G-Technology's external G-DRIVE mini / G-RAID mini appear with SSDs within

Across the way at Macworld, G-Technology has dropped in to launch what it (mistakenly) calls the industry's first family of external SSDs. Who knows, maybe it's playing up that "family" angle, but these certainly aren't the first SSDs to link up with machines from the outside. Minutiae aside, we're still pretty pumped about the G-DRIVE mini and G-RAID mini, both of which house 2.5-inch SSDs that promise to operate in a cooler, quieter fashion. The former unit is set to ship in 120GB and 250GB flavors, while the latter will arrive with 250GB or 500GB within. Also of note is the port assortment: USB 2.0, FireWire 800 and -- wait for it -- FireWire 400 (eSATA is included as well on the G-RAID mini). G-Technology asserts that the G-DRIVE minis will hit read rates of 75MB/sec and write speeds of 60MB/sec (the RAIDed siblings will top out at 195MB/sec), and nary a power supply is needed when using powered USB / FireWire sockets. Look for 'em to come pre-formatted for OS X later this month starting at $599.

[decapitor @ Jan 6th 2009 11:09PM]

yay let's all RAID our SLC SSDs and then connect them with USB2!!

[Shinigami @ Jan 6th 2009 11:11PM]

Why not eSATA?

[Erin @ Jan 11th 2009 12:04PM]

The G-RAID mini SSD offers eSATA.

[Shinigami @ Jan 6th 2009 11:11PM]

Sounds interesting, but do SSDs require any cooling?
Overpriced as usual but interesting.

I wonder why there isn't any price falling progress... Like 1TB SSD for $300 with good speeds...

[Erin @ Jan 11th 2009 12:09PM]

SSDs are more reliable, run cooler, and are quieter than traditional hard drives. All G-Technology drives include a cooling system whether it's a heat sink or fan...or both. The aluminum enclosure also acts as a head sink.

[Crayola @ Jan 6th 2009 11:12PM]

Donno what's emphasis with Firewire 400 is about, do you know that it is actually faster than USB 2.0 in sustained transfer with lower CPU load?

[andres @ Jan 6th 2009 11:56PM]

yes

[Nick @ Jan 7th 2009 2:46AM]

I believe it's a reference to Apple's removal of the FW400 port from its newest laptops.

[Danny @ Jan 6th 2009 11:25PM]

I don't understand why G-Technology's drives are so expensive. Can anyone shed some light on this?

*Not just talking this particular model but all of their drives.

[Michael Scrip @ Jan 7th 2009 1:59AM]

It's probably because they put so much effort into creating a good product. Sure, you could buy some bare drives and stick them into a RAID enclosure... but G-Tech makes a premium product and gives it a 3 year warranty. Their products aren't for the average Best Buy consumer. They cater to the professional video industry.

I just looked at their site, and they just launched the G-Raid 3. 2TB for $599. That seems expensive, based on what you'd pay for bare drives and an enclosure... but it's got eSATA plus Firewire and USB, a cooling fan and a warranty. It's hella fast too. It's a small price to pay if you need a fast drive for professional video. http://www.g-technology.com/products/g-raid3.cfm

The older G-Raid 2 is now $299 for a 1TB drive. That's not a bad price for a fast RAID-0 drive. 1TB still holds about 75 hours of DV !!!

[JP23 @ Jan 6th 2009 11:27PM]

Well that hit the G-Spot.

[Lucy @ Jan 24th 2009 12:12PM]

First off SSD is way to expensive, and why even bother using FireWire you loose all the speed benefits of SSD. I think this is crazy. Anyone who buys this has way too much money and just wants to say they have a SSD drive. It's really like putting a race car engine inside a broken down Ford Pinto. What's the point?

[strugglebrother @ Mar 2nd 2009 4:22PM]

I would just like to share my experience with the company G-Technology and the issues I’ve had with them after buying one of their hard drives.

I bought: G-TECH G-DRIVEQ 1TB 7200RPM 16MBCACHE FW400, FW800, USB2, Price: 199.00 GBP ex VAT. 2008-10.31. From the company Jigsaw in UK.

The drive, which I use for Time Machine backups, randomly unmounts itself on my brand new Apple Intel Tower all the time. It was connected to the Firewire 800 port.

I called Jigsaw right away to report a DOA fault and they asked me to not send it before doing a low level format, which I did and subsequently it appeared to be working again.

The following day my Apple Intel tower started to give me problems with the fan, so I called Apple and instantly they replaced my computer without asking any questions.

After a month the G-DriveQ randomly unmounts itself again on my second brand new computer. I checked connections and everything seemed fine. I’m doing Disc Utility repair and check, without any damage reports. So I switched to the other FireWire 800 port on the drive and checked the connections again.

However, the drive kept unmounting itself more frequently, Time Machine failed to backup to the drive 1 out of 5 times. Following, the spinning beach ball appeared when the drive was connected, moreover, I simply couldn’t use any applications when it was connected, and all problems disappears if I disconnected the drive.

So I called Jigsaw, they took the drive, including power supply and cables, in for repair and testing. After a couple of days, I get a phone call telling me they had tested it and nothing seemed to be wrong.

But they had tested it on an Apple Laptop, so they agreed to do some more testing, as the fault was random. After another 2 days I received another call telling me that after doing a low level format on an Apple Intel Tower the drive, connected to the Firewire 400 port on the drive, unmounted itself, gave them errors and couldn’t complete the format. Jigsaw sends it to G-Tech UK Support.

