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G-Technology G-RAID Studio Product Manual

Manual is about: High-performance Thunderbolt 2 storage system with hardware RAID

Summary of G-RAID Studio

  • Page 1

    G-technology.Com high-performance removable drive storage system product manual.

  • Page 2: Table of Contents

    P. 2 table of contents table of contents safety & general use safety precautions ...........................................................4 backup your data .............................................................5 about your g-raid introduction ..................................................

  • Page 3: Safety & General Use

    Safety & general use • safety precautions ........................................ P. 4 • backup your data ......................................... P. 5.

  • Page 4: Safety & General Use

    P. 4 safety & general use safety precautions g-raid‘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 department . If the product is returned with damage caused by improper handling,...

  • Page 5: Safety & General Use

    P. 5 safety & general use backup your data the disk drive contained in your g-raid 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, ...

  • Page 6: About Your G-Raid

    About your g-raid • introduction .................................................... P. 7 • what’s in the box .......................................... P. 8 • system requirements ................................. P. 8 • overview of the drive ................................. P. 9 • activity & fail...

  • Page 7: About Your Drive

    P. 7 about your drive introduction thank you for purchasing g-raid from g-technology. The g-raid hard drive is a high- speed, low-cost raid that provides an ideal storage solution for content creation profession- als. With its unique industrial design and all-aluminum housing, g-raid is the de facto...

  • Page 8: About Your Drive

    P. 8 about your drive what’s in the box the following items are included in the box: • g-raid storage solution with two removable disk modules • usb cable (3.0; backward compatible with usb 2.0 ports) • esata cable • firewire 800 to 800 cable • external ac power supply and cable if any items are mis...

  • Page 9: About Your Drive

    P. 9 about your drive overview of the drive the following diagram shows the helpful features of your g-raid. The compact and quiet g-raid features two removable hgst 7200 rpm sata iii hard drives. It has a uniquely designed all-aluminum enclosure with an activity/failure led in the front panel. The ...

  • Page 10: About Your Drive

    P. 10 about your drive activity and failure leds g-raid contains leds for drive activity (white) and drive failure (red) that are next to each other on the front panel and describe the following operations: • system initialization • system ready • disk activity • disk drive failure the following tab...

  • Page 11: Using Your Drive On Mac

    Using your drive on mac • easy installation for mac .......................... P. 12 • optimize performance ............................. P. 12 • use with time machine ............................ P. 13 • disconnect the drive ................................ P. 15.

  • Page 12: Using Your Drive

    P. 12 using your drive easy installation for mac g-raid attaches to your computer via a usb 3.0 high-speed esata, or one of two firewire 800 ports. Choose the connection appropriate for your system and connect the drive with the matching cable (supplied). Connect the power cord to the unit and plug ...

  • Page 13: Using Your Drive

    P. 13 using your drive use with time machine® your g-raid can be easily used as a backup drive via time machine when connected to a mac. Time machine is an application that ships with your mac and provides automatic file backup. The following steps will quickly set up g-raid with time machine. When ...

  • Page 14: Using Your Drive

    P. 14 using your drive in the subsequent dialog box, select the g-raid. Click the use disk button. 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-raid will now back up y...

  • Page 15: Using Your Drive

    P. 15 using your drive disconnect the drive a great feature of g-raid is its ability to connect and disconnect while your computer 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 po...

  • Page 16: Using Raid Modes

    Using raid modes • supported raid modes ........................... P. 17 • the raid configuration utility for mac .......................................................... P. 18 • configure the raid mode for mac ....... P. 19 • raid 1 degraded mode and rebuild for mac ................................

  • Page 17: Using Your Drive

    P. 17 using your drive supported raid modes g -raid is preconfigured in raid 0 (performance) mode, for use with mac os systems. The drive can also be configured in raid 1 (protected) mode or jbod mode. The following table explains the advantages and disadvantages for each raid level. To change the r...

  • Page 18: Using Your Drive

    P. 18 using your drive raid 1 (protected) raid 1 is great for protecting and securing data, making it ideal for sensitive data, but it operates at the speed of a single drive. In raid 1, the array will be at 50 percent of its total capacity as the same data is written or mirrored to both drives simu...

