USER MANUAL

Professional High-Performance Dual-Drive Storage System

g-technology.com
 Table of Contents

Welcome to G-RAID

Table of Contents

Safety & General Use

Safety Precautions.................................................... 4
Backup Your Data..................................................... 5

About Your G-RAID

Introduction............................................................... 7
What’s in the Box ..................................................... 8
System Requirements............................................. 9
Overview of the Drive . .......................................... 9
Safety & General Use
Using Your Drive on Mac
Easy Installation for Mac......................................11 • Safety Precautions ......................................... p.4
Optimize Performance.........................................11 • Backup Your Data ........................................... p.5
Disconnect the Drive ...........................................12

Maintenance for Your Drive

Initialize Drive for Mac .........................................14
Restore the Drive Icon..........................................17
Reformat with Partitions......................................19

Using Your Drive on Windows

Windows Use............................................................24
Cross Platform Use.................................................25

Support & Warranty

Technical Support..................................................29
Limited Warranty....................................................30
Copyright...................................................................32

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 Safety & General Use Safety & General Use

Safety Precautions Backup Your Data

G-RAID ‘s warranty may be void as a result of the failure to respect the precautions listed here. If The disk drive contained in your G-RAID device is a delicate electronic instrument and
you detect a problem with your drive, please contact our Technical Support department. is susceptible to damage due to excessive physical shock. Under no circumstances will
G-Technology be held liable for the recovery or restoration of lost data. Any loss, corruption or
If the product is returned with damage caused by improper handling, the warranty will destruction of data while using a G-Technology drive is the sole responsibility of the user.
be void and liability will rest with the user. Please read our Limited Warranty.
•S
 ervicing: Your drive contains no user-serviceable parts. If it appears to be malfunctioning, Make Two Backups
have it inspected by a qualified Technical Support representative. To help prevent the loss of your data, we highly recommend that you keep TWO copies of
your data in separate storage locations. Keep one copy on your G-Technology drive. Keep a
• Moisture: Place the device away from moisture or liquids. To reduce the risk of damage, do
second copy on your internal hard drive, another G-Technology drive, or a form of removable
not expose this drive to rain or moisture. Do not use it in damp or wet conditions. Never place
storage media.
objects containing liquids on the drive as they may spill into its openings.
• Ventilation: Place the device in a vented area. The drive should never be placed near or over a
radiator or heat source.
•T
 emperature: Do not expose this drive to temperatures outside the range of 5°C to 35°C (41°F
to 95°F); or to operational humidity beyond 5-80%, non-condensing, or non-operating humidity
beyond 10-90%, non-condensing. Avoid placing your drive near a source of heat, or exposing it
to sunlight (even through a window), or in an environment that is too cold or humid.
•P
 hysical Damage: Do not place heavy objects on the drive. Never use excessive force on
your drive.

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 About Your G-RAID

Introduction
Thank you for purchasing the G-RAID from G-Technology. G-RAID hard drives are a high
speed, low-cost RAID which makes the ideal storage solutions for content creation
professionals. With its unique industrial design and all aluminum housing, G-RAID is the de
facto standard for many post-production facilities worldwide.

G-RAID features USB 3.0 and FireWire 800 interfaces. It is USB 2.0 compatible and FireWire
400 compatible with the included cables. When connected via USB 3.0, G-RAID provides
data transfers rates up to 250 MB/second to support the most demanding professional
content creation applications like Final Cut Pro®, Avid and Adobe Premiere®.
About Your G-RAID A soft on/off electronic power switch on the rear panel and a quiet thermo-regulated
‘smart’ fan inside round out G-RAID’s professional feature set.
• Introduction ...................................................... p.7
• What’s in the Box ........................................... p.8

• System Requirements ................................... p.9

• Overview of the Drive ................................... p.9

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 About Your G-RAID About Your G-RAID

