Product Manual G-RAID USB is a high-performance, removable dual-drive RAID solution with Enterprise-class hard drives.
Table of Contents Table of Contents Safety & General Use Maintenance for Your Drive Safety Precautions.......................................................4 Initialize the Drive for Mac..................................... 29 Backup Your Data.........................................................5 Restore the Drive Icon............................................. 33 Reformat with Partitions........................................ 35 About Your G-RAID USB Replace a Failed Drive Module..................
Safety & General Use Safety & General Use Safety Precautions Backup Your Data G-RAID USB‘s warranty may be void as a result of the failure to respect the precautions listed here. If you detect a problem with your drive, please contact our Technical Support department. The disk drives contained in your G-RAID USB device are delicate electronic instruments and are susceptible to damage due to excessive physical shock.
About Your G-RAID® USB Introduction Thank you for purchasing G-RAID USB from G-Technology. The G-RAID USB hard drive is a highspeed, low-cost RAID that provides an ideal storage solution for content creation professionals. With its unique industrial design and all-aluminum housing, G-RAID USB is the de facto standard for many post-production facilities worldwide. G-RAID USB features a USB 3.0 interface. When connected via the USB 3.
About Your G-RAID® USB About Your G-RAID® USB What’s in the Box Overview of the Drive The following items are included in the box: The following diagram shows the helpful features of your G-RAID USB. • • • The compact and quiet G-RAID USB features two removable HGST 7200 RPM SATA III hard drives. It has a uniquely designed all-aluminum enclosure with an activity/failure LED in the front panel. The rear panel features a Kensington™ security slot, a high-speed USB 3.
About Your G-RAID® USB Activity and Failure LEDs G-RAID USB contains LEDs for drive activity (WHITE) and drive failure (RED) that are next to each other on the front panel and describe the following operations: • • • • System initialization System ready Disk activity Disk drive failure The following table explains the meaning of each combination of LEDs on the drive. When both LEDs are illuminated, the color turns lighter RED.
Using Your Drive on Mac® Using Your Drive on Mac® Easy Installation for Mac Use with Time Machine® G-RAID USB attaches to your computer via a USB 3.0 port. Your G-RAID USB can be easily used as a backup drive via Time Machine when connected to a Mac. Time Machine is an application that ships with your Mac and provides automatic file backup. The following steps will quickly set up G-RAID USB with Time Machine.
Using Your Drive on Mac® Using Your Drive on Mac® Disconnect the Drive In the subsequent dialog box, select the G-RAID USB. Click the Use Disk button. A great feature of G-RAID USB 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.
Using RAID Modes Supported RAID Modes G -RAID is preconfigured in RAID 0 (Performance) mode, for use with Mac OS systems. The drive can also be configured in RAID 1 (Protected) mode or JBOD mode. The following table explains the advantages and disadvantages for each RAID level. RAID Level Description Advantage Disadvantage Ideal For RAID 0 Disk Striping Highest read/write performance. Storage capacity is 100% utilized. No fault tolerance. Single drive failure will result in complete data loss.
Using RAID Modes Using RAID Modes Configure the RAID Mode for Mac RAID 1 (Protected) RAID 1 is great for protecting and securing data, making it ideal for sensitive data, but it operates at the speed of a single drive. In RAID 1, the array will be at 50 percent of its total capacity as the same data is written or mirrored to both drives simultaneously. You can easily configure G-RAID USB’s RAID mode with the following steps. Important Note: Changing the RAID level will erase all data on the drive.
Using RAID Modes Using RAID Modes 3. Once the utility finds your G-RAID USB, the following window will appear. Select your desired configuration: RAID 1 (Protected), RAID 0 (Performance) or JBOD. Then click the Configure button to continue. 5. A window will appear telling you that the configuration is in progress. The next window will confirm that your G-RAID USB is configured in RAID 1, RAID 0 or JBOD mode. 4.
Using RAID Modes Using RAID Modes 7. NOTE: If the Disk Insertion dialog does not appear, go to Application > Utilities and open the Disk Utility program. Once Disk Utility is open, you are ready to initialize and partition G-RAID USB for use with Mac. The RAID Configuration Utility for Windows RAID 1 Degraded Mode and Rebuild for Mac The RAID Configurator utility is available for download from the G-Technology website at g-technology.com/support.
