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The G DRIVE 4TB USB 3.0 external hard drive is part of a strong product line of high capacity, high performing drives.
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Designed to look good on the desktop the G-Technology external hard drive for mac is clearly aimed at the Mac user.
And I’ll tell you in the article why.
The question I set out to answer in this review is “Does this G Drive USB 4TB have it all?”
Starting with a 2TB hard drive the range moves all the way up to its maximum storage size of 10TB.
I think you’ll agree G-Technology’s G-Drive gives plenty for those of you needing serious amounts of storage.
And I’m thinking of those of you who do photo editing or video editing on your MacBook Pro.
Pre-formatted in HFS+ for Mac and with USB 3.0 connectivity. Simply plug in and your Mac recognises the G DRIVE. Could it be easier?
(For the very latest MacBook Pro with Thunderbolt ports you will require a Thunderbolt/USB C to USB 3.0 adaptor cable to connect the G DRIVE)
This ease of use is an important reason that Mac users consider the G Drive to be among the best external hard drives in its class for a Mac.
The sleek case echo the brushed metallic surface of a MacBook Pro and the wide options for connectivity only adds to its appeal.
Why not see what the drive looks like? I found this YouTube video from G-Technology the manufacturers of the external hard drive.
Have a look.
Benefits Of The G-Technology 4TB G DRIVE
Why did I choose to focus on the 4TB external hard drive when the G DRIVE range goes from 2TB up to 10TB and delivers on good looks, reliability and durability?
Because it is the sweet storage machine for those who want this level of capacity, with performance and a wide range of features.
One potential downside of the USB 3.0 version of this drive is its absence of direct Thunderbolt connectivity. I’ll tell you later why there is little need to worry about that.
Who Manufactures The G Drive USB 4TB?
G-Technology a Hitachi subsidiary. Now wholly owned by Western Digital.
Specialises in high end fast hard drives for professional and home users.
They have proven they are more than capable of addressing the wants and needs of its target – consumers of high-performance hard drives.
Attractive Design Of The G Drive USB 4TB
On your office table it will take up 5 inches x 7.7 inches x 1.26 inches (Height) and believe me it’ll look good next to your MacBook Pro.
It’s small enough to be taken with you yet still feel substantial.
Note though this drive is not designed to be portable or rugged so if you are taking it with you on editing projects be sure to provide it with a robust case. While you should be careful about damaging it by dropping it on hard surfaces, the casing appears to be structurally sound.
And there’s more…
The casing is made entirely of strong and sturdy aluminium which also has the added benefit that it is recyclable – something G-Technology points out in its product literature.
With perforations on the sides and front for ventilation purposes, this helps protects the enclosed 7,200 RPM hard drive from overheating.
The ultra smart G on the front makes the G Drive USB 4TB look impressive with the white LED status light located also on the front, that shows when the drive is switched on and operating.
The G drive USB is whisper-quiet in operation –
which is a bonus and this is due to its fan less cooling construction. A benefit especially when unwanted background noises from your computer’s accessories are inconvenient if you are recording sound or just simply annoying and add to your stress levels when you are working long hours.
Take a look at the Amazon Reviews on the G-Technology G-drive.
Over 70% have rated the G DRIVE USB 4TB as five star, which is a ringing endorsement of this hard drive.
What Is In The G DRIVE USB 4TB Box
It comes with:
- 1 x USB cable 3.0
- 1 x Esata cable
- 1 x FireWire 800 cable
- AC Adaptor
G-Drive USB External Hard Drive For Mac Connectivity
The ports at the back of the hard drive include a power input, a USB 3.0 port that is also backward compatible with USB 2.0 devices. Two FireWire ports and there is also a power switch next to the power input.
Truly it has it all in terms of flexibility – ways to plug into your Mac.
It has a slim power adapter designed so that it only occupies a single power outlet when plugged in.
That said some users seem to be using the drive successfully by simply plugging in the G Drive USB cable into their USB 3.0 port.
Although I can’t recommend this as the G DRIVE’s product manual clearly states that it should be connected to an external power socket.
It could be useful to power it from your USB 3.0 port for those projects where you want to take the drive physically with you.
