We live in a world of high-capacity and low-spatial volume—a trend started by Sony when they started releasing Walkmans that were physically smaller than the cassette tapes they played. And now with data storage, not only do we need a lot of capacity (on a personal computing level soon to be approaching petabytes and beyond), in a tiny space, but we need that space to be safe from corruption. Obviously this applies to finances, and spreadsheets, and e-mails, and to backup your iPhone. But for visual artists from photographers to visual effects peeps, we generate so much data that we deem to be invaluable that we need to be able to sleep at night without having to worry that the picture of our dog cuddling with our toddler is preserved.
It looks like G-Tech is concerned about these problems too, and they strive to make near indestructible harddrives to provide this security. My article today is more specifically tailored to portable external drives, and most specifically to the G-DRIVE mobile… a 500GB powerhouse the size of a Harlequin romance. Internally the drive is the same technology as its big brothers G-RAID, G-SAFE and G-SPEED, but without the redundant RAID protection. So, regardless of the fact that it is one 5400rpm Hitachi SATA (the same kind trusted by Apple to be in your MacPro), you can be confident that the same care is provided to you, the little guy, as to big companies.
Externally, G-Tech has been working with the Apple people to provide a sleek, simple design to compliment your MacBook (but it’ll look nice with a shiny black Dell or HP, too). Two FireWire 800 and one USB2 port give you some connectivity options, and power is supplied through either which relieves the necessity for additional AC. It comes pre-installed with HFS+ to immediately launch under OSX with Time Machine, but that didn’t stop me from reformatting since I am a cross-platform guy.
I personally carry it around in its faux leather case, cables coiled and slipped inside the flexible sleeve on the back, and it’s ready to go—self contained, with enough storage to contain my latest project.
Price: $149.99
Website: http://g-technology.com