Using RAID Modes Using RAID Modes Configure the RAID Mode for Windows 3. Once the utility finds your G-RAID USB, the following window will appear. Select your desired configuration: RAID 1 (Protected), RAID 0 (Performance) or JBOD. Then click the Configure button to continue. You can easily configure G-RAID USB’s RAID mode with the following steps. Important Note: Changing the RAID level will erase all data on the drive. Be sure all of the data and files you want to save are backed up to separate media.
Using RAID Modes Using RAID Modes 5. A window will appear telling you that the configuration is in progress. The next window will confirm that your G-RAID USB is configured in RAID 1, RAID 0 or JBOD mode. RAID 1 Degraded Mode and Rebuild for Windows If your G-RAID USB is in RAID 1 configuration and either a single drive failure occurs or if a member of the RAID 1 set is removed, then the active drive will operate in degraded mode.
Maintenance for Your Drive Initialize the Drive for Mac G-RAID USB is factory formatted or “initialized” for use with Mac OS. You can follow these steps to reinitialize your drive if you would like to quickly erase the contents of the drive. 1. Open the Disk Utility application. Disk Utility is located on your hard drive under Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility. The window below will appear. Your G-RAID USB will be displayed in the left column. 2.
Maintenance for Your Drive Maintenance for Your Drive 4. Choose the Format option you prefer. • • Mac OS Extended (Journaled): This basic File System format is intended for generally formatted drives including Time Machine backup and creating separate bootable Disk Images.
Maintenance for Your Drive Maintenance for Your Drive Restore the Drive Icon 7. After the drive is re-initialized, you should automatically see the Time Machine dialog box. • • Click the Use as Backup Disk button if you want to use the drive with Time Machine. Click the Don’t Use or Decide Later buttons if you do not want to use Time Machine at this point.
Maintenance for Your Drive Maintenance for Your Drive Reformat with Partitions 4. Select the default G-RAID USB drive icon on your desktop and press Command+I. This opens the Get Info window (below left). 5. Select the default icon in the Get Info window (below left). 6. Press Command+V to paste the custom G-RAID USB icon into the Get Info window (below right). Partitioning a hard drive is the process of dividing a hard drive into separate, discrete sections called volumes.
Maintenance for Your Drive Maintenance for Your Drive 2. Select the USB icon — not the G-Technology drive icon — by clicking it in the left column. 4. Select the number of partitions you would like from the Partition Layout menu. Below, we have selected “2 Partitions” to create two partitions. 3. Click on the Partition button in the main window. p.36 p.
Maintenance for Your Drive Maintenance for Your Drive 5. Click on the first partition in the Partition Layout area. Your partition will be in a white box surrounded by blue lines. • • • 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 (Journaled). For details about formats, go here. In the Size field, type in a size for the partition.
Maintenance for Your Drive Maintenance for Your Drive Replace a Failed Drive Module The internal components of G-RAID USB continually monitor the health of each of its disk drives. In the event of a drive failure, a visual alarm will appear. Read more in Activity and Failure LEDs. 4. If G-RAID USB was set up in RAID 1 mode, the unit will begin rebuilding data on the drive. During this process, the activity LED will indicate data access. The rebuild time is approximately two hours per terabyte.
Using Your Drive on Windows® Windows Use G-RAID USB is set up at the factory for use with Mac OS systems. A simple initialization will prepare your drive for use with Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 systems. For helpful information on configuring and using your drive with Windows, please visit g-technology.com/windows. Cross Platform Use Using Your Drive on Windows • Windows Use...............................................p. 43 • Cross Platform Use.....................................p.
Using Your Drive on Windows® Using Your Drive on Windows® 4. Select exFAT File System from the Format pop-up menu. This will format to exFAT. NOTE: You may need to rename the drive because exFAT does not support more than 11 letters in the drive name. 6. Click the Erase button in the pop-up dialog box. A progress bar in the lower right corner of the window will show the progress of the disk’s reformatting. Your drive will be formatted to its full capacity as exFAT. 7. Quit the Disk Utility program.
Support & Warranty Technical Support Thank you for purchasing G-RAID USB. If you have any comments or questions about this manual or the product, please let us know! As a valued customer, G-Technology strives to provide you with the finest products and support. If you encounter any difficulties while installing or using you G-RAID USB, our tech support team members will gladly assist you at: g-technology.com/support. Helpful information for support Support & Warranty • Technical Support.................
Support & Warranty Support & Warranty Limited Warranty Limited Warranty What must you do? If you are having trouble with a product, before seeking limited warranty service, first follow the troubleshooting procedures that HGST or your reseller provides. HGST, a Western Digital Company including G-Technology for External Hard Disk Drives.
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 operating 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.