Note that: For the very latest MacBook Pro you will require a Thunderbolt/USB C to USB 3.0 adaptor cable to connect the G DRIVE.
G DRIVE USB 3.0 Hard Drive Capacities
G DRIVE USB 3.0 comes in eight capacities:
2TB, 3TB, 4TB, 6TB, 8TB and 10TB.
Plenty of storage for HD video’s, large photography farms and photo editing.
The industry considers the 4TB sized drive as the sweet spot for most professional users. When tested, we discovered that this model has fast USB 3.0 performance.
The 7,200 RPM hard drive definitely delivers on the promise of high-performance even after several months of use.
The USB 3.0 interface surpasses Firewire 800 in terms of raw performance.
In our test, we achieved a reliable 140MB/second read and write speeds on the 4TB G DRIVE with its 165MB/second peak transfer rate on a MacBook Pro. That’s twice as fast as the read and write speeds we can get from a 2TB G DRIVE hard drive using Firewire 800.
4TB G DRIVE Set Up And Use
Pre-formatted in HFS+ for Mac so the G Drive is plug in and play.
When you attach the G DRIVE 4TB hard drive to the MacBook Pro for the first time the Mac detects the hard drive and an icon representing the G Drive appears on your desktop.
The Mac also launches the Time Machine software on the assumption that you would like to use this external hard drive as a Time Machine backup device.
The Time Machine dialogue box comes up and if it is the first time you have used Time Machine the slider button will be set to OFF. To indeed use the G Drive as a Time Machine back up device you can turn the slider to ON; otherwise…
If you would prefer to use your G Drive to store your files or photo’s, video’s etc And to directly work from and not use for Time Machine backup.
Exit out of Time Machine and you can create folders.
Move files to and from the G Drive in the finder window.
Drag and Drop files, create files as you would on your own internal hard drive.
To Use The G Drive 4TB USB 3.0 With Time Machine
![Drive Drive](/uploads/1/1/8/9/118923106/157040017.jpg)
Go to Time Machine preferences while the G Drive is connected and
you simply select the G DRIVE as the Time Machine back up disk. Then by default when the drive is connected Time Machine will take an hourly back up.
The very first back up is a full back up of your entire MacBook Pro internal hard drive (note this could take some time) after that Time Machine does incremental backup’s.
If you want more detail on setting up an external hard drive for Time Machine you can check out my article on the site.
When you are ready to disconnect the hard drive do ensure you right click on it on your desktop and eject it first.
This ensures your MacBook writes all it needs to down to the hard drive and shuts it down cleanly before you pull out the G Drive USB cable. This saves you from corrupting your G DRIVE.
Using The G Drive USB 4TB Between A Mac And A Windows PC
The G DRIVE is versatile. If you happen to have Windows computers and you would like to share the drive between your MacBook Pro and a Windows PC you can format the whole drive as ExFAT. That is if you want the complete drive as shareable. or
partition the drive up so that it has a partition for Time Machine and a shared partition for Windows.
I have an article on how to do that here.
The G DRIVE USB 4TB Lack Of Thunderbolt
Your G DRIVE USB 4TB doesn’t have a Thunderbolt port.
Drives with Thunderbolt ports do tend to be more expensive. This may be a non-issue for Mac users with USB 3.0 or USB 2.0 ports or Firewire – you just plug straight in.
If you have the Latest MacBook Pro.
Then a Thunderbolt to USB 3.0 adaptor will allow you to take advantage of the cheaper drive for little decrease in performance for most.
Some users report no decrease in hard drive performance due to lack of direct Thunderbolt connectivity.
You can take a look at the extensive G-DRIVE User Manual here.
G DRIVE USB 4TB Pros
- Beautiful and durable housing to fit in with your MacBook Pro
- 7,200 RPM hard drive coupled with USB 3.0 capacity for high-speed data transfers
- Plug-and-play set up making it easy to connect to your MacBook Pro
- Ready set up for easy Time Machine backups
- Wide range of available disk capacities
- Comes with 3-year limited warranty
G DRIVE USB 4TB Cons
- No direct Thunderbolt connectivity (need an USB to Thunderbolt adaptor on the newest MacBook Pro’s
G DRIVE USB 4TB In Conclusion
G-Technology’s G-drive is a consistent favourite for professionals in fields as diverse as finance to filmmaking and for good reason.
