The G-Technology 2TB eSATA External Hard Drive is the latest drive from G-Technology, which is part of the Hitachi Global Storage Technologies family. He’s got a flashy look, but is he a homer or one for the bench? Read our G-Drive review to find out…
design and construction
The G-Drive G-Technology 2TB eSATA External Hard Drive is beautifully designed and built to a high standard. Its sensuous yet sturdy metal case is slightly raised and cleverly conceals a heat sink. The G-Technology 2TB G-Drive eSATA External Hard Drive almost looks like a sleek little baby rhino, charging like lightning when the need arises. And boy does it ever.
The G-Drive G-Technology 2TB eSATA External Hard Drive has a sleek, durable aluminum casing that surrounds the drive. The casing is very hard to scratch and protects the drive; It has hundreds of tiny vents that allow this tiny rhino to breathe effortlessly and keep the temperature down. The sturdy nature of the drive makes it ideal for stacking under other devices or objects, and it has to be said, it looks fantastic next to an iMac.
On the front face you will find a large elegant “G” with a single white light below. This light is used to show drive activity, but unlike most other hard drives, this light does not flash, instead it gets brighter when the drive is busy running. This is a nice twist on old age and annoying flickering, but as much as G-Technology has made great strides and effort in design, they may have gotten a little too excited about the light as it gets excessively bright during large data transfers. You may wonder “It’s just a little light, how bright could it really be?” and the answer is: pretty bright actually – they resemble the headlights of an oncoming car, which might not be a real problem, but if you’re someone who likes to work in the dark then you might want to stick a small piece of black electrical tape on the light.
Inside the box
External hard drives often come with nothing more than a USB cable, but you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find that G-Technology has provided in every box all the cables anyone will need to use this drive, and not the short ones manufacturers make . We have come to expect that G-Technology has instead provided us with cables of generous lengths. Inside the box you will find:
1 x 1.6 meter eSATA cable (black),
1 FireWire 800 cable 1.8 meters (white)
1 FireWire 400 cable 1.8 meters (white),
1 x 0.6 meter USB 2.0 cable (white)
1 G-DRIVE external hard drive
1 Universal AC Power Supply
1 manual CD
1 3-year factory warranty
Set up
Setting up this little rhino is a piece of cake: as simple as plugging in your chosen supplied interface cable, plugging in the AC/DC, and pressing the on/off button.
The drive comes plug-and-play ready for Mac computers, and it’s Time Machine-ready right out of the box, which is super handy. If you’re using Windows, then a simple and easy initialization is all you need to complete to get it up and running.
Performance and connectivity
Like an angry rhino attacking a pesky bird that just pulled a nasty prank, the G-Technology 2TB eSATA External Hard Drive is blazing fast and smooth. The drive runs at 7200rpm with up to 32MB of cache, which is relatively quiet considering this.
For the fastest performance, you should look to use the eSata port, where you can get transfer rates that exceed the 100MB/second mark, which is perfect for backing up your favorite Blu-ray movies at blazing speed. . You can also use the FW800 port, which is still extremely impressive at read and write speeds bordering on the 74MB/second and 60MB/second mark, respectively.
Size and weight
The G-Technology 2TB eSATA External Hard Drive is a 3.5″ external hard drive and measures approximately – (LxWxH) 9.25″ x 5.125″ x 1.82″ / 235 x 130 x 46mm and weighs 2.6 lbs / 1.2 kg, which is more or less standard for 3.5″ drives.
specs
SATAIII
7200RPM
Up to 32MB cache
Integrated heat sink for cooling
Size (LxWxH): 9.25″ x 5.125″ x 1.82″ / 235 x 130 x 46mm
Requires Mac OSX 10.3.x or higher or Windows 2000/XP/Vista
Price
The initial recommended retail price for this unit was US$329 / £189 in the UK, but you can get it for around 40% cheaper from online stores. It is strongly recommended that you check with them first.
conclusion
advantage
– Silent as a mouse
– USB 3.0 = Everything is SUPER fast
– Blazing transfer speeds
– Plug-and-play at its finest
– Comes with several generous length cables
– Instance setup with a Mac and 5 minute setup with Windows
cons
– Too bright light could have been reduced a bit
Being completely honest, I didn’t have high expectations for this drive, however I was really impressed and I can safely say that this is one of the best external hard drives on the market right now. It’s beautiful and smartly designed with strong, durable materials while delivering blazing transfer speeds. Some may be put off that it’s a 3.5″ sized drive, but if you don’t mind that, you’re in for a treat. If size is important to you, we’d recommend the Western Digital My Passport 2TB, for everyone else, As you probably As you may have gathered from this G-Technology 2TB eSATA External Hard Drive review, this is the drive to get.