What’s in the Box System Requirements

The following items are included in the box: G-RAID supports the folllowing Operating Systems. The drive is set up at the factory for
use with Mac OS® systems, and formatted as ‘HFS+ with Journaling’.
• G-RAID hard drive
• (1) USB cable (3.0; backwards compatible with USB 2.0) • Mac OS 10.5 or higher
• (2) FireWire cables (800; 800 to 400) • Windows Vista or Windows 7
• External DC Power Supply
NOTE: G-RAID models greater than 2TB are not supported by Windows XP or older
32-bit operating systems. These OS’s limit maximum volume size to 2.2TB.
If any items are missing, please contact G-Technology at support@g-technology.com
or call (888) 426-5214.
Overview of the Drive
This diagram shows the helpful features of your G-RAID. There is a Power & Activity LED
on the front of the unit and a Heat Sink beneath it. The activity light will glow when
power is applied via the USB or FireWire ports and it will flash brighter as data is trans-
ferred to or from the hard drive.

On the rear of the unit is a Kensington™ security slot, a high speed USB 3.0 port, two
FireWire 800 ports, DC Power In and Soft-touch On/Off switch.

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 Using Your Drive on Mac

Easy Installation for Mac

G-RAID attaches to your computer via a high
speed USB 3.0 or one of two FireWire 800 ports.
FireWire 400 connectivity is handled by a 9 to
6 pin cable (included). Choose the connection
appropriate for your system and connect G-RAID
with the matching supplied cable.

Connect the power cord to the unit and plug the

other end into a surge protector or wall outlet-
Using Your Drive on Mac Press and hold the power button until the unit
turns on. The drive will automatically mount on
the desktop if you are running Mac OS.
• Easy Installation for Mac ........................... p.11
• Optimize Performance ............................... p.11

• Disconnect the Drive .................................. p.12

Optimize Performance
G-RAID can be connected to any Mac or Windows machine equipped with a USB 3.0,
USB 2.0, FireWire 800 or FireWire 400 port.

For maximum performance, we recommend connecting G-RAID via the USB 3.0 port.

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 Using Your Drive on Mac

Disconnect the Drive

A great feature of G-RAID is its ability to connect and disconnect while your computer
is running. To prevent failures and/or data loss, it is important to follow the steps below
when disconnecting or ‘unmounting’ the drive from your computer.

1. Before powering down and disconnecting the drive, unmount the system
by simply dragging the G-RAID icon to the trash located in the dock.
Keyboard shortcut: Select the drive icon and hit Command+E.

2. It is safe to remove the drive from your system when the drive icon is no
longer present on your desktop.
Maintenance for Your Drive
3. To power off G-RAID, press and hold the On/Off power button until the unit
shuts down.
• Initialize Drive for Mac .............................. p.14
• Restore the Drive Icon ............................... p.17

Helpful links • Reformat with Partitions ........................... p.19

• To use G-RAID on Windows, go to Windows Use.

• To use G-RAID on Mac and Windows together, go to Cross Platform Use.

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 Maintenance for Your Drive Maintenance for Your Drive

Initialize Drive for Mac 4. Choose the Format option that you prefer.

G-RAID was factory-formatted for use or ‘initialized’ for Mac OS. You can reinitialize if • Mac OS Extended (Journaled): Use this format if you intend to use the drive for Time
you would like to quickly erase the contents of the drive. Here are the steps. Machine or to create a separate bootable installation of OS.

1. First, open the Disk Utility program. This application is located on your hard drive • Mac OS Extended: Use this format for best performance and media storage. To se-
under Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility. The window below will appear. Your G-RAID lect, click the Format pop-up and its option to Mac OS Extended.
will be displayed in the left-hand column.

2. Select the G-RAID by clicking its drive icon in the left-side column. Information
about the drive willl be displayed at the bottom of the window.

3. Select the Erase tab to view the formatting options. By default, the Format pop-up
menu is set to the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) option.

5. Click the Erase button in the lower right corner of the window. A dialog box will ap-
pear asking if you want to erase the G-RAID partition.