  • Page 19: Using Your Drive

    P. 19 using your drive configure the raid mode for mac you can easily configure g-raid studio’s raid mode with the following steps. Important note: changing the raid level will erase all data on the drive. Be sure all of the data and files you want to save are backed up to separate media. 1. Launch ...

  • Page 20: Using Your Drive

    P. 20 using your drive 3. Once the utility finds your g-raid, the following window will appear. Select your desired configuration: raid 1 (protected), raid 0 (performance) or jbod. Then click the configure button to continue. 4. Two warning windows will appear, letting you know that the following st...

  • Page 21: Using Your Drive

    P. 21 using your drive 5. A window will appear telling you that the configuration is in progress. The next window will confirm that your g-raid is configured in raid 1, raid 0 or jbod mode. 6. Changing the raid mode of g-raid will require you to re-initialize the disk with the disk utility applicati...

  • Page 22: Using Your Drive

    P. 22 using your drive 7. 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 for use with mac. Raid 1 degraded mode and rebuild for mac if your g-raid is in r...

  • Page 23: Using Your Drive

    P. 23 using your drive the raid configuration utility for windows the g-technology raid configurator is used to change the raid level of your g-raid. You can use usb 3.0, esata or firewire 800 with the raid configurator. To configure g- raid, it will need to be the only device connected to your comp...

  • Page 24: Using Your Drive

    P. 24 using your drive configure the raid mode for windows you can easily configure g-raid studio’s raid mode with the following steps. Important note: changing the raid level will erase all data on the drive. Be sure all of the data and files you want to save are backed up to separate media. 1. Lau...

  • Page 25: Using Your Drive

    P. 25 using your drive 3. Once the utility finds your g-raid, the following window will appear. Select your desired configuration: raid 1 (protected), raid 0 (performance) or jbod. Then click the configure button to continue. 4. Two warning windows will appear, letting you know that the following st...

  • Page 26: Using Your Drive

    P. 26 using your drive 5. A window will appear telling you that the configuration is in progress. The next window will confirm that your g-raid is configured in raid 1, raid 0 or jbod mode. 6. Changing the raid mode of g-raid will require you to re-initialize the disk. For helpful information on ini...

  • Page 27: Using Your Drive

    P. 27 using your drive raid 1 degraded mode and rebuild for windows if your g-raid is in raid 1 configuration and either a single drive failure occurs or if a member of the raid 1 set is removed, then the active drive will operate in degraded mode. What is degraded mode? In a two-drive raid 1 array,...

  • Page 28: Maintenance For Your Drive

    Maintenance for your drive initialize drive for mac ................................ P. 29 restore the drive icon ................................ P. 33 reformat with partitions ............................ P. 35 replace a failed drive module ................ P. 40

  • Page 29: Maintenance For Your Drive

    P .29 maintenance for your drive initialize drive for mac g-raid is factory formatted or “initialized” for use with the mac os. You can follow these steps to reinitialize if you would like to quickly erase the contents of the drive. 1. Open the disk utility application. Disk utility is located on yo...

  • Page 30: Maintenance For Your Drive

    P. 30 maintenance for your drive 4. Choose the format option you prefer. • mac os extended (journaled): use this format if you intend to use the drive for time machine or to create a separate bootable installation of os. • mac os extended: use this format for best performance and media storage. To s...

  • Page 31: Maintenance For Your Drive

    P .31 maintenance for your drive 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-raid partition. Warning: this next step will erase all data on your drive. 6. Click the erase button to continue. A progress bar in the lower...

  • Page 32: Maintenance For Your Drive

    P. 32 maintenance for your drive 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. • click the don’t use or decide later buttons if you do not want to use time machine a...

  • Page 33: Maintenance For Your Drive

    P .33 maintenance for your drive restore the drive icon if the g-raid drive icon was erased during the configuration process (see the previous section), you can restore the icon with the following easy steps. Note: this process is not required for the operation of the g-raid. However, it will make y...

