G-Technology - G-DRIVE Mobile R-Series 500GB External USB 3.1 Gen 2 Portable SSD - Black/Silver

While there are definitely cheaper and larger storage “platter” USB drives available, in my opinion, they will not give you the peace of mind this drive will. Bottom line is it’s a very fast, very durable external drive especially suited for “road warriors”. Drive is preformatted for Mac OS. If you don’t reformat the drive when you try to use in Windows it wont show up in your drive list using file explorer but will in file manager – but it is unusable. So if you are going to use in Windows you will need to reformat it. If you aren’t comfortable using windows file manager or 3rd party partition software WD does provide software to reformat (I was provided with this link from WD) https://www.g-technology.com/campaign/landing/windows-paragon. I did download/install it and once started it will ask you to name drive, assign letter and stated it would re-format drive to NTFS. It does keep the drive as GPT (can have any number of partitions as opposed to MBR which basically allows just 2). You can also find the software “Windows Wizard(zip)”if you drill down in g-technology.com website - which is given in the manual. https://www.g-technology.com/products/portable/g-drive-mobile-ssd-r-series#0G06052 If you don’t plan on using multiple partitions and don’t want to waste drive space due to GPT overhead you can change to MBR - or if you don’t want to use NTFS - you will have to use windows file manager, or free partition software such as MiniTool Partition, to change. In the box is; Minimal instruction manual. G-Drive (manufactured by WD) Comes with a USB-C to USB-C and a USB-C to USB 3.0/2.0 cables. The 2 cables are a tad over 4 ½ inches in length. Positives; The drive is nicely constructed with a protective aluminum core which is stated to help prevent overheating and maintain high performance. The enclosure, while not “soft” has slots that are also supposed to insulate the drive when in use. I found it a pleasing form/shape. Exact size of drive is 3.74” x 1.97” x 0.57” and easily fits in your hand/pocket. It is built to be tossed around and states it can be dropped from 10 feet, is water/dust resistant and has a 1000lb crush point. I have to say that I did not test any of these but given its construction I don’t doubt its claims. Given its size I did a little digging and it seems that it is using an M.2 SSD, although I could not found out the exact “model”. I have previously tested internal WD (Western Digital) 500GB blue SSD and Samsung EVO 860 500GB drives using CrystalDiskMark. This drive is faster than both of these internal drives! What I found interesting is that the drive was slightly faster using USB 3.1 than USB C? Not much faster but I would have expected the other way around. This bodes well for those that don’t have USB C and will be using 3.1 for connection. I used my laptop, a Samsung Notebook 9 pro, with nothing else running but the test. Since I can only attach 2 pictures for review - they are G-drives scores using USB 3.1 and USB-C. I did not notice any change in temp on the drive when running my speed tests. 5 year limited warranty Negatives; Provided cables are a tad short at just over 4 ½ inches. They worked fine with my laptop but if you have a desktop with the USB connections in front – I suspect the drive will be suspended in the air. Or as with my desktop where the USB connections are on top - the drive is not flat and is on-end, kind of in a half loop. Activity light is on the bottom of the drive, so just a tad hard to see, especially if using desktop as noted prior. Does not come with any software. My biggest issue was with drives formatting. It comes pre-formatted for use in MAC OS (apple) which isn’t a big deal to reformat but to me this isn’t made clear - other than a little “blurb” on the side of the box where it mentions Windows and states “(via reformat)”.

As a photographer and Videographer that shoots in the field, it is ever important to me to have reliable fast data transfer and storage. With SSD drives becoming more user accessible, now is the time to upgrade your storage and never look back. The speed at which you can read and write to SSD’s over the older spinning hard drives is of no comparison. This drive boasts transfer speeds up to 560MB/s. Gone are the days of waiting for older hard drives to spin up. With SSD’s your editing becomes an extension of your creativity, not a hindrance. I am using this drive to edit 4K footage in Premiere Pro. Granted I use proxies to make scrubbing buttery smooth, the playback and speed of this external drive is the same as editing from an internal SSD. This drive utilizes the USB C interface and plugs into my laptops USB C port natively, making it VERY fast and extremely efficient. It also comes with the older USB 3.0/2.0 cable in case your system does not include a USB C port. Reliability is also extremely important when choosing storage. G-Drive (owned and operated by Western Digital) has garnered a great reputation and have become a go-to drive for my professional and personal needs. Size and weight are also important when lugging around gear and the G-Drive external SSD literally fits the bill in this category. Measuring roughly 2x4 inches and weighing only 90 grams, this drive is the ultimate in portability. You won’t even know it’s in your case, so be sure to double check before you leave! Build quality is top notch. With IP67 dust and water resistance, this is yet another reason to choose this product if you shoot in the field. Very tough indeed. One thing to note is that if you plan on using this drive on a Windows 10 machine, you will need to download the free “G-Technology Format Wizard” software from their website to format the drive before initial use. This is a straightforward and very easy process. All in all, I can’t say enough good things about the G-Drive external SSD. It’s small, light, rugged, FAST, and reliable. Not to mention extremely affordable. All the best features are covered here. It’s a 100% no brainer.

