PRODUCT MANUAL G DRIVE ® High-Speed Portable Drive g-technology.
G DRIVE® Table of Contents Welcome to G-DRIVE mini Table of Contents Safety & General Use Safety Precautions.................................................... 4 Backup Your Data..................................................... 5 About Your G-DRIVE mini Introduction............................................................... 7 What’s in the Box ..................................................... 8 System Requirements............................................. 9 Overview of the Drive ..........
G DRIVE ® Safety & General Use Safety Precautions ......................................... p.4 • Backup Your Data ........................................... p.
G DRIVE® Safety & General Use Safety Precautions G-DRIVE® mini’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. Please read our Limited Warranty. • Servicing: Your drive contains no user-serviceable parts. If it appears to be malfunctioning, have it inspected by a qualified G-Technology Technical Support representative.
G DRIVE® Safety & General Use Backup Your Data The disk drive contained in your G-DRIVE mini is a delicate electronic instrument and 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 destruction of data while using a G-Technology drive is the sole responsibility of the user.
G DRIVE ® About Your G-DRIVE mini Introduction .................................................. • What’s in the Box ....................................... • System Requirements ................................ • Overview of the Drive ................................. • p.7 p.8 p.9 p.
G DRIVE® About Your G-DRIVE mini Introduction Thank you for purchasing the G-DRIVE mini from G-Technology. G-DRIVE mini is the ideal storage solution for people on the go. G-DRIVE mini is a high-performance 7200RPM portable drive offering a stylish look and a heavy duty feel. The drive has plenty of storage space to backup your important documents, music, digital videos and digital photo files.
G DRIVE® About Your G-DRIVE mini What’s in the Box The following items are included in the box: • G-DRIVE mini • (1) USB 3.0 cable (backwards compatible with USB 2.0) • (1) FireWire® 800 cable • Protective carrying case If any items are missing, please contact G-Technology at support@g-technology.com. p.
G DRIVE® About Your G-DRIVE mini System Requirements G-DRIVE mini 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’. • Mac OS 10.6 or higher • Windows® 8, 7, Vista and XP® Overview of the Drive This diagram shows the helpful features of your G-DRIVE mini. There is a Power & Activity LED behind the grill on the front of the unit and a Heat Sink beneath it.
G DRIVE ® Using Your Drive on Mac • • • • Easy Installation for Mac .......................... p.11 Optional Power Adapter .......................... p.11 Use with Time Machine ............................ p.12 Disconnect the Drive ................................. p.
G DRIVE® Using Your Drive on Mac® Easy Installation for Mac G-DRIVE mini easily attaches to your computer via a USB 3.0 or FireWire 800 cable. Simply plug one end of the cable into the G-DRIVE mini and the other end of the cable into a free USB or FireWire connector on your computer. The drive will automatically mount on the desktop if you are running Mac OS. Optional Power Adapter Typically, no AC power supply is necessary.
G DRIVE® Using Your Drive on Mac® Use with Time Machine G-DRIVE mini works perfectly and easily with Time Machine. Time Machine is an application that ships with your Mac and provides automatic backup for your files. The following steps will quickly set up your G-DRIVE mini with Time Machine. 1. When you attach G-DRIVE mini for the first time, the Time Machine dialog box should automatically appear. Click the Use as Backup Disk button. 2.
G DRIVE® Using Your Drive on Mac® 3. In the dialog box that appears, select the G-DRIVE mini. Click the Use for Backup button. 4. Make sure the Time Machine switch is set to ON. You can set its options by clicking the Options button. Do this to choose volumes, folders or files you do NOT want to backup. G-DRIVE mini will now back up your important files automatically with Time Machine. It’s that easy! p.
G DRIVE® Using Your Drive on Mac® Disconnect the Drive A great feature of G-DRIVE mini is its ability to be connected and disconnected 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 the drive from your computer.  1. Before powering down and disconnecting the drive, unmount the system by simply dragging the G-DRIVE mini icon to the trash located in the dock.
G DRIVE ® Maintenance for Your Drive Initialize Drive for Mac ............................... p.16 • Restore the Drive Icon ............................... p.19 • Reformat with Partitions ........................... p.
G DRIVE® Maintenance for Your Drive Initialize Drive for Mac G-DRIVE mini was factory-formatted for use or ‘initialized’ for Mac OS. You can reinitialize if you would like to quickly erase the contents of the drive. Here are the steps. 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-DRIVE mini will be displayed in the left-hand column. 2.
