G-Technology G DRIVE User manual

with Thunderbolt™
G
DRIVE
Portable Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 Drive
PRODUCT MANUAL
g-technology.com

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Table of Contents
with Thunderbolt™
G
DRIVE
Table of Contents
Safety & General Use
Safety Precautions................................................... 4
Backup Your Data .................................................... 5
About Your G-DRIVE mobile
Introduction .............................................................. 7
What’s in the Box .................................................... 8
System Requirements............................................ 8
Overview of the Drive ........................................... 9
Easy Installation for Mac® ..................................... 9
Disconnect the Drive ...........................................10
Using Your Drive with Mac OS®
Use with Time Machine®.....................................12
Initialize Drive for Mac ........................................14
Restore the Drive Icon .........................................17
Reformat with Partitions.....................................19
Using Your Drive on Windows®
Windows Use...........................................................24
Cross Platform Use ................................................25
Support & Warranty
Technical Support .................................................29
Limited Warranty ...................................................30
Copyright..................................................................32

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DRIVE
Safety & General Use
• Safety Precautions ......................................... p.4
• Backup Your Data ........................................... p.5

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Safety & General Use
with Thunderbolt™
G
DRIVE
Safety Precautions
The warranty on G-DRIVE® mobile with Thunderbolt™ 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.
If the product is returned with damage caused by improper handling, the warranty will
be void and liability will rest with the user. Please read our Limited Warranty.
• Servicing: Your drive contains no user-serviceable parts. If it appears to be
malfunctioning, have it inspected by a qualied Technical Support representative.
• Moisture: Place the device away from moisture or liquids. To reduce the risk of
damage, do not expose this drive to rain or moisture. Do not use it in damp or wet
conditions. Never place objects containing liquids on the drive as they may spill
into its openings.
• Ventilation: Place the device in a vented area. The drive should never be placed
near or over a radiator or heat source.
• Temperature: Do not expose this drive to temperatures outside the range of
5°C to 35°C (41°F to 95°F); or to operational humidity beyond 5%-80%, non-
condensing, or non-operating humidity beyond 10%-90%, non-condensing.
Avoid placing your drive near a source of heat, or exposing it to sunlight
(even through a window), or in an environment that is too cold or humid.
• Physical Damage: Do not place heavy objects on the drive. Never use excessive
force on your drive.

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Safety & General Use
with Thunderbolt™
G
DRIVE
Backup Your Data
The disk drive contained in your G-DRIVE mobile with Thunderbolt device 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.
Make two backups
To help prevent the loss of your data, we highly recommend that you keep TWO copies
of your data in separate storage locations. Keep one copy on your G-Technology drive.
Keep a second copy on your internal hard drive, another G-Technology drive, or a form
of removable storage media.

with Thunderbolt™
G
DRIVE
About Your G-DRIVE mobile
with Thunderbolt
•Introduction .................................................... p.7
• What’s in the Box .......................................... p.8
• System Requirements ................................. p.8
• Overview of the Drive ................................. p.9
• Easy Installation for Mac ............................ p.9
• Disconnect the Drive ................................. p.10

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About G-DRIVE mobile with Thunderbolt
with Thunderbolt™
G
DRIVE
Introduction
Thank you for purchasing G-DRIVE mobile with Thunderbolt from G-Technology.
It’s the ultra-stylish portable storage solution for laptop users, featuring ultra-fast
Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 interfaces.
The ideal—and indispensable—compliment to your Mac® laptop and other
portable computers, G-DRIVE mobile with Thunderbolt combines 1TB capacity
and a 7200RPM hard drive, together with Time Machine compatibility for quick
back-ups of documents, music, video and photos. Weighing in at less than 9 oz.,
the drive has a high-quality, heavy-duty feel that belies its sleek design.
Right out of the box, G-DRIVE mobile with Thunderbolt works with Time Machine® to
automatically back up all the les on your MacBook Pro®! You can also use the drive
with a Windows® computer or work cross-platform. See how here.
The drive features a silent, fan-less design with an integrated cooling system to ensure
reliable operation and long life. And it’s bus-powered, so you don’t have to carry around
an external AC power supply to use the drive. Portability has never been never
so easy—and lightning fast!

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About G-DRIVE mobile with Thunderbolt
with Thunderbolt™
G
DRIVE
What’s in the Box
The following items are included in the box—if any items are missing,
please contact G-Technology at g-technology.com/support.
• G-DRIVE mobile with Thunderbolt
• (1) Thunderbolt cable
• (1) USB 3.0 cable (2.0 compatible)
• Quick Start Guide
System Requirements
The drive is set up at the factory for use with Mac OS® systems, formatted as ‘HFS+
with Journaling’, and supports the following Operating Systems:
Mac: Mac OS 10.7+.
Windows: Windows® 8, 7 and Vista.
See how to format for Windows here.

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About G-DRIVE mobile with Thunderbolt
with Thunderbolt™
G
DRIVE
Overview of the Drive
Your G-DRIVE mobile with Thunderbolt is designed for ultimate simplicity. The
Power & Activity LED on the front of the unit will glow when power is applied via the
Thunderbolt or USB port. The light will ash more brightly as data is transferred to or
from the hard drive. One Thunderbolt and one USB port are located on the rear panel
of the drive’s aluminum housing.
Easy Installation for Mac
G-DRIVE mobile with Thunderbolt easily attaches to your computer via the USB or
Thunderbolt port. Simply use one of the included cables to connect the drive to the
appropriate port on your computer. For best performance, we recommend using the
Thunderbolt connection when available. The drive will automatically mount on the
desktop if you are running Mac OS.
No AC power supply is necessary. The drive is bus-powered to eliminate the need to
carry around an external AC power supply to use the drive.

