Price : Too low to display
Portable High-Performance Dual-Drive Storage System. The new G-RAID mini now features both RAID 0 and fail-safe RAID 1 operation, a high-speed quad interface and storage capacities up to 1TB. It is the ideal portable storage solution for safe-guarding content downloaded from professional tapeless video cameras. Production houses and creative studios will appreciate its small compact size and tough, all-aluminum enclosure, which make it perfect for capturing and editing on the go or while working on location. G-RAID mini is capable of delivering an unprecedented 120+ MB/second transfer rate when connected via eSATA in RAID 0 mode. G-RAID mini is FireWire bus-powered even when connected via eSATA. Easy to Setup - G-RAID mini is ready right out of the box for use with Mac OSX systems and appears to the system as a single, big and fast disk drive. A simple reformat is all it takes to ready G-RAID mini for use with Windows systems. The Best Warranty & Support in the Business-G-Tech's 3-Year WarrantyG-RAID mini is backed by a standard 3-year factory warranty and unlimited free technical support by representatives experienced with the latest content creation applications.
This review is from : G-Technology G-RAID mini 500GB Dual External Hard Drive w/ eSATA, USB 2.0, Firewire 400, Firewire 800 Interfaces and RAID 0/1 0G00233
Does the Job . I use this for heavy video capturing and editing on the road, and it's been holding up great (depsite the abuse I put it through). The drive spins fast enough to edit HD content, and I've never had any issues with it.
The only problem I have with this is the port situation. My G-Drive Mini has a FW800, FW400 and a USB plug. The ideal situation would be dual FW800 ports for daisy-chaining without ruining the bus speed. Aside from that, it's great!
Does the Job . I use this for heavy video capturing and editing on the road, and it's been holding up great (depsite the abuse I put it through). The drive spins fast enough to edit HD content, and I've never had any issues with it.
The only problem I have with this is the port situation. My G-Drive Mini has a FW800, FW400 and a USB plug. The ideal situation would be dual FW800 ports for daisy-chaining without ruining the bus speed. Aside from that, it's great!
G-Technology G-RAID mini 500GB Dual External Hard Drive w/ eSATA, USB 2.0, Firewire 400, Firewire 800 Interfaces and RAID 0/1 0G00233 Reviews
Great little drive . Usual G-Tech beautiful design. Great lightweight drive. Fast enough to edit SD video footage, and a great back up drive. You can find a drive with the same specs for less, but it won't be as well made, and probably not as reliable.
Great little drive . Usual G-Tech beautiful design. Great lightweight drive. Fast enough to edit SD video footage, and a great back up drive. You can find a drive with the same specs for less, but it won't be as well made, and probably not as reliable.
G-Technology G-RAID mini 500GB Dual External Hard Drive w/ eSATA, USB 2.0, Firewire 400, Firewire 800 Interfaces and RAID 0/1 0G00233 Opinions
The proof is in the eating of the pudding as they say . Portable drives are commodities these days, and with manufacturers cutting costs to compete on price, it seems hard to find a dependable drive no matter who makes it. This drive is one way of addressing the issue, since it can be set up to write the same information to two drives (RAID 1).
I bought one of the first of these devices back in the Fall of 2009, and wrote a review that has since disappeared (the device has been updated, I guess, but it still looks identical to mine). My initial review was not exactly favorable, since I had to send the unit back and G-Tech was slow in responding. I also ran into some initial difficulties getting the drive to mount regularly, but I think that may have been my error. One thing to note if you're a PC user: you'll need to use an extra power source if you use the USB connection. Firewire400 & 800 carry enough power for both drives, but not USB. Fortunately, there's an AC adapter included (as well as all the cables you'll need plus a leather case with elastic cable storage) and everything seems to be of good quality.
The drive comes set up as RAID 0 (striped), but there is a downloadable utility for changing this to RAID 1 (mirror). One reviewer mentioned trouble with the software, but I didn't have any issues - you do have to make sure you download the proper software from their website, though. The software is also on an included CD, but I would recommend the most recent version from the G-Tech website.
I mentioned that I had to send the unit back to G-Tech early on: one of the two enclosed drives failed within three days of opening the box. That's not unusual with electronics... the first 90 days are sort of a shake-out period. The failure give me the chance to see the drive in action and witness the redundant feature. When the drive failed, I saw a flashing red LED through the ventilation holes. This happens at start-up, but it is quickly replaced with a white LED once the drives spin up. In this case, the white LED never came on, so I knew something was wrong. The volume still mounted, however - the intact drive was still operational, and was mounting as if nothing was wrong. Very cool! Since it was under warranty, I returned it for service, but now I think I'd just replace the drive myself - it's really quite easy.
In any event, the drive has proven itself worthy of five stars. Here I am almost two years later, having used and toted this drive around with me daily, usually plugging it in to several machines each day. I even dropped it from waist high to cement (it was in its case), which warped the shell just a tad. About a year ago I upgraded the internal drives to Samsung 640GB 7200rpm Spinpoint drives, which was extremely easy to do. The native drives are Hitachi (owners of G-Tech), and I like Hitachi drives, but the Spinpoint were better-rated for speed, noise and heat. They've been great, btw, and I'll probably move to 1TB drives if Samsung brings out 7200rpm versions of the Spinpoint.
Through all that, the drive has performed flawlessly - the fan might have gotten just a wee bit louder, but it's still very quiet and non-intrusive (no whine - just the sound of moving air). It's fast and roomy, and I completely trust it at this point. I carry important documents and large files with me daily, and can't afford to lose a copy of something that I am given by my clients. This drive is a nice bit of insurance in that regard, and I highly recommend it.