This is an extremely portable drive that is very fast as well as small and light weight, yet with a great solid build quality. It is perfect for me to transfer files from my main system and especially on the go. The combination of SSD and USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 is the perfect match. You get the stability and durability of solid state and the fantastic transfer speeds that USB-C offers. I was generally seeing a tick under the advertised 560MB/sec, but speeds were easily 4x to 5x faster than the speeds I was getting with my old drive. I love the real-world gains you can see and feel. Further, the drive itself is just well-built. Despite being light, it has a solid feel and the aluminum core provides a great deal of protection. It is IP67 water and dust resistant, has 3-meter drop protection and a 1000lb crushproof rating. Lastly, if an issue does arise, it comes with a 5 year warranty from G-Technology. Ultimately, I like everything about this drive. Small. Light. Solid. Very Fast. Dependable. Great Warranty. It protects my data and gives me back time with real-world speed gains. When you put all of that together you get a great drive and I think a great value.

Pros: * Very fast performance. * SSD so no moving parts and very reliable. * Rugged enough to toss in a bag and not worry. Cons: * Compact but not tiny. * Pre-formatted for Mac only. This compact, rugged external drive provides external storage for on-the-go use. Being an SSD rather than a hard drive, there are no moving parts. You can freely toss it in a bag and not worry about the safety of your data on the drive. It’s like an elephant (legendary memory and strong) in a compact frame. The drive comes with two USB-C stubby cables; both with USB-C on one end for the drive and the other end is either USB-A or C depending on what you need to connect it to. My only complaint on the drive is that it was pre-formatted for Mac only. I had to reformat it for use on both Mac and Windows platforms, but that’s a minor issue. 0.5TB in a compact, fast and rugged little box. Very nice!

PROS: - It’s a really nice portable size. You can tell it’s a tiny bit bigger than other portable SSD drives but that is because of it’s protective layer. - Speaking of that, I love how its made to be water/dust/shock resistant. When buying a portable drive, you want it to protect your files and it really adds that extra layer. - After set up, this SSD is a breeze! It is very fast and efficient to use. CONS: - This device was not a simple plug in and use. I had to whipe the drive and then set it up within my computer’s settings. G-Drive provided easy enough directions on their website but I’d imagine some less tech savvy people it would be difficult. BOTTOM LINE: You will be very happy with this purchase. After set up, this drive is a great SSD to protect your files at home or on the go.

I purchased this item to use as a backup drive for my laptop's internal. The speed of this drive is incredible! I backed-up my system in record time. Prior to this purchase, I've used SanDisk SSD -- which have also been great. I've used WD's USB HDD for external storage and also backups in the past. Those work just fine when I have a few hours for the backup to complete. But, of course, the SanDisk SSD's are faster than the HDD's and complete in less than two hours. However, the speed of this G-Drive was even faster than the other SSD's I've used. My backup's are completing in nearly an hour with this baby!! For my needs, time and speed are a critical part of my work flow. The G-Drive Mobile definitely addresses those needs. Additionally, the unit is really solid. Not that I'd try it, but this drives feel like it would survive a few drops and even an accidental run-over by the car (as if that would ever happen! -- but should it occur, I'm fairly confident that the drive would survive). This is not the first G-Drive product I've purchased. I have a couple others in my stash that I've used over the years. Even though the drives are a little more expensive than competitor's products, they continue to produce solid products with very respectable specs and results. My thanks go to G-Drive for making such a great product -- and also a BIG thanks to Best Buy for carrying / stocking such quality products for the consumer to choose from. Long story short... I will be purchasing at least two more of these drives in the next couple weeks.

I normally buy SanDisk or Western Digital. Both good, however my dad gave me one of his old G-Technology HDDs and it was still pretty fast so I wanted to give this a try and I wasn’t disappointed at all. This thing is very fast and very reliable. It’s small like most mobile SSDs but very well built. Perfect for my quick turnaround projects. I can shoot, dump my footage and edit right on the spot and not have to worry about speed.

Tough little SSD. SSD's are so much better than their predecessor HDD's. The speed is significantly better, size is so much smaller. Better all a round for travel, and info storage. Catch these on sale and you won't be disappointed.