G-Tech 913003-01 G-Drive 500GB Quad-Interface External Hard Drive

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review




Have two of them, October 21, 2009
By R. Gilmartin (Charlotte, NC United States)
I purchased two of these over a year ago to take the place of two other external drives that I had simply outgrown. I travel internationally every week (Europe, Canada) and these get both used and abused (I try to protect them from being hit or handled too roughly, but they're in the computer case with my MacBook Pro). I have (so far) had zero problems or issues with them. They are compact, quiet, fast, efficient, and stay relatively cool. There are times when they seem to overheat a little, but not often.

I will be transitioning one of the drives' data to a larger 1TB version (G-raid mini) as soon as I get back to my home office from Canada this coming weekend - that one has a fan and may produce more noise. Our offices also have a number of LaCie drives and our experience with those has been uneven, so we're trying to transition our drive banks to G-technology over the near-mid term.



REVISED RATING AFTER 3 FAILED UNITS, & CHANGE MAKES LESS FRIENDLY FOR WINDOWS USERS, October 2, 2009
By Rex (Los Angeles, USA)
I purchased this drive, my 5th of its kind, in July 2009. These have proved very reliable and well built in the past and very flexible. Have used these for both Mac and Windows in the past and this last one was to be reformatted to NTFS format for use with Windows. This has not been a problem in the past since it only required a simple reformatting on a Windows computer. Not so with this last drive. G-Tech has apparently determined that most of its customers are Mac based, so they have added a new "feature" which prevents the drive from being easily reformatted to a non-Mac format. There was no information regarding this with the drive or its instructions, nor any apparent change in the advertising that it works for both Mac and Windows--it arrived with exactly the same info as the previous 4 drives. The only info I could find on the G-Tech website suggested that now Windows users would just have to buy and use a third party application such as MacDrive which allows Windows to write to Mac formatted drives. Rather bogus. A Google of the problem did come up with a way to remove this "lock" that worked well and did allow me to reformat the drive to NTFS, so no real problem. However, this does make it a bit more difficult than a simple reformatting and some users may not wish to go there, so be forewarned.

It seems that this drive, the Q (quad 4 port), is being discontinued in favor of one that has only 3 ports--they are loosing the firewire 400 port and including a firewire 400 to 800 cable instead. In their advertising of the new replacement, they state "A simple initialization is all it takes to prepare G-DRIVE for use with Windows® systems". Don't know what that entails, but wish they had been a little more informative regarding the change on this last G-Drive Q that I purchased.

I also need to report that this drive failed after about 40 to 60 hours of scanning photos that were saved to the drive. I started getting warning messages and then the drive could not be seen by either a Windows or Mac computer. I had no access to rescan, so panic ensued. Luckily, when the unit cooled off, the data was still there and it worked long enough for me to back up the files before it started failing again. I called G-Tech and the service tech was very helpful. Sent the drive in, they replaced an interface card, tested it, and returned it promptly without any data loss. This was a very good customer service experience.

Prior to this, I would have given the drive 5 stars instead of just 4 stars. Hope Hitachi, the new owner of G-Technology, can maintain the quality G-Tech has been known for in the past.

ADDENDUM AND RATING CHANGE (4 months and 3 drives later . . .) Well, I have changed my 4 star rating to a one star I'm sorry to have to say. I wrote the previous review after getting off the phone with a service tech at G-Technology who had just informed me that my repaired drive with recovered files was being shipped overnight. Well, it arrived DOA--neither a Mac OS X or Windows XP could see the drive with firewire 800, 400, or USB, so it was returned. The next drive was the new Generation 4 drive and worked fine for about 2 weeks then became "invisible" to both Windows and Mac computers using firewire 800 after some fairly heavy use (unit became warm). After a short period I tried USB and that worked for one session and then quit working (on 2 Windows computers and 1 Mac). I then tried the new firewire 800 to 400 cable on another Windows computer and that worked. I then tried the unit back on the computer it had failed on using fw800 and USB, and now all was working. CONCLUSION: THIS THIRD DRIVE WAS UNRELIABLE. (heat and/or component problem ???)

Now after trying to deal further with the service department and their untimely or no response (and missed promises as to when repaired units were being shipped, etc.), I must find another external drive manufacturer that makes a product as reliable as the G-Tech Q USED TO BE and one that has a more responsive service department.

It seems that since Hitachi has taken over G-Tech, the products and customer service has suffered and gone from a 5 star highly recommended product to a one star "be very wary of" product, with the new Gen 4 version the "G-drive", highly questionable. I must apologize to my friends and the businesses I have recommended this product to and hope they have not had to deal with the problems of the new units.

RIP original G-Tech, my older 4 drives are still great.



External G-Tech 500GB 7200 RPM Drive is Great, September 24, 2009
By J. Riley
This is my second G-Tech drive. I'm very happy with both. I wanted a faster drive so I got the 7200 rpm version. It is noticeably faster. The only downside is this drive is bigger and heavier. For me speed is more important than size and weight.

The drive looks nice. It is quiet. Has all the interfaces you could want. Comes with all the necessary cables and power adapter. Instructions are good. The drive appears built well; I expect it will hold up on the road.



Quality unit that packs a punch!, July 11, 2009
By Eric R. Tachell
I purchased this drive to be used as a backup drive for Time Machine on my iMac. The Firewire 800 port is the fastest external connection I got and wanted to utilize it to make Time Machine backup sessions quick. The drive works perfectly and was setup with Time Machine in about 3 clicks. It also come with all the cables needed to connect to a PC or Mac and has a second Firewire 800 port for daisy chain purposes.

Couple of other points. There is no cooling fan, so it does need to sit in the open, but I've never seen it get hot enough to cause a problem. It is also not whisper quiet. The heads click pretty good when it wakes up and is writing. Another point is that you can void the warranty and install a bigger drive in the case without any hassle.



POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE, July 11, 2009
By Marco Balzano (Phoenix, AZ)
I purchased two G-Drive Combo two years ago.I sent one of them in for repair 3 WEEKS AGO and still haven't been able to get them to tell me what is wrong with my drive. The first two calls they were not able to find my drive, they lost it...After the Third and Fourth call on Friday the customer service guy told me to call back on Monday. He also said to expect to be on hold for about an hour. Each time I call I am on hold for about 20 minutes.
DO NOT PURCHASE ANY PRODUCT FROM THIS COMPANY YOU WILL BE SORRY.