The proof is in the eating of the pudding as they say . Portable drives are commodities these days, and with manufacturers cutting costs to compete on price, it seems hard to find a dependable drive no matter who makes it. This drive is one way of addressing the issue, since it can be set up to write the same information to two drives (RAID 1).
I bought one of the first of these devices back in the Fall of 2009, and wrote a review that has since disappeared (the device has been updated, I guess, but it still looks identical to mine). My initial review was not exactly favorable, since I had to send the unit back and G-Tech was slow in responding. I also ran into some initial difficulties getting the drive to mount regularly, but I think that may have been my error. One thing to note if you're a PC user: you'll need to use an extra power source if you use the USB connection. Firewire400 & 800 carry enough power for both drives, but not USB. Fortunately, there's an AC adapter included (as well as all the cables you'll need plus a leather case with elastic cable storage) and everything seems to be of good quality.
The drive comes set up as RAID 0 (striped), but there is a downloadable utility for changing this to RAID 1 (mirror). One reviewer mentioned trouble with the software, but I didn't have any issues - you do have to make sure you download the proper software from their website, though. The software is also on an included CD, but I would recommend the most recent version from the G-Tech website.
I mentioned that I had to send the unit back to G-Tech early on: one of the two enclosed drives failed within three days of opening the box. That's not unusual with electronics... the first 90 days are sort of a shake-out period. The failure give me the chance to see the drive in action and witness the redundant feature. When the drive failed, I saw a flashing red LED through the ventilation holes. This happens at start-up, but it is quickly replaced with a white LED once the drives spin up. In this case, the white LED never came on, so I knew something was wrong. The volume still mounted, however - the intact drive was still operational, and was mounting as if nothing was wrong. Very cool! Since it was under warranty, I returned it for service, but now I think I'd just replace the drive myself - it's really quite easy.
In any event, the drive has proven itself worthy of five stars. Here I am almost two years later, having used and toted this drive around with me daily, usually plugging it in to several machines each day. I even dropped it from waist high to cement (it was in its case), which warped the shell just a tad. About a year ago I upgraded the internal drives to Samsung 640GB 7200rpm Spinpoint drives, which was extremely easy to do. The native drives are Hitachi (owners of G-Tech), and I like Hitachi drives, but the Spinpoint were better-rated for speed, noise and heat. They've been great, btw, and I'll probably move to 1TB drives if Samsung brings out 7200rpm versions of the Spinpoint.
Through all that, the drive has performed flawlessly - the fan might have gotten just a wee bit louder, but it's still very quiet and non-intrusive (no whine - just the sound of moving air). It's fast and roomy, and I completely trust it at this point. I carry important documents and large files with me daily, and can't afford to lose a copy of something that I am given by my clients. This drive is a nice bit of insurance in that regard, and I highly recommend it.
Cons Review
500 GB G-RAID mini . The FIRST time I used this hard drive the built-in-fan broke & the hard drive is now completely useless. I'm sure that this is uncommon so early in ownership, but I have heard that these drives are notorious for having the built-in-fans go bad eventually anyway. What a bummer!
Blech . Although I think this item is discontinued, I won't buy any more G-RAID products. I've only had this drive for 2.5 years, and it's already dead (it came with a 2 year warranty, which I suppose is pretty good for a manufacturer warranty). I really didn't use it that much so I am surprised it died already. But there were a bunch of things that annoyed me about it.
- it claimed to be able to do one stream of HD. But it couldn't. It could do 1 stream of HDV, which is not a big deal at 25 mbs. I did a read/write test on it, and it wasn't fast enough to do HD despite it's claims,even using the FW800 port.
- It uses Hitachi hard drives - in this case the drives outlasted the enclosure which surprised me. But that's a substandard HDD if you ask me.
- the AC power adapter is clunky and unmanageable.
The company didn't offer any help either. They said they don't support that product anymore. And weren't very helpful in general. I get that - they can't support stuff forever. But I've been on the phone with other video companies (like Varizoom) and they bend over backwards to help you. These folks don't seem to care.
The only saving grace is that I was able to pull out the hard drives (two 250 g drives) and reformat them. That's about $100 worth back.
- it claimed to be able to do one stream of HD. But it couldn't. It could do 1 stream of HDV, which is not a big deal at 25 mbs. I did a read/write test on it, and it wasn't fast enough to do HD despite it's claims,even using the FW800 port.
- It uses Hitachi hard drives - in this case the drives outlasted the enclosure which surprised me. But that's a substandard HDD if you ask me.
- the AC power adapter is clunky and unmanageable.
The company didn't offer any help either. They said they don't support that product anymore. And weren't very helpful in general. I get that - they can't support stuff forever. But I've been on the phone with other video companies (like Varizoom) and they bend over backwards to help you. These folks don't seem to care.
The only saving grace is that I was able to pull out the hard drives (two 250 g drives) and reformat them. That's about $100 worth back.
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FTM64GX25H
Product Details
EAN : 0705487181456UPC : 705487181456
MPN : GRM3500X
Brand : G-Technology
Weight : 3 pounds
Height : 5 inches
Length : 9 inches
Width : 9 inches
Binding : Personal Computers
Hardware Platform : Mac
Manufacturer : G-Technology
Model : 0G00233
Publisher : G-Technology
SKU : SYNX2549954
Studio : G-Technology
Where To Buy
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