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 Maintenance for Your Drive Maintenance for Your Drive

WARNING: THIS NEXT STEP WILL ERASE ALL DATA ON YOUR DRIVE. Restore the Drive Icon
6. Click on the Erase button to continue. A progress bar in the lower right corner of the If the G-RAID drive icon was erased during the reinitializing process (see the previous
window will show the progress of the disk’s reformatting. section), you can restore the icon with the following easy steps.

NOTE: This process is not required for the operation of the G-RAID. However, it will
make your drive’s appearance on the computer desktop look nicer and more accurate.

1. To get the G-Technology icon package, go to g-technology.com/support and navi-

7. After the drive is reinitialized, you should automatically see the Time Machine dialog gate to your product. There will be a link to download the icons.
box.
2. Once downloaded, it should automatically open the G-Technology Icons folder as
• Click the Use as Backup Disk button if you want to use the drive with shown below. If not, double-click the Zip file to open. Next, double-click the DMG
Time Machine. file to open the G-Technology Icons package.

• Click the Don’t Use or Decide Later button if you do not want to use 3. Click to select the drive icon for G-RAID in the package window. Press Command+C
Time Machine at this point. to copy the icon. (below)

8. Quit the Disk Utility program. After reinitializing the drive, the custom icon for
G-RAID has been erased. You can optionally restore this icon with the steps on the
next page.

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 Maintenance for Your Drive Maintenance for Your Drive

4. Select the default G-RAID drive icon on your desktop and press Command+I. This Reformat with Partitions
opens its Get Info window. (below left)
‘Partitioning’ a hard drive is the process of dividing a hard drive into separate,
5. Select the default icon in the Get Info window. (below left) discrete sections called ‘volumes’. Each volume works like a separate disk. You can
create up to 16 different partitions on a hard drive in OS X and each partition can
6. Press Command+V to paste the custom G-RAID icon into the Get Info window. (be-
be a different size and format.
low right)
With hard drives getting bigger, it is useful to partition your hard drive so sections of its
space can be used for different purposes. For instance, segment user data from backup
data, set up a multi-boot environment with different Operating Systems or create a
dedicated capture scratch disk for programs like Final Cut Pro.

The following steps will guide you through this simple process of partitioning your
drive. In this example, we will partition a 4TB G-RAID connected via USB 3.0. The steps will be
identical for your drive, only the name may be different.

1. First, open the Disk Utility program. This application is located on your hard drive un-
der Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility. The window below will appear. Your
G-Technology drive will be displayed in the left-hand column.

The icon for your G-RAID has been restored and you can close the Get Info window.
Your drive is now fully ready for use!

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 Maintenance for Your Drive Maintenance for Your Drive

2. Select the USB or FireWire icon – not the G-Technology 5. Click on the first partition in the Volume Scheme area. Your partition will be highlighted
drive icon – by clicking it in the left-side column. by a blue bounding box.

3. Click on the Partition button in the main window. • In the Name field, type a name for the partition.
• From the Format menu, choose your desired disk format. If you will use your drive
primarily on Mac OS, it is recommended to use Mac OS Extended or Mac OS Extended
(Journaled). For info about formats, go here.
• In the Size field, type in a size for the partition. Alternately, you can drag the bar in
between each partition to quickly change the size.
4. Select the number of partitions you would like from the Volume Scheme menu.
6. Repeat this process for each partition you have created.
Below, we have selected ‘2 Partitions’ to create two partitions.
7. Click the Apply button in the lower right corner of the window. A dialog box will appear
asking if you want to erase the G-Technology drive partition.

WARNING: THIS NEXT STEP WILL ERASE ALL DATA ON YOUR DRIVE.

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 Maintenance for Your Drive

8. Click on the Partition button to continue. A progress bar in the lower right corner of
the window will show you the progress of the disk’s reformatting.

9. When partitioning is complete, the multiple partitions

will be displayed in the left-hand panel of Disk Utility.

10. Quit the Disk Utility program. After reinitializing the

drive, the custom icon for the G-Technology drive has
been erased. You can optionally restore this icon to each
Using Your Drive on Windows
partition with the steps on this page.

