Geek Blog - G|Drive Mini Review
Geek Blog - G|Drive Mini Review
G|Drive Mini Review
This is my review of the G|Drive mini. I purchased this drive about two months ago after I had some issues with my Time capsule, you can read that post here. After I had lost my previous time machine backups, I then decided that I wanted a portable drive to carry out my time machine backups, when I am out and about using my macbook pro. This way I can carry this around the drive with me while I am away, also if I make a mistake on the road I will have my backups with me.
I have in the past always purchased iomega portable drives as they have always been reliable for me and they have always performed well. This time I wanted to try out something new, I have read good reviews and heard many good things about the drives that are available from G-Technology, so I thought I would give it a go.
I chose the 320Gb (5400 rpm), as this is twice the size of the drive in my laptop, I would only be using this as my time machine drive, so this has enough capacity for me. I believe the drive cost me £79.95 from the Apple store.
Wednesday, 21 April 2010
The device its self become very well packaged, once you open the box the drive its self is contained within a thick protective foam casing, a drive is wrapped inside a bag, to prevent scratches on the aluminum body..
Underneath the drive there was a separating flap which stored a carry case along with the software cd and several cables to connect the drive to your machine. There are three cables provided all 0.6m in length, there is a firewire 800 cable, a firewire 800 -> 400 cable and a USB cable.
As soon as I connected it up the computer recognised the drive, mounted it and it was ready to use. I made the change in Time machine preferences to use this as my drive, and with straight away my new time machine backup started. The transfer rate was very impressive, I was using firewire 800, at this time I have not got any statistics, but I will collate some and post them here.
It is a very small portable drive, carrying it around even in the protective case is not really an issue, the actual size of the drive is:
Length 4.94 inch
Width 3.19 inch
Height 2.2 cm
The drive itself is very quiet, even after a lot of use the drive stays cool, it has an integrated heat sink and the case is made of aluminum to help keep the running temperature down. As you can see from the picture on the left, it has a power adapter slot, although I have not needed an external power supply as the drive is bus powered.
Overall so far I have been more than impressed with the drive it has performed incredibly well, if anyone is looking for a good portable drive I would recommend a G|Drive for both Windows and Mac users.
As always, I am always interested in all feedback. so feel free to add any comments here