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External storage is currently going through a transition away from conventional magnetic storage devices to solid state, specifically NAND-based SSDs. When you compare the cost to that of a bare mechanism and a simple USB enclosure, the G-DRIVE Desktop Drive is one of the more expensive ways to get extra space, and it's also relatively slow compared to SSD drives. For all your demanding workloads and mission-critical content, you can rely on the power and enhanced reliability of the Ultrastar™ enterprise-class 7200RPM hard drive inside. For our own folder transfer test, we use a MacBook Pro laptop. This drag-and-drop test consists of copying a standard 1.2GB folder from the Mac to the test drive, with a stopwatch showing how long it took to finish the job.
Included in the box are two 50cm cables, one each for USB-C and USB-A connections, allowing it to be connected to most computers that support USB.
G-Drive Pro has a solid, anodized aluminum enclosure. Not only does it look good but it offers robust protection for the Enterprise Class Drive inside. Therefore, when we tested a 12TB edition of the G-DRIVE Desktop Drive, we were forced to reformat it on our test PC before it would appear as a drive in the file system. The features of the SanDisk Professional G-Drive PRO will be familiar to those that have experienced any of the SanDisk Professional SSD products recently.
And, worryingly, where SanDisk previously provided both USB-A and USB-C cables, the new design comes exclusively with a single USB-C cable. With the solid and stylish all-aluminum enclosure, G-DRIVE PRO not only performs at high levels, it looks good doing it too. Where this drive is better than the more expensive PRO-G40 is that it at least comes with both the USB cables most customers will need, and they are also a decent length.
Superseded by better options
With no resilience against drive failure in this design, what you’re gambling on is the quality of the mechanism and data recovery if you pay the extra Western Digital wants each year for that potential safety net. For those wondering if the enclosure could be repurposed, there appears to be no obvious way inside. And, while it might be possible to dismantle, there are no guarantees that the NAND flash module inside uses a standard M.2 slot. When put side by side in this way, the SanDisk Professional G-Drive PRO SSD is eclipsed by the PRO-G40, which matches the PRO on speed and is superior in almost every other respect. The SSD controller and the NAND Flash memory used are unknown; however, we’d assume that it shares some DNA with the SN530, Western Digital’s entry level NVMe platform. The G-Drive PRO has dual Thunderbolt 3 ports allowing you to daisy-chaining up to another 5 thunderbolt devices, keeping you connected to multiple drives, 4K displays, and more, through a single connection to your computer.
However, the problem with quoting those numbers is that the PRO will only sustain those, or specifically the write performance over a short sprint. Pry open this drive and you will find a Western Digital WD40EMRX-82UZ0N0, otherwise known as the WD Red. This is a 4TB hard disk drive spinning at 5400RPM with 64MB cache – a storage device that has been fine-tuned to deliver cooler temperatures in use and targets NAS users. WD says that its Red range has features such as NAS compatibility, increased reliability, error recovery controls as well as noise and vibration protection that make it a great choice for use cases that require better reliability than your run-of-the-mill hard disk drive. Therefore, for those with USB 3.0 (USB 3.2 Gen 1) ports, there is little point in purchasing this drive over cheaper options because you will never see its actual performance.That you can buy two Crucial X8 for the price of a single SanDisk Professional SSD that isn’t any faster suggests that either Crucial is underselling its line or SanDisk has entirely lost the pricing plot. That they don’t include a USB-A to USB-C cable is a disappointment at this price, although most customers will probably have this item if they need it. The G-Technology G-Drive 4TB is still very much competitive with rivals launched in 2017. Final verdict But possibly the biggest issue with this design is the maximum capacity of 2TB, an amount that might have seemed huge a few short years ago but looks underwhelming now. Since this drive is only USB Gen 3.2 Gen 2 capable, there are many brands and products that offer the same capacities and performance levels for significantly less.
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