Many of those users were day-one adopters of Apple’s MacBook Pro and iMac’s. You demand features like plenty of hard disk space, reliable performance, and fast interfaces, which the G-Technology external hard drive for mac delivers in spades.
I think, yes, the G Drive USB 4TB has it all (apart from Thunderbolt connections) and you may not care about that, because this hard drive performs.
The G DRIVE 4TB USB 3.0 is well worth the money.
When you consider its top notch performance, range of storage capacities and the ability to plug and play with your MacBook.
Interested in hearing about other Top External Hard Drives for your Macbook Pro? You can take a look at my selection on the site.
Image Credit Flickr Creative Commons: Travis Isaacs (https://www.flickr.com/photos/tbisaacs/)
Get a data lifeguard for Mac
Disk Drill brings deleted files back from the dead.
Most of the time, when you connect an external hard drive to your Mac’s USB port, you soon see it mount on the desktop. Apple likes to ensure these are easy to find, so they also appear in the Finder in the left-hand column under Devices, since Mac’s treat them the same way as another computer.
However, sometimes, an external hard drive doesn't show up. It’s annoying, especially when you need to transfer something right then. And besides, there can be a risk that data on the external USB pen, hard, or flash drive is corrupt, which means you can’t transfer what you need between devices at all.
Corrupt data can be one reason your Mac won't recognize an external drive, but there are other reasons too. Let’s take a look why this is happening and how you can get an external drive to appear on your Mac and get recover data to access to your documents.
How to fix an external disk drive that won't show up on a Mac
External Usb Hard Drive For Mac And Windows
Why an external disk drive is not showing up? There could be a few reasons why a USB flash drive isn’t making an appearance.
Open an External Drive Not Showing on Mac
![External usb hard drive macbook air External usb hard drive macbook air](/uploads/1/1/8/9/118923106/833076551.jpg)
Get a huge set of top utilities for troubleshooting external hard drives not mounting on a Mac
Start with the basics:
- Check whether the drive is properly plugged in. It sounds obvious, but since this relies on a wire - either a USB cable or HDMI cable - if it’s not connected properly then it won’t appear on your desktop.
- Faulty cable. Assuming it’s plugged in correctly, not wobbly or loose, the cable could be at fault. Try connecting the same device with a different cable.
- Damaged USB or flash drive port. It could be a hardware issue with the Mac. If you’ve got another port, try connecting the device to that one.
- Reboot your Mac. Sometimes, if a USB disk won't boot, the cause is macOS issue. Hopefully, some data damage that can be fixed by restarting. Choose the Apple menu > Restart. Or press and hold the power button and, when a dialog box appears, click the Restart or press R. Restarting your Mac essentially clears your macOS’s memory and starts it up fresh.
- Incorrectly formatted drive. Not every external drive is optimized for Macs. It could be that you are trying to connect something only fit to interact with Windows devices. If you’ve got a PC or laptop, it’s worth connecting and seeing if you can access the files through another device. The best way to look for an incorrectly formatted drive is to go to
Apple (in the top toolbar menu) > About This Mac > Storage.
See if the external drive shows up here. For more information, go to the same menu option, then select System Report. - Mac not formatted to display external drives on the desktop. It could be that your Mac already recognizes the device, but just isn’t showing its icon on the desktop screen. Even if that is the case, the drive will still appear in the left-hand column of the Finder menu under Devices. You should be able to access your drive that way, and, in the Finder menu under Preferences > General, you can check External Drives to ensure that from now on it shows up on your desktop too.
- Reset NVRAM. To do this, shut down or restart your Mac, switch it back on and immediately press these four keys together for at least 20 seconds: Option, Command, P, and R. It should look as though your Mac has started again; if it has, release the keys when you hear the second startup chime. Hopefully, the hard drive has shown up now.
- Check Apple’s Disk Utility to see if an external drive is showing up. Disk Utility is within System Preferences, or you can find it using Spotlight. If it is visible, then click the option to Mount, which should make it visible on the desktop and in the External Drives option in the Finder menu.
