G-RAID drives??? Your experiences?

The Sarlacc

Well-known member
So, these drives are supposed to be some of the best externals out there right?

I guess I bought a lemon? I got the 500gb drive, and I am having troubles with it.

I am trying to transfer FCP files from a La Cie drive for back up. I am moving the files in smaller groups to avoid a mass transfer. When it gets to certain files I get a Error -36 telling some of the data cannot be read or written. After such error the drive (in 2 partitions) no longer show any data whatsoever to be on the drive. On top of that I can no longer eject the drive. And it slows my computer down enormously.

So, all I can do after that is shut down the computer and restart. When I remount the GRAID it shows up fine and dandy with all the info ready to work again until it get those supposedly bad files.

Except i can copy those "bad" right onto my powerbook's drive with no issues. But the same problem with the GRAID happens if I try and move the file from the powerbook to the GRAID.

I called Melrose Mac in Hollywood where I got the drive, and they passed the buckw ith the phone about 3 times. I then was landed with the service dude who kept running back to the techs but would deliver half the information...he kept omitting the drive would essentially crash or stop working after the error. Fed up and annoyed with them I tried to called the Burbank store. I got an actual Tech, but they seemed to not know any better. Try using FW400, maybe there is right protection, etc etc etc. If it was any of those issues then why would the drive crash/cease to eject/etc???

Luckily, I am in my 30 day period and I am going to just exchange it tomorrow. I am currently trying to perform a 7 pass erase which says it wants to take 10 hours. :yikes:

So, I guess I got a lemon of a drive? What are your GRAID experiences. Did I just get a bad seed, and I should be OK exchanging it for another one? Or is GRAID not as good as I thought that were supposed to be and I should get a different make/model?

Thanks in advance.
 
Are all the drives formatted HFS +/Mac OS extended ?
I mean both the LaCie and the drives in the GRaid.

What are the drives in the GRaid ? Hitachi, WD, Seagate or ...

I have no direct experience of the GRaid - but I know many who use them and swear by them.
 
I have 2 and they have always worked flawlessly.

Definitely exchange it.

If you get the same error I'd say some of your data is corrupted.
 
The data is not corrupt. Can't be.

1) it tranfers from the La Cie to my powerbook's HD just fine. No errors.

2) I have already edited footage with the very same files, and it works.

3) its just random files. It will transfer 5-6 fine, then boom. decide this one should error.

But its not JUST the error. When the error occurs it CRASHES the drive. It wont unmount. It wont show data. Its just stuck there doing nothing.

I am not in the process of trying to format the drive completely, and I keep getting input/output errors when I try and zero it out or try a 7 pass erase.

This drive is definately bunk. I guess I got a lemon. I will exchange it for another in the morning. For the cost of these things I am not going to just keeping testing it.
 
You need to specify if it's formatted for mac or if it's fat32 which will always give you an error on any file over 2 gigs. I have one for my mac and it ha been great for the past three years. The fact that you can copy to your powerbook proves nothing because the PB hard drive is formatted for mac and can handle any file size.
 
Formatted for mac.

I always format my drives when I take them out of the box.

The drive will not format properly at this point. I keep getting failures.

This drive is shot. Its getting exchanged in the morning.
 
I took it back to Melrose Mac in Burbank today. They were very nice, and just did an immeadiate swap out of the drives.

So far this new drive seems to be working just fine.

I have generally had very good experiences with the Hollywood store...I just did not have one yesterday over the phone. And who ever I got stuck with at the end of the chain who was failing to pass along important information.

I will still do business with them and recommend them to people.

Here's to hoping this new driving is working the way its supposed to.
 
I'm glad you got yours replaced. I've been using a GRAID 500 for over a year with no problems at all.

In fact, as of yesteday, my new GRAID PRO 2 TB drive has shipped. I can't wait!!!
 
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