G-Technology 4TB G-DRIVE USB-C (USB 3.1 Gen 1) Desktop External Hard Drive - 0G05666-1

My husband is a super tech guy! He has gigs and gigs of external hard drives all over the house. He has tried just about every external hard drive there is out there. Unfortunately, some of the brands he's used ended up breaking out of nowhere and he's been left trying to transfer the internal files to a different hard drive without corrupting the data. It's always a huge headache for him because he goes out of his way to research hard drive make and model types and he always spends top dollar so that he can ensure he's getting a quality drive. Then he spends hours transferring data from his device to the hard drive, only to have the hard drive stop working suddenly, and not be able to access any of his gigs of data he transferred onto the drives. And he is super meticulous about how the condition in which he keeps and stores his drives. He doesn’t let me even TOUCH them, because they must be kept in a certain position in a certain part of the room where the temperature is just right, etc.This is the third G-Drive I’ve gotten my husband because it is the only one that seems to be large enough and reliable enough for him. The first one we purchased was from Best Buy, and it had less storage capacity, as he wanted to try it out first before transferring multiple gigs of data onto it. It’s now been years since he purchased that first one, and about 2 years since he got the second one, and he’s never had an issue with any of them. He tells me that the transfer speed is very quick and that it’s extremely durable. He thought about trying other brands this time around in case he could find a better hard drive, but he just couldn’t bring himself to risk the possibility of losing all his data again. I’m not sure he’ll ever switch to another brand again. He said he plans on stocking up on them right now in case the brand/company ever goes out of business or discontinues this model - as has happened with trusted brands in the past. Definitely recommend this hard drive for anyone looking for reliable external storage!

It is a pretty quite drive that will not bother you if it is on for a long time. It is a lot of storage for the price. The USB connection has options. Write speed is pretty consistent and matches tech specs.This is a fine drive but do not expect speeds that you might expect with USB-C.USB-C is up to 20 Gbps and could power the device without an extra power supply. That is not what this is. The specs are say it is 195 mbps which is not fast. Fast drives are 500mbs and up. It is about half USB-2.0 speeds. It is still good for a backup drive and for those that do not have USB-A connectors. Just know what you are getting.It comes with a decent length USB-C to USB-C cable. It also comes with a USB-A to USB-C connector too. I found both convenient. I would have given it 5 stars if it was powered by the USB-C cable. (But if that was the case then know that it could not be flexibly used in the older USB-A connector.)UPDATE: 5-stars actually fastThe specs say 195Mbps but on USB-3.2 Windows real world transfers under optimal conditions are reporting 4x to reasonably long spikes of 8x that rate. Windows reports MBps which is meagbytes per second while Mbps is megabits per second. The proof is in clock time, the transfers of are fast. Optimal conditions are large files. All transfers of tiny files takes a long time to handshake each one before it starts writing. First it has to add and entry in the directory structure then it has to start moving the data. For large files the move is longer than the directory entry.

My computer crashed and my older G-Technology Drive didn't have the latest USB-C cable-able support so I wanted an updated G-Drive for the new computer. I was able, with the help of an adapter cable, to connect my older G-Drive to my new computer to retrieve the archival data I had on it from my older computer. I had my original G-Drive since 2011. It is now 2020. I never had a problem with it. I also bought a mobile G- Drive (2TBs) for the new computer to use with my Mac's Time Machine for auto backups. I will use this G-Drive (4 TBs) to archive everything. G-Technology produce a high-quality product in my experience. I doubt if I will ever buy another brand of external drives; these are so reliable, easy to use and do the job.

I own roughly 30 external drives. I have never seen one fail so quickly, but certainly that eventually happens when you work with so many drives. I love the form factor and feel of this drive, but reliability is the #1 need for me with any drive and this one has failed completely and quickly. I suspect the data is intact and that the housing is bad. The power connection feels a bit sloppy compared to even my other G-Drive.The light comes on, but the drive never spins up. Have contacted the company for warranty support. And while their 5-year terms sound great, they require the drive to be sent to them with all the data on it. I cannot erase the data from this drive (since it is broken) and cannot ship it back to them with sensitive data on it (regardless of their assurance they will take care of the data, it's going through a 3rd party shipper that neither of us controls). It's a non-starter.Have reached out to them for help, but they are terrible. Responses take at least 48 hours every time (I have been waiting 7 days now without a reply). They refuse to ship me a replacement unless I ship them the drive with my data on it. They cannot offer any way to erase the dead drive, and they won't honor the warranty if I physically damage the drive to ensure the data is unusable when returned. I understand they would want to analyze the drive, but their first priorities should be to (1) replacing a drive that failed in less than 4 months and (2) allowing me to protect my data (which is the reason I bought a backup drive in the first place, because it is important).I've bought a good 40 hard drives in the past 10 years, and never had a drive fail so quickly. I definitely won't be buying from G-Drive again. Unreliable quality and poor support when things do fail.