Unfortunately, if none of those options has worked and the external drive still isn’t visible, then it could have crashed, or be well and truly broken. But there might still be a way you can recover the data on the external drive.
How to show connected devices in Finder
- Go to the Finder menu and select Preferences (Cmd+comma).
- From General tab tick External disks to ensure that from now on it shows on the desktop.
In the Sidebar tab you can choose which folders and devices will be shown in the left-hand column of the Finder window.
How to add cloud storages to Finder
You can also mount cloud storage as local drive on your Mac. By connecting Google Drive, Dropbox, or Amazon to your computer, you get more space for securely accessing and sharing files. For your ease, add cloud drives to Finder with CloudMounter app, so that you keep them close at hand. You can read detailed instructions on managing cloud storage as local drives here.
Repair the failed external drives with First Aid
If your drive is having problems, you can try to fix them yourself with First Aid and therefore get access to your files. First Aid tool will check the disk for errors and then attempt a repair as needed. It helps to verify and repair a range of issues related to startup HD and external drive problems. If you are able to fix the hard drive or SSD in your Mac (or an external drive) using Disk Utility you will hopefully be able to recover your files.
To run Fist Aid on an external hard drive:
- Open Disk Utility. You can searching for it using Spotlight Search or via Finder > Application > Utility
- Check on your external hard drive, click the First Aid tab and select Run to start running diagnostics.
If First Aid successful in fixing errors, the external drive should be available to mount. If the utility unable to repair issues, your drive truly is broken or formatted using a file system that the Mac cannot read - in this way we suggest you follow the next steps to recover data from a damaged disk drive.
How to recover data from a crashed drive
Thankfully, there is an app for that. Disk Drill is the world’s premier data recovery software for Mac OS X. Powerful enough to retrieve long-lost, mistakenly deleted files from Macs, external hard drives and USB drives and camera cards.
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With Setapp you get a pack of professional tools for file recovery and Mac maintenance.
An easy way to recover lost files on an external hard drive
Providing you already have Disk Drill Pro version, which you can get automatically by downloading from Setapp:
- Connect your drive to the Mac.
- Quit all other applications on the Mac, especially those that may be trying to access the external drive (e.g. iPhoto, Words)
- Launch Disk Drill.
- Click on the external drive that you are trying to recover files from. If it has partitions, you will see all of them. If, however, you still don’t see any volume to the external drive then you may need to try some of the steps above again or read the Disk Drill Scanning FAQs.
- To avoid the external drive being accessed during the recovery process, click Extras next to the drive or drive partition or file, then select Remount Volume As Read Only. A padlock will appear, protecting the drive during the process.
- Now click Rebuild (or Recover) next to the file(s) you are trying to recover. Once the scan is finished - it may take some time if the files are large - a list of files will appeal.
- Next, click Mount Found Items as Disk button on the bottom-left below the scan results.
- Disk Drill “strongly suggest saving the files to a different drive than the one you are trying to recover files from. Saving to the same drive substantially lowers your chances of recovery.”
- A drive icon will appear, which once you double click will give you the option to open the files as you would do before they were lost. Drag them to another location, such as your desktop or a folder on your Mac.
- Open the files to ensure they have been recovered properly and safely eject the external drive.
Disk Drill does have other ways to recover lost files but assuming there aren’t complications, this method is the most effective. Disk Drill Pro recovery app is available from Setapp, along with dozens of Mac apps that will make your life easier. Never have to worry about a crashed or corrupted external drive again.
Usb External Hard Drive For Macbook Pro
A few more tips on getting your files back
- Macs and third-party apps that look after Macs, such as Disk Drill and iStat Menus come with a S.M.A.R.T. (also known as Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) status monitor. If a SMART check reports errors, then it could mean the hard drive is at risk of failing completely. Within Disk Utility and Disk Drill, there are several solutions for this: Repair Disk Permissions and Repair Disk. If neither work, it’s recommended that you backup all of the data from the disk, erase, then run a SMART check again. The external hard drive should show up as Verified.
- Partitions can get lost within hard drives, temporarily hiding all of the information contained within. Disk Drill can help to identify and restore this information.
- Within Disk Drill, you can restore data when a hard drive is damaged or add formatting, which is also something Disk Utility can help with.
