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Hitachi unveils new G-Drive external storage solutions

Hitachi announces new external hard drives for Mac that are based on its new Travelstar and Deskstar internal hard drives.

Dong Ngo SF Labs Manager, Editor / Reviews
CNET editor Dong Ngo has been involved with technology since 2000, starting with testing gadgets and writing code for CNET Labs' benchmarks. He now manages CNET San Francisco Labs, reviews 3D printers, networking/storage devices, and also writes about other topics from online security to new gadgets and how technology impacts the life of people around the world.
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Dong Ngo
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The G-Raid external hard drive from Hitachi.
The G-Raid external hard drive from Hitachi. Hitachi

Heading to CES 2012, Hitachi announced today that it has added two new internal hard drives to its portfolio of external solutions.

The two drives are the 2.5-inch, 5,400rpm 1TB Travelstar 5K1000 and the 3.5-inch, 7,200rpm 4TB Deskstar 7K4000. They both support the latest SATA 3 (6Gbps) standard, will be shipped inside G-Technology-branded solutions, and are designed exclusively for Macs.

These solutions include both portable storage devices to use on the go and desktop external storage devices that offer high speed and a large amount of storage.

 
The G-RAID and G-Drive external hard drives offer USB 2.0, FireWire and eSATA connections.
The G-RAID and G-Drive external hard drives offer USB 2.0, FireWire and eSATA connections. Hitachi

In the portable-drive department, there are two drives: the G-DRIVE mobile and G-DRIVE mobile USB, both are based on the Travelstar 5K1000 internal hard drive. Hitachi says these two are ideal for mobile Mac users thanks to their portable and stylish design.

The G-Drive mobile comes with both FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 connections, while the G-Drive mobile USB comes with just one USB 2.0 port. Both drives are bus-powered, meaning they won't need a separate power adapter.

The G-Drive mobile is available in a single capacity of 1TB and is slated to cost $200. The G-Drive mobile USB, however, is available in 750GB and 1TB that cost $150 and $180, respectively.

There are also two desktop solutions: the G-RAID and G-Drive external hard drives that are based on the Deskstar 7K4000 internal hard drives. Both drives offer USB 2.0, FireWire, and eSATA connections, with the G-RAID coming in multiple-drive setup while the G-Drive is a single-volume solution.

The G-RAID is available in a single capacity of 8TB (or 4TB in RAID 1) and is slated to cost around $900. The G-Drive comes in 1TB, 2TB, 3TB, and 4TB capacities that cost $200, $250, $350, and $450, respectively.

According to Hitachi, while these new storage devices are made and formatted for Macs, they can be easily reformatted to work with Windows and other platforms. All of these new drives will be showcased at CES 2012.