G-Tech Drives...

Question

Level 1

145 points

G-Tech Drives...

Are they really worth the extra money?

In Canada they cost about 100$ more than the LaCie Quadro (500 GB for both).

I'll be using this drive for back-ups.

I have the money and don't mind spending it as long as the company and drive is reliable.

I've searched Apple Discussions and found people complaining about LaCie drives, but none about G-Tech. I know that's not the best thing to go by, but yeah.

Does anyone have any G-Tech drives that can say they've worked for a while (with Time Machine)?

Any horror stories?

Any information would be appreciated.

Thanks!

iMac -- Aluminium, 24", Mac OS X (10.5.6), 2.8 GHz Extreme Duo, 2GB RAM, ATI 2600 HDPRO 256MB, 500 GB HDD.

Posted on Dec 30, 2008 1:36 PM

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Answer 1

nerowolfe

Level 6

13,090 points

Dec 30, 2008 1:47 PM in response to Kuro Rai

I have been using the LaCie quadra drives (500 GB) for over a year with zero issues.
Some of the issues with LaCie were with older ones with bad power bricks, some issues with USB and some issues with some of their "exotic" drives, such as the Porche, etc.
The LaCie on this box has been running nearly continuously since I installed Leopard last November.
I think you might check into the details about LaCie failures.
More loonies does not necessarily mean a better drive 🙂
You might search these forums for any information on G-Tech drives. They might not be popular enough for any real failure statistics to show up.

On the other hand, I have an ancient Maxtor, a left-over from an old PC, which has been backing up my G5 for over a year, and again, zero issues with it.

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Answer 2

Kuro Rai Author

Level 1

145 points

Dec 30, 2008 2:27 PM in response to nerowolfe

Well, there are many people who, like you, say they've used their drives for many years (with or without Time Machine) without any problems. On the other hand, I can find stories of people who were very unlucky.

Most people with LaCie drive problems seem to have the drive "disappearing" from their desktop. It's less a drive failure (I believe) and more incompatibility, but still, I'd like to avoid it if I could.

And more money definitely doesn't mean the better drive, but if it does in this case, I'm willing to pay. XD.

And the argument about G-tech drives not being popular is a reasonable one; but someone before (somewhere else, I can't remember where) said that when people have a problem they will post up about it everywhere, but no on e has the time to post up anything about how good a drive is (upon using it). And that makes sense, too. So it's hard to say if they are unpopular or just aren't being recognised.

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Answer 3

nerowolfe

Level 6

13,090 points

Dec 30, 2008 3:16 PM in response to Kuro Rai

Kuro Rai wrote:
Well, there are many people who, like you, say they've used their drives for many years (with or without Time Machine) without any problems. On the other hand, I can find stories of people who were very unlucky.

Most people with LaCie drive problems seem to have the drive "disappearing" from their desktop. It's less a drive failure (I believe) and more incompatibility, but still, I'd like to avoid it if I could.

Many of these issues are for drives that are connected via USB, which, IMO, is not a proper interface for a backup drive, even though Apple has removed FW from new computers. USB seems to be a problematic interface on some Macs. My LaCies are all connected via FW.

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Answer 4

Kuro Rai Author

Level 1

145 points

Dec 30, 2008 3:26 PM in response to nerowolfe

Too true, USB is quite problematic.

I've tried two drives with Time Machine.

The first was a Seagate FreeAgent drive. USB only. Big mistake.
It worked for a handful of months,stopped working. Hooking up the drive just slows down/crashes my Mac.

The second drive I tried was a Western Digital Home Edition.
I bought it because it wasn't Seagate and it had FireWire (400, but still, better than USB). I didn't bother reading up too much on it. Apparently there is this whole issue with them and a FireWire firmware update that is highly recommended. It never even backed up my computer. Just froze. So I had to return it.

I realise deciding not to buy from a company after one bad experience isn't the best habit, but there are just too many people complaining about them. I'd rather not take the chance.

I plan to make sure my next drive is FireWire 800.

I am just having a hard time deciding between LaCie and G-Tech.

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Answer 5

Dec 31, 2008 12:42 AM in response to Kuro Rai

I've been using G-Tech drives in my video production studio for years. I've NEVER had a single problem with them. As a matter of fact I've used drives from many companies and personally I think LaCie make the worst drives on the planet. I have a whole closet full of LaCie drives in various sizes from 500GB to 2TB all with the same drive failures. As my drives are always spinning, storing HD video content, they get hot quite fast. My G-Tech drives have performed beautifully under these intense conditions. I now have six G-RAID3 drives connected to my workstation and I'm using one as a Time Machine backup disk. I have come to rely on G-Tech drives so much that I'm using them to back up data on my noisy Xserve RAID for which I plan to sell once everything is copied to my G-Techs. My second choice would be Maxtor.

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Answer 6

Kuro Rai Author

Level 1

145 points

Dec 31, 2008 11:02 PM in response to Karizma-Tafari

Have you only used the RAID drives?

Because those have fans in them... and they are clearly labelled with Hitachi drives inside -- what about the other models (the G-Drive Q in particular)?

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Answer 7

Kuro Rai Author

Level 1

145 points

Dec 31, 2008 11:07 PM in response to Karizma-Tafari

Oh, and I realise the Apple store does say Hitachi, but...

A. If you go on G-Techs site, the drives with Hitachi are clearly labelled.
B. Also, in G-Tech's product guide, at the bottom they say Hitachi drives, but not on all their models. (And yet the description on the same page says it does use Hitachi Drives...)
C. Apple's site also says that it only comes with a FireWire 800 cable -- G-Tech's site says it comes with all of them... so does their box.

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Answer 8

Jan 1, 2009 7:10 AM in response to Kuro Rai

I have 2. The first one I got right after Leopard came out to use with Time Machine. The second one I tried to get a couple of months later but they were sold out and it took 2 or 3 months to finally get it. I was on a waiting list. By the way this was at the factory store.

They both work great so far. Like I said, I use one for Time Machine and the other is partitioned for Movies and a bootable clone of my HD.

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Answer 9

Kuro Rai Author

Level 1

145 points

Jan 1, 2009 2:30 PM in response to lakewoodlawnman

But which model?

The G-Drive Q?

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Answer 10

Nina R

Level 1

28 points

Jan 2, 2009 10:14 AM in response to Kuro Rai

I have a 500 GB G-tech drive that I've been very happy with for 4 months. Using it in same fashion as Lakewoodlawnman. Right now I'm having a fairly serious problem with Time Machine, but I doubt that has anything to do with the drive (see my other post in this section).

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Answer 11

Kuro Rai Author

Level 1

145 points

Jan 2, 2009 2:25 PM in response to Nina R

Thanks for all your comments up to now!

I'm planning to buy a drive in a few days.
I'm leaning towards G-Tech for now... any other information would eb appricitated!

Thanks again!

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Answer 12

Kuro Rai Author

Level 1

145 points

Jan 14, 2009 7:58 PM in response to Kuro Rai

I've bought the Drive-Q.

It's worked great for two days.

So I doubt it'll stop working within a while.

It's not silent, but it is pretty quite.

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