G-Technology G RAID mini User manual

g-technology.com
Portable Dual-Drive Storage System
PRODUCT MANUAL

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Table of Contents
Welcome to G-RAID mini
Table of Contents
Safety & General Use
Safety Precautions.....................................4
Backup Your Data ......................................5
About Your G-RAID mini
Introduction ................................................7
What’s in the Box ......................................8
Overview of the Drive .............................9
System Requirements........................... 10
Disconnect the Drive ............................ 10
Using Your Drive on Mac
Easy Installation for Mac ...................... 12
Optimize its Performance.................... 13
Activity & Failure LEDs .......................... 13
Using RAID Modes
Supported RAID Modes ....................... 15
The Congurator Utility ....................... 16
Congure the RAID Mode ................... 16
Maintenance for Your Drive
Initialize Drive for Mac ......................... 20
Restore the Drive Icon .......................... 23
Reformat with Partitions...................... 25
Using Your Drive on Windows
Windows Use............................................ 30
Cross Platform Use................................. 31
Support & Warranty
Technical Support .................................. 35
Limited Warranty .................................... 36
Copyright................................................... 38

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

p.4
Safety & General Use
Safety Precautions
G-RAID® 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 depart-
ment.
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
Backup Your Data
The disk drive contained in your G-RAID mini is a delicate electronic instrument and is suscep-
tible 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.

About Your G-RAID mini
• Introduction ..................................................... p.7
• What’s in the Box ........................................... p.8
• Overview of the Drive .................................. p.9
• System Requirements ................................ p.10
• Disconnect the Drive ................................. p.10

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About Your G-RAID mini
Introduction
Thank you for purchasing the G-RAID mini from G-Technology. The G-RAID mini hard drive
is a high-speed, low-cost portable RAID designed specically for professional content cre-
ation applications. G-RAID mini features either RAID 0 (performance) or RAID 1 (protected)
operation, and high-speed USB 3.0 and FireWire interface.
G-RAID mini is the ideal portable storage solution for safe-guarding content transferred
from professional tapeless video cameras. Its compact size and tough, all-aluminum enclo-
sure makes it perfect for capturing and editing on the go or working on location.
G-RAID mini is capable of delivering an unprecedented 170+ MB/second transfer rate
when connected via eSATA in RAID 0 mode. The drive is FireWire bus-powered so you do
not need to be connected to AC power. G-RAID mini supports multi-stream HDV, DVCPro™
HD, XDCAM™ HD, ProRes™ 422 and uncompressed SD workows.

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About Your G-RAID mini
What’s in the Box
The following items are included in the box:
• G-RAID mini
• (1) USB 3.0 cable (backwards compatible with USB 2.0)
• (1) FireWire® 800 cable
• Portable carrying case
• External DC Power Supply
If any items are missing, please contact G-Technology at [e-mail]
or call [phone].

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About Your G-RAID mini
Overview of the Drive
This diagram shows the helpful features of your G-RAID mini. There is a Power & Activ-
ity LED and a Yellow Drive Failure LED on the front of the unit. (On some models the
Drive Failure LED may be RED.) There is a heat-sink and cooling fan on the bottom.
Read about LEDs.
On the rear of the drive is a high speed USB 3.0 port, two FireWire 800 ports and a DC
Power In Connector.

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About Your G-RAID mini
System Requirements
G-RAID mini supports the folllowing Operating Systems. The drive is set up at the fac-
tory for use with Mac OS systems, and formatted as‘HFS+ with Journaling’.
• Mac® OS 10.6 +
• Windows® 8, 7, Vista and XP®
Disconnect the Drive
A great feature of G-RAID mini is its ability to connect and disconnect while your com-
puter 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. Before disconnecting the drive, unmount the system by simply dragging the
G-RAID mini 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 G-RAID mini on Windows, go to Windows Use.
• To use G-RAID mini on Mac and Windows together, go to Cross Platform Use.

Using Your Drive on Mac
• Easy Installation for Mac ........................... p.12
• Optimize its Performance .......................... p.13
• Activity & Failure LEDs ............................... p.13

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Using Your Drive on Mac
Easy Installation for Mac
G-RAID mini attaches to your computer via
a USB 3.0, or one of two FireWire 800 ports.
Choose the connection appropriate for your
system and connect G-RAID mini with the
matching supplied cable.
The unit is bus powered via FireWire so no
AC power is needed. However, if no FireWire
power is available, the included power supply
can be used.
Simply connect the power cable to the unit and plug the power supply into a surge
protector or wall outlet. The drive will automatically mount on the desktop if you are
running Mac OS.

