G-Drive Slim
Review

G-Drive Slim
Company: G-Technology by Hitachi
320GB
Price: $99.99 (a little less on Amazon)
Requires: Mac OS 10.5 or higher

Let’s be honest: the market is flooded with external hard drives at all capacities and prices. They’re all the same, right? Just pick one and you’re all set. Sorry, not that simple.

The main purpose of an external hard drive is to back up the data on your computer. Many of us have more than one backup on multiple external drives, therefore we need a drive that’s reliable. So, an important factor in choosing a drive is the reputation of the manufacturer.

Enter the G-Drive Slim by Hitachi.

Hitachi is known world-wide as a leader in computer storage. Their latest entry into the external hard drive market is the G-Drive Slim, a 320GB ultra-slim portable USB drive. Its dimensions of 5.063″ x 3.23″ x 0.39″ make it one of the smallest drives on the market. Weighing in at just .33 pounds, the G-Drive Slim will easily fit into a purse, backpack, computer bag, or even an interior pocket of a jacket or coat.

The G-Drive Slim is designed for the MacBook Air, but is compatible with any Mac running Mac OS 10.5 or higher. The matte aluminum finish looks stylish and keeps fingerprints away. A very nice feature of the G-Drive Slim is that it’s already formatted for Time Machine; one less thing to do when preparing for backup. The drive is plug and play (no power cord needed) and has a three year warranty with unlimited free technical support. Many questions can be answered on G-Technology’s Support Page.

The first thing I noticed about the G-Drive Slim after I attached it to my MacBook is that even the desktop icon is thin! Also, the icon looks like the drive, rather than the white rectangle we’re used to seeing. As far as transfer rate, I found it to be comparable to other drives I’ve tested or used. A 200MB folder of documents took 24 seconds, while my 17.5GB iPhoto library timed at 13 minutes, 52 seconds. As for video, it took four minutes, 14 seconds to transfer the 6.15GB 2007 World Series I purchased from iTunes. Finally, a 22GB iTunes folder, which included music, apps, videos, and podcasts took 17 minutes. Not lightning fast, but not unreasonable either.

The USB cord that comes with the G-Drive Slim is long enough to allow a little flexibility of placement of the drive. However, this is also a problem. Every time I moved the drive the cord would lose its connection to the USB port, and I would get the message below. My advice: place the drive where you want it, then plug it in.

There’s a lot to like with the G-Drive Slim: small size, decent transfer rates, first-rate reputation, stylish looks. That said, the $99 price tag is high for only 320GB storage. However, for many people, the positives will far outweigh the price.

MyMac.com rating: 7 out of 10