Which GTech External Hard Drive?

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I’m looking at external hard drives for my 13-inch late 2010 Macbook Air (2.13 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, running on OS X 10.9.5).

It seems GTech drives are well regarded for reliability etc so am considering one of those. Can anyone tell me what the difference is between a 'G-Technology G-DRIVE USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive' and a 'G-Technology G-DRIVE USB 3.0 FireWire 800 eSATA Desktop Hard Drive’? Which is better suited to my current Macbook Air, and poss future-proofed if/when I upgrade? Also - a secondary question but does matter to me - which is quieter, or do they both run reasonably quietly?
 
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The difference between the USB 3.0 and the Firewire 800 is speed of data transfer. To make it simple the USB 3.0 will be about twice as fast as the Firewire 800. Here is a link to a drive I resently purchased for our audio department:

Amazon.com: G-Technology G-DRIVE (Gen 6) USB 3.0 eSATA and FireWire 2TB 7200RPM External Hard Drive (0G02919): Computers & Accessories

It offers both connections so there is no need for choosing. As for quiet, truthfully, I have only set the drive up - I am the IT. I did notice it seems to make some noise when accessed but not more than light mechanical sounds when it spins up - not really noticeable. I will say it is bigger (longer) than I expected. I have a lot of external drives but this was my first GTech. I purchased it because our Audio person attended a training class that recommended them for reliability and speed. They do have a 3year warrantee.

Lisa
 
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Thankyou very much Lisa. Good to hear others like your colleague who was at a training class recommend GTech drives. Last time I tried to get one the model I'd decided on was out of stock so that speaks for itself! The three year warranty is a good guarantee too. I haven't got a Firewire port in my Macbook Air, just a USB 2.0. Fortunately most specs seem to say the drives are compatible with USB 2.0 as well as 3.0. It was the eSATA bit I was puzzled by. I notice that the models with eSATA were more expensive so was wondering what the advantage of that is - maybe faster? or quieter? or both? Anyone know? I'll also look at GTech mobile versions (probably 1TB) to go with the desktop drive (and hope they're not out of stock this time!) Any recommendations for that wd be v welcome too
 
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eSATA means external SATA. Internally computers have SATA connections for the hard drive or SSD. eSATA is very fast and connect one to one with the computer. It is mainly on high end PC's and geared toward the professional - hence the higher cost.

If you are shopping around check out OWC drives. They are also reliable and come with a 3 year warrantee.

Lisa
 
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Thankyou, Lisa. That's useful to know. Thanks also for the mention of OWC drives - I've not heard of those before. Will have a look at those too
 
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I'll also look at GTech mobile versions (probably 1TB) to go with the desktop drive (and hope they're not out of stock this time!) Any recommendations for that wd be v welcome too
FWIW I purchased a G Drive mini 1 TB (USB 3.0/2.0 FireWire 800/400) end 2012 here at the Apple store. Did not use it much and recently reopened its box. It is a very cool small size external drive (powered from the mac or the Airport base station to which it is connected), no noise at all, small leather pouch for hand carrying around. I started using it to take some baggage away from the internal hard drive of my MacbookPro and (hopefully) some movies as well if I succeed to recover them from another (LaCie) drive. All in all I am happy with it, but admit having not yet submitted it to the difficulties of life. HTH
 
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FWIW I purchased a G Drive mini 1 TB (USB 3.0/2.0 FireWire 800/400) end 2012 here at the Apple store. Did not use it much and recently reopened its box. It is a very cool small size external drive (powered from the mac or the Airport base station to which it is connected), no noise at all, small leather pouch for hand carrying around. I started using it to take some baggage away from the internal hard drive of my MacbookPro and (hopefully) some movies as well if I succeed to recover them from another (LaCie) drive. All in all I am happy with it, but admit having not yet submitted it to the difficulties of life. HTH

So far so good by the sound of it. Thanks for your input, Michelangelo - always good to hear how products perform in real life as opposed to manufacturers' claims!
 
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As GTech is a subsiduary of Western Digital it should perform well.
 

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