- CleanMyMac, another useful app available from Setapp, can help you identify external hard drive errors and repair them. It is an essential tool worth trying when you’re having external hard drive difficulties.
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External Usb Hard Drive Seagate
Alternative ways to recover data from an external hard drive
Reset the System Management Controller (SMC) if your Mac shuts down when you plug in an external hard drive. Then use a different port to connect the external hard drive. If you’ve got a battery that you can’t remove:
- Shut down and unplug the power adapter
- Press Shift-Control-Option and the power button at the same time. Do this for 10 seconds
- Release all keys
- Plug the power adapter back in and switch your Mac back on
For Macs with removable batteries, you need to switch them off, remove the battery, then press and hold the power button for 5 seconds. After that, put the battery back in, plug in the power adapter and switch the power on again.
What’s your file format? One reason your Mac isn’t recognizing the hard drive is the file format. Windows uses NTFS file formats, while Macs, up until the introduction of Sierra, have used HFS+. Now, Apple has introduced the Apple File System (APFS) for newer operating systems. It is possible to format a hard drive so it can be read on Mac and Windows computers, providing you format using exFAT. However, if you’re having problems accessing the files and the issue is due to formatting, you will need to connect it to a device it can be read on, and then format the files correctly for the computer you are going to use it on next.
External Usb Hard Drive For Backup
How to make Ext2/Ext3 drives readable on Mac
The common issue is Ext2- and Ext3-formatted drives are not readable on macOS. There are two ways to access such external drives on your Mac – via Linux OS or FUSE system. The easiest would be installing Linux to a secondary drive or virtual machine.
If you go with Linux installation, dual boot your Mac with Linux on another drive and use FAT32 as a transfer intermediary. If you don’t have a drive to install Linux to, use virtual machine as an interface for it. Transferring can be done the same way – with FAT32, or via network.
Another option for reading Ext2/Ext3 disks is mounting disk with Filesystem in Userspace (FUSE). Basically, it works as an extra interface enabling file system access via specially installed modules. Here’s how to mount drives with FUSE:
- Install FUSE for macOS or MacFUSE as well as fuse-ext2 module.
- Use the following Terminal command to enable Disk Utility’s debug menu and see all partitions: defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled 1
- Attach your Ext2/Ext3 drive and locate the device name via Disk Utility.
- In your user account, create a folder to be used as a mount point.
- Use the following Terminal command to mount the drive as read-only: fuse-ext2 /dev/disk2s2 /Volumes/mountpoint
- For write support, use the command: fuse-ext2 -o force /dev/disk2s2 /Volumes/mountpoint
And that’s not the only case where Terminal helps you access external drive.
Employ the handy all-powerful Terminal, which always comes forward with solutions for difficult problems. Especially if System Information does recognize the USB or hard drive, but continues to hide it from you, disconnect the drive and try to find it using the Terminal, which you can find in Applications > Utilities.
- Once in the Terminal, type in the command diskutil list
- A list with information about volumes and drives should appear
- Look for a section labelled /dev/disk_ (external, physical)
- Make a note of the whole line after the word disk
- Now put the following command into the Terminal diskutil info disk followed by the number or digits assigned to that disk
- Now you should see detailed information about the drive, therefore confirming that your Mac can and does recognize it
- Eject using the Terminal by entering the command diskutil eject disk followed by the number or digits assigned to that disk
- Physically remove the disk from you Mac
- Plug it back in and your Mac should recognize it
Portable External Usb Hard Drive For Macbook Pro
Console is also reliable when it comes to solving tricky problems, although it isn’t always that easy to use. You can find Console under Applications > Utilities > Console. Console shows if an external drive or any error is detected under the Errors and Faults tab. If no errors show up, then the problem is not caused by the device.
To sum up, there are lots of potential solutions for a Mac not reading an external hard drive. If we were to pick one, Disk Drill seems to be the most well-rounded, offering plenty of customizations and power in an easy-to-use interface. Disk Drill Pro recovery app is available via Setapp, along with 150+ Mac apps that strive to make your life much much easier. At the very least, you’ll never have to worry about a crashed or corrupted external drive ever again.
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