11. The multiple partitions of the G-Technology drive will be • Windows Use ................................................. p.24
displayed on the desktop. Your drive is now setup • Cross Platform Use ...................................... p.25
with two or more partitions and ready for use.

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 Using Your Drive on Windows Using Your Drive on Windows

Windows Use Cross Platform Use

G-RAID is set up at the factory for use with Mac OS systems. A simple initialization will You can set up G-RAID for use on both Windows and Mac system by formatting the
prepare your drive for use with Windows Vista and Windows 7 systems. drive as ‘FAT32’. To do this, use the Disk Utility application and format the drive to
MS-DOS (FAT), also known as FAT32.
For helpful information on configuring and using your drive with Windows, please visit
g-technology.com/windows 1. First, open the Disk Utility program. This application is located on your hard drive
under Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility. The window below will appear. Your
G-RAID will be displayed in the left-hand column.

2. Select the G-RAID by clicking on its drive icon in the left-side column.
Information about the drive will be displayed at the bottom of the window.

3. Select the Erase tab to view the formatting options.

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 Using Your Drive on Windows Using Your Drive on Windows

4. Select MS-DOS File System from the Format pop-up menu. This will format to FAT32. 5. Click the Erase button. A progress bar in the lower right corner of the window will
NOTE: You may need to rename the drive because FAT32 does not support more show the progress of the disk’s reformatting. Your drive will be formatted to its full
than 11 letters in the drive name. capacity as FAT32.

6. Quit the Disk Utility program. You are finished!

7. After reinitializing, the custom icon for the G-RAID will be erased. No icons are avail-
able for FAT32.

With this format, you will be able to read/write on Windows Vista, and Windows 7 and
WARNING: THIS NEXT STEP WILL ERASE ALL DATA ON YOUR DRIVE. on Mac OS machines.

5. Click the Erase button in the lower right corner of the window. A dialog box will ap-
pear asking if you want to erase the G-RAID partition. Limitations with FAT32

There are some limitations when using FAT32.

The ‘MS-DOS File System’ cannot write files over 4 GB. If you are working with files over
4 GB, you may want to choose a software option like MacDrive, www.macdrive.com.
MacDrive is Windows software that enables you to mount Mac formatted drives on
your Windows computer.

NOTE: You could format your drive on a Windows machine FAT32. However, Windows
currently limits FAT32 partitions to only 32GB in size.

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 Support & Warranty

Technical Support
Thank you for purchasing G-RAID. If you have any comments or questions about this
manual or the product, please let us know!

G-Technology appreciates and values its customers, striving to give you the finest
service and support. If you encounter any difficulties while installing or using G-RAID,
please contact G-Technology Technical Support at g-technology.com/support

Helpful information for support

Support & Warranty When contacting Technical Support, it’s best to be in front of your computer and have
the following information available:

• Technical Support ........................................ p.29 • Your G-RAID serial number (on bottom of unit)
• Limited Warranty ......................................... p.30
• Operating System and version
• Computer brand and model
• Copyright ........................................................ p.32 • List of other devices attached to your computer

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 Support & Warranty Support & Warranty

Limited Warranty What must you do?

