1 tb g drive?

B

bluekayak

Member
Hi

I forked out for a 1TB G-drive for editing in hi-def and before I open and put it into service want opinions from the pros

Is it a good choice and/or is there a more suitable drive I should be looking at?


Thanks (again)
 
I've had many and have never had a problem with a single one.

I'm sure others will chime in who have had a problem, but keep in mind that people who are pleased with the performance of their purchases rarely say anything. It's always the problems you hear about.

That said, no hard drive is bulletproof, and a good backup plan is always recommended.
 
bluekayak said:
Hi

I forked out for a 1TB G-drive for editing in hi-def
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Well, it's a nice drive. But your statement worries me. Sounds to me like you intend for this single drive to handle all your chores for HD editing. If that's the case, I think you're going to find yourself with some issues.

Editing HD or beyond is about managing media and drives. And it's a VERY rare occurrence where one drive is sufficient. Typically, you'll want a drive for your OS/Programs, a drive for your source files, a drive you render to, and perhaps even some drives you archive to. But at the VERY least, you should not be putting your source media and your rendered files onto the same drive. Performance while rendering will plummet.
 
Stephen Mick said:
I'm sure others will chime in who have had a problem.
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And here they are :cheesy:

We have about 20 units from G-Tech. In the last year we have had 12 failures, but that wasnt the big issue....The problem was it took G-tech 4 month to issue a RMA number so we could send them back for warranty repair. I had to post and blog about it so they would honor thier warranty.

They simply kept saying they had a huge backlog of drives they needed to repair and we had to wait until they went through those first.

IMPROTANT: G-Tech does NOT repair drives out of warranty. So if your unit fails out of warranty you have to buy a new one from them.:kali:

We switched to caldigit.
 
emretufekci said:
... it took G-tech 4 month to issue a RMA number...We switched to caldigit.
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Neither G-tech nor Caldigit make hard drives. They only sell boxes with other people's hard drives in them. This is why I see no value in paying premium prices for "name brand" drive boxes. You can go and buy the same hard drives that they can. And pay less for the privilege.:badputer:
 
I bought a 1 TB WesternDigital a while back, and haven't had any problems. It seems to have run out of space rather quickly though...
 
Richard Crowley said:
Neither G-tech nor Caldigit make hard drives. They only sell boxes with other people's hard drives in them. This is why I see no value in paying premium prices for "name brand" drive boxes. You can go and buy the same hard drives that they can. And pay less for the privilege.:badputer:
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Actually Hitachi purchased G-Tech so they do both now. The units we had problems were the Raid 1 (G-Safe) drives so the casings were the important part as they were standalone hardware/software combination.

The Jbods and other stuff, I agree...especially if the "high priced shiny casing" company does not stand behind their products.
 
I had a 1T G go down because I accidentally unpluged it. I sent it back and they repaired it and sent it back in a week. This was 2 years ago and I guess since they were purchased by a big Co, you don't get the service. :kali:
Mule
 
Man, glad I posted this It might be obvious I know squat about any of this, so greatly appreciate any heads ups

Think I will return this drive and reconsider options, any suggestions welcome My primary machine is a MacBook Pro 2.8 Ghz Intel core 2 Duo

Thanks again
 
bluekayak said:
Man, glad I posted this It might be obvious I know squat about any of this, so greatly appreciate any heads ups

Think I will return this drive and reconsider options, any suggestions welcome My primary machine is a MacBook Pro 2.8 Ghz Intel core 2 Duo

Thanks again
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So 2 people posted marginal reviews and that's causing you to return it! If that's the case you'll never keep anything if you ask opinions here!!!

I'd suggest also searching CNET, Mac world and other sites for objective performance reviews. I've yet to read an unfavorable review. I have two at home, one a work and a RAID at work and haven't had an issue with G Drives. The staff at the Apple Store I patronize all claim to use them as their personal drives, over WD and Lacie.