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About G-DRIVE mobile with Thunderbolt
with Thunderbolt™
G
DRIVE
Disconnecting the Drive
A great feature of G-DRIVE mobile with Thunderbolt is its ability to be connected
and disconnected while your computer is running. However, 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. Before disconnecting the drive, unmount the system by simply dragging
the G-DRIVE mobile with Thunderbolt icon to the trash located in the dock.
Keyboard shortcut: Select the drive icon and hit Command+E.
2. It is safe to remove the drive from your system when the drive icon is
no longer present on your desktop.
Helpful links
• To use your drive on Windows systems, go to Windows Use.
• To use your drive on Mac and Windows, go to Cross Platform Use.

with Thunderbolt™
G
DRIVE
Using Your Drive with Mac OS
• Use with Time Machine ............................. p.12
• Initialize Drive for Mac ............................... p.14
• Restore the Drive Icon ............................... p.17
• Reformat with Partitions ........................... p.19

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Using Your Drive with Mac OS®
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G
DRIVE
Use with Time Machine
G-DRIVE mobile with Thunderbolt works seamlessly with Time Machine, the easy-to-use
application that ships with your Mac and provides automatic backup for your les. The
following steps will quickly set up your drive for use with Time Machine.
1. When you connect your drive for the rst time, the Time Machine dialog box
should automatically appear. Click the ‘Use as Backup Disk’ button.
2. If the Time Machine dialog box did not launch, go to the Apple® Menu and select
System Preferences. Click on the Time Machine icon, and the Time Machine
Preferences panel will open. Click the ‘Select Backup Disk’button.

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Using Your Drive with Mac OS®
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DRIVE
3. In the dialog box that appears, select your G-DRIVE mobile with Thunderbolt,
then click the Use for Backup button.
4. Make sure the Time Machine switch is set to ON, then click the Options
button to choose volumes, folders or les you do NOT want to backup.
G-DRIVE mobile with Thunderbolt will now use Time Machine to back up
your important les automatically. It’s that easy!

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Using Your Drive with Mac OS®
with Thunderbolt™
G
DRIVE
Initialize Drive for Mac
G-DRIVE mobile with Thunderbolt has been factory-formatted, or ‘initialized’, for use
with Mac OS. Should you wish to reinitialize the drive—and quickly erase all contents
of the drive—here are the steps:
1. First, open the Disk Utility program, located on your hard drive under Applications/
Utilities/Disk Utility. The window below will appear, and your G-DRIVE mobile with
Thunderbolt will be displayed in the left-hand column.
2. Select your drive by clicking its icon in the left-side column. Information about the
drive will be displayed at the bottom of the window.
3. Select the Erase tab to view the formatting options. By default, the Format pop-up
menu is set to the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) option.

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Using Your Drive with Mac OS®
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G
DRIVE
4. Click the Format pop-up and choose the Format option that you prefer:
• Mac OS Extended (Journaled): Select this format if you intend to use the drive
for Time Machine or to create a separate, bootable installation of the OS.
• Mac OS Extended: Use this format for best performance and media storage.
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 mobile with Thunderbolt partition.

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Using Your Drive with Mac OS®
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G
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 about using the drive with Time Machine, go here.
• Click the ‘Don’t Use’ or ‘Decide Later’ button if you do not want to use
Time Machine at this point.
8. Quit the Disk Utility program. After reinitializing the drive, the custom icon for
G-DRIVE mobile with Thunderbolt has been erased. You can optionally restore this
icon by following the steps on the next page.

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Using Your Drive with Mac OS®
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G
DRIVE
Restore the Drive Icon
If the drive icon for your G-DRIVE mobile with Thunderbolt was erased during the
reinitialization process (see previous section), you can restore the icon by following
these easy steps:
NOTE: This process is not required for the operation of G-DRIVE mobile with
Thunderbolt. However, it will make your drive’s appearance on the computer
desktop look cleaner and more accurate.
1. To get the G-Technology Icon package, go to g-technology.com/support and
navigate to your product. There will be a link to download the icons.
2. Once downloaded, it should automatically open the G-Technology Icons folder
as shown below. If not, double-click the Zip le to open. Next, double-click the
DMG le to open the G-Technology Icons package.
3. Click to select the drive icon for G-DRIVE mobile with Thunderbolt in the
package window. Press Command+C to copy the icon. (below)

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Using Your Drive with Mac OS®
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G
DRIVE
4. Select the icon for G-DRIVE mobile with Thunderbolt 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 mobile with Thunderbolt
icon into the Get Info window. (below right)
The icon for your G-DRIVE mobile with Thunderbolt has been restored and
you can close the Get Info window. Your drive is now fully ready for use!

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Using Your Drive with Mac OS®
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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 dierent partitions on a hard drive in the OS and each partition can
be a dierent size and format.
With hard drives getting bigger, it can be useful to partition your hard drive to use
sections of its space for dierent purposes. For instance, you can segment user data from
backup data, set up a multi-boot environment with dierent operating systems or create a
dedicated capture scratch disk for programs like Final Cut Pro® and Adobe Premiere®.
The following steps will guide you through the simple process of partitioning your drive.
1. First, open the Disk Utility program, located on your hard drive under Applications/
Utilities/Disk Utility. The window below will appear. Your G-Technology drive will be
displayed in the left-hand column.

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Using Your Drive with Mac OS®
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DRIVE
2. Select the Thunderbolt 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.