  • Page 34: Maintenance For Your Drive

    P. 34 maintenance for your drive 4. Select the default g-raid drive icon on your desktop and press command+i. This opens the 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-raid icon into the get info window (belo...

  • Page 35: Maintenance For Your Drive

    P .35 maintenance for your 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 different partitions on a hard drive in mac os x, and each part...

  • Page 36: Maintenance For Your Drive

    P. 36 maintenance for your drive 2. Select the usb, esata or firewire icon — not the g-technology drive icon — by clicking it in the left column. 3. Click on the partition button in the main window..

  • Page 37: Maintenance For Your Drive

    P .37 maintenance for your drive 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 38: Maintenance For Your Drive

    P. 38 maintenance for your drive 5. Click on the first partition in the volume scheme area. Your partition will be in a white box surrounded by blue lines. • in the name field, type a name for the partition. • from the format menu, choose your desired disk format. If you will use your drive primaril...

  • Page 39: Maintenance For Your Drive

    P .39 maintenance for your drive 8. Click on the partition button to continue. A progress bar in the lower-right corner of the window will show you the progress of the disk’s reformatting. 9. When partitioning is complete, the multiple partitions will be displayed in the left panel of disk utility. ...

  • Page 40: Maintenance For Your Drive

    P. 40 maintenance for your drive replace a failed drive module the internal components of g-raid continually monitor the health of each of its disk drives. In the event of a drive failure, a visual alarm will appear. Read more in activity and failure leds . Raid 0: if g-raid was configured in raid 0...

  • Page 41: Maintenance For Your Drive

    P .41 maintenance for your drive 4. If g-raid was set up in raid 1 mode, the unit will begin rebuilding data on the drive. During this process, the activity led will indicate data access. The rebuild time is approximately two hours per terabyte. 5. Once the rebuild is complete, g-raid is back to nor...

  • Page 42

    Using your drive on windows • windows use ............................................... P. 43 • cross platform use .................................... P. 43.

  • Page 43: Windows Use

    P. 43 using your drive on windows windows use g-raid studio is set up at the factory for use with mac os systems. A simple initialization will prepare your drive for use with windows 7, 8 and 8.1 systems. For helpful information on configuring and using your drive with windows, please visit g-techno...

  • Page 44

    P. 44 using your drive on windows 4. Select exfat file system from the format pop-up menu. This will format to exfat. Note: you may need to rename the drive because exfat does not support more than 11 letters in the drive name. Warning: this next step will erase all data on your drive. 5. Click the ...

  • Page 45

    P. 45 using your drive on windows 6. Click the erase button. A progress bar in the lower right corner of the window will show the progress of the disk’s reformatting. Your drive will be formatted to its full capacity as exfat. 7. Quit the disk utility program. You are finished! 8. After reinitializi...

  • Page 46: Support & Warranty

    Support & warranty • technical support ................................... P. 47 • limited warranty .................................... P. 48 • copyright .................................................... P. 50

  • Page 47: Support & Warranty

    P. 47 support & warranty technical support thank you for purchasing g-raid. If you have any comments or questions about this manual or the product, please let us know! G-technology appreciates and values its customers, striving to give you the finest service and support. If you encounter any difficu...

  • Page 48: Support & Warranty

    P. 48 support & warranty limited warranty limited warranty hgst, a western digital company (“hgst”) including g-technology for external hard disk drives what does this limited warranty cover? This limited warranty applies to new hgst products purchased from an authorized hgst dealer by the original ...

  • Page 49: Support & Warranty

    P. 49 support & warranty what must you do? If you are having trouble with a product, before seeking limited warranty service, first follow the troubleshooting procedures that hgst or your reseller provides. To obtain limited warranty service, you must first obtain a return materials authorization (r...

  • Page 50: Support & Warranty

    P. 50 support & warranty capacity definition and disclaimer for g-technology products 1tb or greater: “one gigabyte (gb) is equal to one billion bytes and one terabyte (tb) equals 1,000 gb (one trillion bytes). Accessible capacity will vary from the stated capacity due to formatting and partitioning...