Perrone has raised an important issue. One drive will not be enough, just like one tape isn't enough in HDV or one CF card is not enough for a stills camera. I work with three drives for editing beyond the drive my OS is on and I still feel vulnerable if one fails. Before returning it, you might want to create a data management plan for yourself and read about people's workflow. Chase Jarvis has a good entry in his blog, which is also available on Vincent Laforet's blog, about data management..
 
Richard Crowley said:
Neither G-tech nor Caldigit make hard drives. They only sell boxes with other people's hard drives in them. This is why I see no value in paying premium prices for "name brand" drive boxes. You can go and buy the same hard drives that they can. And pay less for the privilege.:badputer:
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all true but the quality of the housing for the unit defers from company to company. Allowing for better throughput to your esata/fw/usb interfaces. Most of these external hard drives typically run in a raid fashion, and having a rock solid reliable hardware raid is just as important as the brand of internal hard drives themselves. Single disks however are a different issue, and you are merely paying for the convenience of having a pre enclosed drive for you. Going to these reputable companies like caldigit or g drive IMHO is better if you are looking for pre configured raid setups, even if it's just a 2 disk raid 0, and expecting a level of quality assurance over a bunch of cheaper components you slap together.


But back on point, I like g drives, great heat distribution, good build quality, good quality internal drives and components, and offer a good customer support. You should also check out OWC, they do a lot of their own stuff but offer very cost effective middle to high quality solutions.
 
I may have spoken to soon about returning the g-drive - called apple and there's no rush

At this point it seems like I need to know if this particular g-drive is the right model(it's not raid) and which other(s) I should look at to go with it and what each one will be doing (phew)

Will take a look at the workflow threads mentioned

Thanks again
 
You might want to take a look at the OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 RAID, I've been using one for a few months now and it is both fast and reliable.

OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 RAID

I bought the empty RAID case for $320, and then added my own Western Digital 1.5 TB Green drives, which are about $95 each in Canada, so for about $700 you would have a 6 TB RAID, that connects to pretty much any computer.

If money is really tight, you can start with just one drive, and then add more as you go.

The best feature of going this route, is that you can set the drive up as a RAID 5 box, which will guarantee no data will be lost if one drive fails. ( you just pop in a replacement drive, and the drive will automatically rebuild the RAID )

Using an eSATA 2.0 connection, I am getting about 200 MB/sec READ speed, and about 180 MB/sec WRITE speed.
 
OWC has the fastest customer support ive every dealt with on just about anything. my experience with them is once they get a drive in for repair there is a ONE day turn time to get it out the door and back to your doorstep before you can blink.

ive bought about 15 mercury elites 500gb,1tb & 1.5tb's, a couple of there cheaper externals and at least a dozen or more bare HD's mostly 1-1.5tb. there have been a few failures but they have always be very quick to fix them.

david
www.davidprobst.com
 
Bobonli said:
So 2 people posted marginal reviews and that's causing you to return it! If that's the case you'll never keep anything if you ask opinions here!!!

Perrone has raised an important issue. One drive will not be enough, just like one tape isn't enough in HDV or one CF card is not enough for a stills camera. I work with three drives for editing beyond the drive my OS is on and I still feel vulnerable if one fails. Before returning it, you might want to create a data management plan for yourself and read about people's workflow. Chase Jarvis has a good entry in his blog, which is also available on Vincent Laforet's blog, about data management..
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Thanks for that one, will take it to heart, especially need to educate myself about workflow, data management etc This is fresh territory so all of this is pretty interesting and can see why it makes sense to pay pros and let them do the worrying

On the other hand I did that and the results weren't all that great, which is what got me thinking if you want it done right do it yourself

There's a chance I'll be traveling for a fairly important interview Any sort of failure would be disastrous and there won't be any second chances



As to the marginal reviews, 12 failures out of 20 doesn't seem all that marginal, and even worse the customer service nightmare part of that story brings to mind past experiences I don't want to repeat

Technology is definitely a double-edged sword


Thanks again everybody for the input
 
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