If you are having trouble with a product, before seeking limited warranty service, first follow the
HGST, a Western Digital Company (“HGST”)
troubleshooting procedures that HGST or your reseller provides.
Including G-Technology for External Hard Disk Drives
To obtain limited warranty service, you must first obtain a Return Materials Authorization (RMA) and
What does this limited warranty cover? ship-to address by contacting G-Technology at http://www.g-technology.com/support. Please follow
This Limited Warranty applies to new HGST products purchased from an authorized HGST dealer the instructions found on the website. You must return the covered hard disk drive using approved
by the original purchaser for normal use and not for resale. HGST warrants that a covered product packaging to our logistics center. You must pay any associated transportation charges, duties and in-
is free from defects in materials and workmanship, with the exceptions stated below. surance in shipping the drive to our logistics center. You should remove all personal information from
the product prior to its return.
How long does limited warranty coverage last?
What will HGST do?
This limited warranty lasts for 1 year, 2 years, 3 years or 5 years, or a fixed period from date of
purchase, depending on when and where it was originally purchased. To determine the war- HGST will replace the drive with a functionally equivalent replacement product, transportation pre-
ranty specifically for your product, visit www.g-technology.com. A valid proof of purchase may paid. HGST may replace your product with a product that was previously used, repaired and tested
be required to prove eligibility. If you do not have a valid proof of purchase, the limited warranty to meet HGST specifications. You receive tile to the replaced product at delivery to carrier at HGST
period will be measured from the date of sale from HGST to the authorized distributor. shipping point. You are responsible for importation of the replaced product, if applicable. HGST will
not return the original drive to consumers; therefore, the consumer is responsible for moving data to
another media before returning. Data Recovery is not covered under this warranty and is not part of
What does this limited warranty not cover?
the warranty returns process. HGST warrants that the replaced products are covered for the remainder
The limited warranty does not cover damage resulting from commercial use, misuse, accident, of the original product warranty or 90 days, whichever is greater.
modification or alteration to hardware or software, tampering, unsuitable physical or operating
environment beyond product specifications, improper maintenance, or failure caused by a prod- How is our liability limited?
uct for which HGST is not responsible.
HGST AND ITS AFFILIATES, SUPPLIERS, DISTRIBUTORS, AND RESELLERS ARE NOT LIABLE FOR ANY OF
There is no warranty of uninterrupted or error-free operation. There is no warranty for loss of THE FOLLOWING: 1) THIRD-PARTY CLAIMS AGAINST YOU FOR DAMAGES (OTHER THAN BODILY INJURY
data—you must regularly back up the data stored on your product to a separate storage product. INCLUDING DEATH AND TANGIBLE PERSONAL PROPERTY; 2) LOSS OF, OR DAMAGE TO, YOUR DATA; OR
There is no warranty for product with removed or altered identification labels. 3) SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR INDIRECT DAMAGES OR FOR ANY ECONOMIC CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
(INCLUDING LOST PROFITS OR SAVINGS), EVEN IF INFORMED OF THE POSSIBILITY. SOME JURISDIC-
HGST DOES NOT PROVIDE ANY OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED
TIONS DO NOT ALLOW LIMITATION OF LIABILITY, INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAM-
TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PAR-
AGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
TICULAR PURPOSE. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE LIMITATION OF IMPLIED WARRAN-
TIES, SO THIS LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. HGST is not responsible for returning to you
product which is not covered by this limited warranty. How do local laws apply?
THIS LIMITED WARRANTY GIVES YOU SPECIFIC LEGAL RIGHTS, AND YOU MAY ALSO HAVE OTHER
RIGHTS WHICH VARY FROM JURISDICTION TO JURISDICTION.

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 Support & Warranty

CAPACITY DEFINITION AND DISCLAIMER

For G-Technology products 1TB or greater: “One gigabyte (GB) is equal to one billion bytes
and one terabyte (TB) equals 1,000 GB (one trillion bytes). Accessible capacity will vary from
the stated capacity due to formatting and partitioning of the hard drive, the computer’s oper-
ating system, and other factors”
For G-Technology products less than 1TB: “One gigabyte (GB) is equal to one billion bytes
when referring to hard drive capacity. Accessible capacity will vary depending on the operat-
ing environment and formatting.”

Copyright
One gigabyte (GB) is equal to one billion bytes when referring to hard drive capacity.
Accessible capacity will vary depending on the operating environment and formatting.
G‐Technology and G-RAID are trademarks of Western Digital Corporation or its affiliates in the
United States and/or other countries. Apple, Mac, FireWire, MacBook Pro, Time Machine and
the Mac logo are trademarks of Apple, Inc. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and Windows
XP are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the US and/or other
countries. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
©2016 G-Technology, a Western Digital Corporation brand. All rights reserved. R4 01/16

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