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Given that the drive is HFS+ formatted out of the box, you will have to reformat the G-Drive to use it with Windows 10, which implies a detour via Computer Management to launch Disk Management and create the partition. Once that was done, we managed to reach a real life performance (moving a single 10GB file using Windows Explorer) of just under 400MBps while various benchmarks (AJA, CDM, ATTO and AS SSD) show that the write speeds ranged between 947 and 1041MBps while the read speeds reached up to 1064. Not bad at all. In short, it is on par with the excellent PRO-G40, delivering blistering 2750MB/s reads and 2500MB/s writes using CrystalDiskMark 8.0.4. as a simple benchmark test. The cable is too short for use with a desktop system but fine for a laptop, assuming that it has Thunderbolt ports and not USB-C. The potential confusion that could easily arise when the drive and its cable plug easily into a computer, phone or tablet with USB-C but then fails to work. As an external drive that supports the USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface, the G-Drive SSD has rated sequential read and write speeds of 1,050MBps and 1,000MBps respectively. There are faster (around 2,000MBps) drives that rely on USB 3.2 Gen 2x2, including two of the units in our performance comparisons, the SanDisk Extreme Pro Portable SSD V2 and the Seagate FireCuda Gaming SSD. At this time, however, few laptops natively support Gen 2x2, slowing the Extreme Pro and FireCuda to Gen 2 speeds. Besides paying a premium for a Gen 2x2 drive, you'd likely have to replace your current system to reap its speed benefits.
Solid state drives don’t utilize moving parts, so the G-DRIVE Mobile SSD is able to endure accidental bumps or drops to help protect against data loss and system failures. USB-C port with a SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps (USB 3.2 Gen 2) interface keeps this SSD ready for laptops and desktops, both old and new. The drive uses 3D NAND which delivers lower power consumption and cheaper prices. It was detected as a SanDisk X600, an M.2 SATA model that features WD’s 64-layer 3D NAND flash. Dual Thunderbolt 3 ports allow you to daisy chain up to five additional devices through a single connection to your computer, so you can stay connected to multiple drives, 4K displays and more. Being able to read or write at these high levels is helpful for those that need to get on a plane or train or have other time pressures on them.
This Portable SSD Plays (and Works) Best With Macs
It has been fine-tuned to deliver cooler temperatures in use and targets NAS users. Usage and performance
The G-Drive SSD is available in capacities up to 2TB, providing small and mighty storage to edit and save your 4K footage, RAW photos, and media libraries wherever you are. 5-Year Limited Warranty Since NAND makers moved away from using DRAM to cache to make cheaper SLC technology solutions, this isn’t an issue unique to this drive, but it is something you need to be aware of. The drive comes with a pair of 2-foot-long connection cables, one USB-C to USB-C, the other USB-C to USB-A. The Sandisk Professional G-Drive is not your bog standard external drive. Not only is it rugged, it also comes with a five-year warranty but fails to match Seagate’s Rescue Data Recovery Service which is now bundled for free, with quite a few mainstream external SSD (like the recently reviewed Seagate OneTouch 1TB external SSD ).But possibly the biggest issue with this design is the maximum capacity of 2TB, an amount that might have seemed huge a few short years ago but looks underwhelming now. Offering an industry-leading 5-year limited warranty, the G-Drive SSD is ready to provide high-performance storage for years to come. As a result, Microsoft Windows users will discover that the drive doesn’t appear if they connect it, even if they have Thunderbolt ports.
We recommend going for a 1TB model compared to the smaller capacity – five years is a lifetime in the world of flash memory, and while it is commendable that G-Drive offers such a long warranty, before that period is up, it is likely that professionals – whom the G-Drive mobile SSD targets – will have moved on to faster, more reliable and/or cheaper storage devices. On Crystal DiskMark, the SanDisk Professional G-Drive SSD came within striking distance of its rating, delivering 958MBps read and 961MBps write. Only two of our Gen 2 comparison drives exceeded their rated speeds—the SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD V2, with 1,072MBps read and 1,044MBps write, and the WD My Passport SSD, which managed a read speed of 1,066MBps. (We tested its write speed at 954MBps.) If they reformat it using the Management Console, the drive will appear, should they have those technical skills.
A footnote about the branding. G-Tech (from which G-Drive is derived) started life as part of HGST, which was acquired by Western Digital. G-Tech survived as a rival to Seagate’s LaCie, supplying rugged, external, reliable storage devices and accessories to outdoor enthusiasts, prosumers and professionals. With the recent launch of Sandisk Professional, it is likely that G-Tech and G-Drive will be sunsetted in the near future. The interface on the PRO-G40 is more sophisticated, as it can handle Thunderbolt and USB, not just Thunderbolt. And the PRO-G40 has the same 2TB maximum capacity and much greater crush resistance, offers waterproofing and is smaller. It would be great if G-Technology decided to produce a mini version of this drive (or even simply shrink the current device for a new 2018 offering), and also introduced a 2TB version to compete with Samsung. Making it waterproof would be the icing on the cake but that’s unlikely to happen, mainly because that would put it in direct competition with SanDisk products, another sub-brand of Western Digital. Offering an industry-leading 5-year limited warranty, the G-DRIVE SSD is ready to provide high-performance storage for years to come. Once the write cache became saturated, the performance declined significantly to an average of 921MB/s when it hit the end of the 64GB file.
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