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Using Your Drive on Mac
Optimize its Performance
G-RAID mini can be connected to any Mac or Windows machine equipped with a USB 3.0
port or FireWire 800.
For maximum performance, G-RAID mini should be connected via USB 3.0 or FireWire 800.
Activity & Failure LEDs
G-RAID mini contains LEDs that describe the following operations: System Boot Up,
System Activity, Disk Activity and Disk Drive Failure. The following table explains the
meaning of each combination of LEDs on the drive.
The Activity light will glow when power is applied via the FireWire ports. It will ash
brighter as data is transferred to or from the hard drive. The Failure light will warn you
in the event of a disk drive failure.
In the event of a disk drive failure, the yellow Drive Failure LED located behind the
front panel will illuminate.
• If congured in fail-safe RAID 1 mode, all the data stored on the system is intact.
• If congured in RAID 0 mode, all data will be lost. Please contact our Technical Sup-
port for help if the Drive Failure LED is lit.

Using RAID Modes
• Supported RAID Modes ............................. p.15
• The Congurator Utility ............................ p.16
• Congure the RAID Mode ........................ p.16

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Using RAID Modes
Supported RAID Modes
G-RAID mini ships from the factory in RAID 0 mode, and for use with Mac OS systems.
The drive can be congured in RAID 0 (Performance) mode or RAID 1 (Protected) mode.
The following table explains the advantages and disadvantages for each RAID level.
To change the RAID mode of the G-RAID mini, follow the steps in Congure the RAID
Mode.
RAID 0 (Performance)
G-RAID mini ships in RAID 0 (Performance) mode. This RAID mode has 100% storage
capacity and is ideal for video editing. In RAID 0, data is split between the the two
drives for increased performance.
RAID 1 (Protected)
RAID 1 is great for protection and security of data, making it ideal for sensitive data
rather than large amounts. In RAID 1, the array will be at 50% of its total capacity as the
same data is written to both drives simultaneously.

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Using RAID Modes
The Congurator Utility
The G-Technology Congurator is used to change the
RAID level of your G-RAID mini. You can use either
USB 3.0 or FireWire 800 with Congurator.
The utility is available on the enclosed CD or you can
download it from the G-Technology website at
g-technology.com/support
If you download the Congurator, you should launch it directly from the mounted Disk
Image.
Congure the RAID Mode
It is easy to congure the RAID mode with the following steps. NOTE: Changing the
RAID level will erase all data on the drive. Be sure all the material you want to save is
backed up to a separate disk.
1. Launch the G-Technology Congurator utility. A dialog window will ask you to dis-
connect all other external hard disks from your computer. This is important to ensure
the Congurator does not aect other FireWire or USB devices on your system.

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Using RAID Modes
2. Click on the Continue button. A window will appear telling you that Congurator is
searching for the G-RAID mini.
3. Once the utility nds your G-RAID mini, the following window will appear. Select
the RAID 1 (Protected) or RAID 0 (Performance) radio button. Then click the Cong-
ure button to continue.
4. Two Warning windows will appear, letting you know that the following step will
erase all of your data. Click the OK/Yes buttons to continue.

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Using RAID Modes
5. A window will appear telling you the conguration is in progress. The next
window will conrm that your G-RAID mini is congured in RAID 1 or 0 mode.
6. Changing the RAID mode of G-RAID mini will require you to re-initialize the disk with
the Disk Utility application. The Disk Insertion dialog below should appear. Click the
Initialize button to launch Disk Utility. Go here for the simple steps to initialize
G-RAID mini for use with Mac.
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 mini for use with Mac.

Maintenance for Your Drive
• Initialize Drive for Mac .............................. p.20
• Restore the Drive Icon ............................... p.23
• Reformat with Partitions ........................... p.25

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Maintenance for Your Drive
Initialize Drive for Mac
G-RAID mini was factory-formatted for use or‘initialized’ for Mac OS. You can reinitial-
ize if you¹d like to quickly erase the contents of the drive, or if you recongure the RAID
mode. 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-RAID mini will be displayed in the left-hand column.
2. Select the G-RAID mini by clicking its drive icon in the left-side column. Information
about the drive willl 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.