G DRIVE® Maintenance for Your Drive 4. Click the Format pop-up and choose the Format option that you prefer. • Mac OS Extended (Journaled): Use this format if you intend to use the drive for Time Machine or to create a separate bootable installation of OS X®. •M ac OS Extended: Use this format for best performance and media storage. 5. C lick the Erase button in the lower right corner of the window. A dialog box will appear asking if you want to erase the G-DRIVE mini partition. p.
G DRIVE® Maintenance for Your Drive WARNING: THIS NEXT STEP WILL ERASE ALL DATA ON YOUR DRIVE. 6. Click on the Erase button to continue. A progress bar in the lower right corner of the window will show the progress of the disk’s reformatting. 7. After the drive is reinitialized, 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. For more info using the drive with Time Machine, go here.
G DRIVE® Maintenance for Your Drive Restore the Drive Icon If the G-DRIVE mini drive icon was erased during the reinitializing process (see previous section), you can restore the icon with the following easy steps. NOTE: This process is not required for the operation of G-DRIVE mini. 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 and navigate to your product. There will be a link to download the icons. 2.
G DRIVE® Maintenance for Your Drive 4. Select the G-DRIVE mini icon on your desktop and press Command+I. This opens its 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-DRIVE mini icon into the Get Info window. (below right) The icon for your G-DRIVE mini has been restored and you can close the Get Info window. Your drive is now fully ready for use! p.
G DRIVE® Maintenance for Your Drive Reformat with Partitions ‘Partitioning’ a hard drive is the process of dividing a hard drive into separate, discrete sections called ‘volumes’. Each volume works like a separate disk. You can create up to 16 different partitions on a hard drive in Mac OS and each partition can be a different size and format. With hard drives getting bigger, it is useful to partition your hard drive so sections of its space can be used for different purposes.
G DRIVE® Maintenance for Your Drive 2. Select the FireWire or USB icon – not the G-Technology drive icon – by clicking it in the left-side column. 3. Click on the Partition button in the main window. 4. Select the number of partitions you would like from the Volume Scheme menu. Below, we have selected ‘2 Partitions’ to create two partitions. p.
G DRIVE® Maintenance for Your Drive 5. Click on the first partition in the Volume Scheme area. Your partition will be highlighted by a blue bounding box. • 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.
G DRIVE® 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.
G DRIVE® G DRIVE ® Using Your Drive on Windows Windows Use ................................................. p.26 • Cross Platform Use ...................................... p.
G DRIVE® Using Your Drive on Windows® Windows Use G--DRIVE mini is set up at the factory for use with Mac OS systems. A simple initialization will prepare your drive for use with Windows 7, Vista and XP systems. For helpful information on configuring and using your drive with Windows, please visit g-technology.com/windows p.
G DRIVE® Using Your Drive on Windows® Cross Platform Use You can set up G-DRIVE mini for use on both Windows and Mac system by formatting the drive as ‘FAT32’. To do this, use the Disk Utility application and format the drive to MS-DOS® (FAT), also known as FAT32. 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-DRIVE mini will be displayed in the left-hand column. 2.
G DRIVE® Using Your Drive on Windows® 4. Select MS-DOS® File System from the Format pop-up menu. This will format to FAT32. NOTE: You may need to rename the drive because FAT32 does not support more than 11 letters in the drive name. 5. Click the Erase button in the lower right corner of the window. A dialog box will appear asking if you want to erase the G-DRIVE mini partition. p.
G DRIVE® Using Your Drive on Windows® WARNING: THIS NEXT STEP WILL ERASE ALL DATA ON YOUR DRIVE. 6. Click the Erase button. 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 FAT32. 7. Quit the Disk Utility program. You are finished! 8. After reinitializing, the custom icon for the G-DRIVE mini will be erased. No icons are available for FAT32.
G DRIVE ® Support & Warranty Technical Support ....................................... p.31 • Limited Warranty ......................................... p.32 • Copyright ........................................................ p.
G DRIVE® Support & Warranty Technical Support Thank you for purchasing G-DRIVE mini. 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-DRIVE mini, please contact G-Technology Technical Support at: g-technology.com/support.
G DRIVE® Support & Warranty Limited Warranty HGST, a Western Digital Company (“HGST”) Including G-Technology for External Hard Disk Drives What does this limited warranty cover? This Limited Warranty applies to new HGST products purchased from an authorized HGST dealer by the original purchaser for normal use and not for resale. HGST warrants that a covered product is free from defects in materials and workmanship, with the exceptions stated below.
G DRIVE® Support & 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. To obtain limited warranty service, you must first obtain a Return Materials Authorization (RMA) and ship-to address by contacting G-Technology at g-technology.com/contact/contact_support. Please follow the instructions found on the website.
G DRIVE® 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.
