
1x 3-year factory warranty

Set-up

Setting this little rhino up is a walk in the park – As simple as plugging in your chosen supplied interface cable, plugging in the AC/DC and pressing the on/off button.

The drive comes ready to plug and play on Mac computers, and is Time Machine ready right out of the box which is very handy. If you use windows, then a simple and easy initialization is all you need to complete in order to get it up and running.

Performance and Connectivity

Like an angry rhino charging down an annoying bird that just made a distasteful joke, the 2TB G-Technology G-Drive eSATA external hard drive is lightning fast and smooth. The drive runs at 7200rpm with up to 32mb of cache is relatively quiet considering this.

For the fastest performance you should be looking to use the eSata port where you can get transfer rates that exceed the 100 MB/second mark, which is perfect for backing up your favourite bluray films at blistering speed. You can also use the FW800 port, which is still extremely impressive at reading and writings speeds bordering the 74 MB/second mark and 60 MB/second respectively.

Size and weight

The 2TB G-Technology G-Drive eSATA external hard drive is a 3.5″ external hard drive and is approximately – (LxWxH) 9.25″ x 5.125″ x 1.82″ / 235 x 130 x 46 mm and weighs 2.6 lbs / 1.2kg, which is more or less the standard in 3.5″ drives.

Specifications

SATA II
7200 RPM
Up to 32MB cache
Integrated heat sink for cooling
Size (LxWxH): 9.25″ x 5.125″ x 1.82″ / 235 x 130 x 46 mm
Requires Mac OSX 10.3.x or higher or Windows 2000/XP/Vista

Price

This drive initial recommended retail price was USD $329 / UK £189, but you can get it for around 40% cheaper from online shops. It is highly recommended you check with them first.

Conclusion

Pros

– Quiet as a mouse
– USB 3.0 = Everything is SUPER fast
– Blistering transfer speeds
– Plug-and-play at its very best
– Comes with multiple cables of generous length
– Instance set-up with a Mac and 5 minute set-up with windows

Cons

– The overly bright light could have been turned down a notch

Being completely honest, I did not have many expectations for this drive, however, I was truly blown away and I can safely say that this is one of the best external hard drives on the market right now. It is beautiful and cleverly designed using strong and long-lasting materials whilst offering blistering transfer speeds. Some may be put off because it is a 3.5″ sized drive, but if you do not mind that, you are in for a treat. If size is important to you, we would recommend the Western Digital My Passport 2TB, for everyone else, as you have probably gathered from this 2TB G-Technology G-Drive eSATA external hard drive review, this is the drive to get.