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High-Speed Portable Drive

PRODUCT MANUAL

g-technology.com

G DRIVE

®

Summary of Contents for G-Mini

Page 1: ...High Speed Portable Drive PRODUCT MANUAL g technology com G DRIVE ...

Page 2: ...ements 9 Overview of the Drive 9 Using Your Drive on Mac Easy Installation for Mac 11 Optional Power Adapter 11 Use with Time Machine 12 Disconnect the Drive 14 Maintenance for Your Drive Initialize Drive for Mac 16 Restore the Drive Icon 19 Reformat with Partitions 21 Using Your Drive on Windows Windows Use 26 Cross Platform Use 27 Support Warranty Technical Support 31 Limited Warranty 32 Copyrig...

Page 3: ...G DRIVE G DRIVE Safety General Use Safety Precautions p 4 Backup Your Data p 5 ...

Page 4: ...ot 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 operatio...

Page 5: ... 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 Te...

Page 6: ...G DRIVE About Your G DRIVE mini Introduction p 7 What s in the Box p 8 System Requirements p 9 Overview of the Drive p 9 ...

Page 7: ...rtant documents music digital videos and digital photo files The drive comes formatted for your Mac making it an easy plug and play storage device and is designed to work on a Windows computer or cross platform G DRIVE mini is perfect to use for Mac based backup since it ships ready for Time Machine G DRIVE mini features a silent fan less design with an integrated cooling system to ensure reliable...

Page 8: ...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 ...

Page 9: ...en power is applied via the USB or FireWire ports It will flash brighter as data is transferred to or from the hard drive On the rear of the unit there are two FireWire 800 ports a USB 3 0 port an On Off Switch and a DC Power In 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 Journal...

Page 10: ...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 14 ...

Page 11: ...ically no AC power supply is necessary The G DRIVE mini is bus powered to eliminate the need to carry around an external AC power supply to use the drive However some computer systems may not supply adequate power via USB which keeps the G DRIVE mini from properly spinning up If this is the case it may become necessary to use an optional AC power adapter Simply plug the optional power adapter into...

Page 12: ...s 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 If the Time Machine dialog box did not launch go to the Apple Menu System Preferences Click on the Time Machine icon The Time Machine Preference panel will open Click the Select ...

Page 13: ...ck 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 ...

Page 14: ...ng 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 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 DRIVE mini on Windows go to Wind...

Page 15: ...G DRIVE Maintenance for Your Drive Initialize Drive for Mac p 16 Restore the Drive Icon p 19 Reformat with Partitions p 21 ...

Page 16: ...gram 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 Select the G DRIVE 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 ...

Page 17: ...ed Use this format if you intend to use the drive for Time Machine or to create a separate bootable installation of OS X 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 mini partition ...

Page 18: ...ed 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 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 mini has been ...

Page 19: ...our 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 Once downloaded it should automatically open the G Technology Icons folder as shown below If not double click the Zip file to open Then double click the DMG file to open the G Technology Icons package 3 Cl...

Page 20: ...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 ...

Page 21: ...s of its space can be used for different purposes For instance segment user data from backup data set up a multi boot environment with different Operating Systems or create a dedicated capture scratch disk for programs like Final Cut Pro The following steps will guide you through this simple process of partitioning your drive In this example we will partition a 500 GB G DRIVE mini connected via Fi...

Page 22: ...SB 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 ...

Page 23: ... 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 Alternately you can drag the bar in between each partition to quickly change the size 6 Repeat this process for each partition you have created 7 Click the Apply button in the lower right corner of the window A dialog box will appear asking if you...

Page 24: ...iple 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 You can optionally restore this icon to each partition with the steps on this page 11 The multiple partitions of the G Technology drive will be displayed on the desktop Your drive is now setup with two or...

Page 25: ...G DRIVE G DRIVE Using Your Drive on Windows Windows Use p 26 Cross Platform Use p 27 ...

Page 26: ... 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 ...

Page 27: ...k 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 Select the G DRIVE mini by clicking its drive 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...

Page 28: ...p 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 ...

Page 29: ...rmat you will be able to read write on Windows 7 Vista and XP and on Mac OS machines Limitations with FAT32 There are some limitations when using FAT32 The MS DOS File System cannot write files over 4 GB If you are working with files over 4 GB you may want to choose a software option like MacDrive macdrive com MacDrive is Windows software that enables you to mount Mac formatted drives on your Wind...

Page 30: ...G DRIVE Support Warranty Technical Support p 31 Limited Warranty p 32 Copyright p 34 ...

Page 31: ...e 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 Helpful information for support When contacting Technical Support it s best to be in front of your computer and have the following information available Your G DRIVE mini serial number on bottom of unit Operating System and version Compute...

Page 32: ... measured from the date of sale from HGST to the authorized distributor What does this limited warranty not cover The limited warranty does not cover damage resulting from commercial use misuse accident modification or alteration to hardware or software tampering unsuitable physical or operating environment beyond product specifications improper maintenance or failure caused by a product for which...

Page 33: ...ery to carrier at HGST shipping point You are responsible for importation of the replaced product if applicable HGST will not return the original drive to consumers therefore the consumer is responsible for moving data to another media before returning Data Recovery is not covered under this warranty and is not part of the warranty returns process HGST warrants that the replaced products are cover...

Page 34: ...the operating environment and formatting Copyright One gigabyte GB is equal to one billion bytes when referring to hard drive capacity Accessible capacity will vary depending on the operating environment and formatting Design by G Technology in California G DRIVE and G Technology are registered trademarks of HGST Inc and its affiliates in the U S and other countries Apple Mac FireWire MacBook Pro ...

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