Subsequently, the G-Tech support in UK (GLOBAL) contacted Jigsaw after 2 days and said they were going to charge 30 pounds as they had tried to format it 3 times without any errors.

Next thing, I called G-Tech support UK. I spoke to the manager “Alex” who has been doing 3 formats of the drive (without even using my power supply or cables to test) and he was saying that he’d might be nice and make “an exception” and test it for one, maybe two days.

But if nothing were wrong after that, he would charge me an additional £30 this time. ‘This is the rule we have from G-Tech US’ he said.

He didn’t even suggest a new power supply or bother testing the cables.
RMA number for G-Tech support in Europe is “1229”. Jigsaw told me they will accept the first £30 from G-Tech but will also have to return the faulty drive to me.

So I call the US office to see how they would treat me. After talking to “Miguel” at G-Tech in US I get an apology and was told to send it to US and request a return with shipping from the G-Tech website. He told me that he was surprised that I had to send it to Jigsaw and not directly to them in the US as they manufacture the drives. I specifically ask if G-Tech will cover shipping and the answer from “Miguel” is ‘yes’.

Following, I receive an email with the RMA number to be shipped to G-Tech US. However in the email, it said: “Warranty states, you are responsible for shipping costs to G-Technology”.

Why was I receiving incorrect statements?
I have never in my life been responsible for the shipping costs of a hard drive or a computer that is faulty. The manufacturer simply comes and picks it up.

Here is my ongoing email conversation with G-Tech after this

From: Peo Haggstrom
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 08:54:24 +0000
To: G-Tech Support - Jj [e-mail]
Conversation: SUPPORT FROM G-TECH (Case# CS326343) (RMA# R183458)
Subject: Re: SUPPORT FROM G-TECH (Case# CS326343) (RMA# R183458)

Hi JJ
I specifically asked Miguel if shipping charges would we covered by G-Tech and his answer was yes. I neither can't or would like to pay any more costs for repairing a brand new broken hard drive, especially after all this hassle and time spent from my side trying to get help on this matter.

I have never being charged by any other computer or hard drive manufacturer in my whole life for shipping back a faulty item???

Please come back with how we proceed.
Best
Peo Häggström

From: Miguel Huerta
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 11:07:34 -0800
To: Peo Haggstrom
Cc: Jon Luna
Subject: FW: SUPPORT FROM G-TECH (Case# CS326343) (RMA# R183458)

Hello,
Sorry for the inconvenience, but we are unable to issue a call out of the US. I do not recall mentioning that we would be able to cover the shipping.

Sorry again for the inconvenience.

Regards,
Miguel Huerta
Technical Support
From: Peo Haggstrom
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:12:01 +0000
To: Miguel Huerta
Cc: Jon Luna
Conversation: SUPPORT FROM G-TECH (Case# CS326343) (RMA# R183458)
Subject: Re: SUPPORT FROM G-TECH (Case# CS326343) (RMA# R183458)

Hi Miguel

Just so I understand correctly?

After all this hassle, do I have to pay to ship the drive or not to you in the US even that the drive has been faulty since I bought it?

If so, it would mean that I have to pay extra costs for a drive that is not working from day one? This has never been the case with either Seagate, Lacie or Apple when I buy equipment from them. Is this your policy?

Best
Peo Haggstrom
From: Miguel Huerta
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 11:20:44 -0800
To: Peo Haggstrom
Cc: Jon Luna
Subject: RE: SUPPORT FROM G-TECH (Case# CS326343) (RMA# R183458)

Hello,
As I mentioned earlier, we just do not have the ability to issue a shipping label outside of the US. Sorry once again for the inconvenience.

Regards,
Miguel Huerta
Technical Support

From: Peo Haggstrom
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:29:25 +0000
To: Miguel Huerta
Cc: Jon Luna
Conversation: SUPPORT FROM G-TECH (Case# CS326343) (RMA# R183458)
Subject: Re: SUPPORT FROM G-TECH (Case# CS326343) (RMA# R183458)

HI Miguel

So what is your / G-Tech’s solution for me to get faulty drive to work without giving me any extra costs when your Europe support can’t help me?

Best

Peo Haggstrom

After this, there is silence.

I got the drive back from Jigsaw and I just tried it another time. After 100 Gb of Copying my computer freezes and I get the spinning beach ball again. There is clearly something wrong with it. Two brand new computers at my house gets errors and one computer at the place where I bought the drive. Still G-Tech is telling me that this is a working drive and wants me to waste more money on shipment and / or penalty costs!!!!!!

For being a high-end priced product with the slogan “The Best Warranty & Support in the Business, G-DRIVE Q is backed by a standard, 3-Year factory warranty and unlimited free technical support by representatives experienced with the latest content creation applications.” - this is not okay!

I spent the extra money hoping to, at the very least, be treated with acceptable support. Seagate and Lacie have never treated me this way. Lacie sent me a new power supply free of charge when one drive was acting strangely and I even received apologies for the trouble. Seagate came directly and picked one of my drives up, replaced it without any questions or extra costs.

I just left it there, as I don’t want to spend more money on this hard drive, it was already too expensive. I will simply buy a new one from another manufacturer.

Don’t waste money and precious time on G-Technology. You can buy a hard drive for half of the money without all this trouble if something goes wrong.

Anyone else had this from them?