G-Technology 4TB G-DRIVE USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive, Silver - Compact, High-Performance Storage - 0G03594-1

This is about the fifth G-Drive unit I've bought over the years and I've always been impressed. This is used as the Time Machine back to my iMac and sits along side an earlier G-Drive 3TB unit I use to store my photos. So with these two, plus cloud back up of the whole system, I feel somewhat secure!The unit arrived fast and as I found in the past is no problem to set up - essentially plug and play. It just works.It's quiet (even quieter than the older 3TB unit). It's doesn't get hot, just slightly warm.It looks good sitting on my desk along side the 3TB model and the brushed metal finish matches the iMac.I don't want to tempt fate, but I've never had a G-Drive failure. I'm sure it will happen eventually but so far they've all been impressive.

I noticed there was a lot of negative reviews on this device. I was skeptical about buying it at first but it was also an Amazon choice as well and, most of the time, I trust those options. Other online stores that have the same brand were filled with positive reviews but were overpriced.I had my eye on this particular external hard drive for a while and I needed one quick because I do audio/music production, I was afraid that my computer was going to slow down due to the fact that I had a lot of audio plugin software that uses an enormous amount of power. In spite of the fact that I still had a LOT of storage left on my computer, I wanted to save it some power to have a smoother and faster workflow.I chose the G-Technology external hard drive because it looks very attractive and, as of now, I haven't had any problems with it so far after one week of usage. It works great and everything seems to be working according to the plan. Hopefully, it'll stay this way for as long as possible. I do vocal recording, audio engineering and music production on the same computer as my workflow has gotten even better because of the external hard drive. I love it!

Works fast on Apple Mac mini ' Mac with Time Machine. works on USB 2 or 3.Mount and dismount as simple as a thumb drive. Large enough for multiple partitions.Quiet, not hot. Worked also as net-connected storage. No challenges in 2+ years.Tried with some extensive content=specific search software and it was very fast with that too.Have used with photos collections, music and videos, plus more routine computer files and databases.I use it flat on desk but it probably would be OK mounted on side.

I purchased this very nice looking external HD for my vast photo collection and to back up my MacBPro on Time Machine. It worked very nicely for three years; I had almost used up the 4T. Then...suddenly, a few days ago, it stopped being recognized by my Mac. My state of panic was quite extreme. I had photos from 2007 backed up in there, plus myriads of bytes in documents, movies, slideshows, etc. It had been my go-to space saver.After googling and asking around, I did different things: reboot, Disk Utilities, check cables and connections, etc. nothing...nada. I had to spring for tech advice which was costly and installed a piece of software that was able to scan the 4T...took like a day and a half to do that. Now I need another space tank to put what I've recovered into. After spending almost $200, I was hoping this baby was going to be the last one...but not to be. I did quite a bit of research and did not want to go with Toshiba or WD or even (shudder) Seagate...not sure what to do. I'm back at square one again since I can't return it and it's out of warranty. Wish I could get my money back. :(UPDATE: 8/2/2019. I solved the issue by reformating the HD and now it works like a charm. However it is a bit picky when it comes to ejecting it, you have to wait. Otherewise a good piece.

The drive was recognized as soon as I plugged it into my Macbook Pro (mid-2009) (the quick start mentions the on/off power-button in case you didn't notice it), but I did First Aid and erased disk anyway. I was worried (based on other reviews) about noise and heat. I'm currently 10% into a TimeMachine backup of 500G and the case is only warm to the touch and much quieter than my older 7200rpm external drive (which has a fan). You do hear head servo seek noises but not loud nor unexpected for a mechanical drive. This is plugged into my older MBP (with USB) but I plan to use it with my soon-to-arrive new MBP (with Thunderbolt 3). I don't particularly care about speed since I plan to only do TimeMachine so I didn't benchmark it; TimeMachine estimated 21 hr for a full backup which converts into 6MB/s all in at the app layer, which is fine with me for incrementals. Will update if my experience changes using my new MBP or if problems arise later. Note that I selected a wall-powered 7200rpm because this is only for backups done from my desk and not portable use (I have cloud backup for on-the-go and I like using my big-screen monitor for working). If you need a truly portable option, the USB-powered 5400rpm, would be a better (but somewhat slower) option.