G-Technology G-Drive(Gen 4) 2TB 7200 RPM Professional High-Performance EXternal Hard Drive eSATA/ USB 2.0/ Firewire800 Silver (0G00203)

Pros: Looks really nice. Has esata, firewire 400/800 and USB.

Cons: For heavens sake this thing is stupid noisy for the price. <--- for the price... If this drive were $100 cheaper I'd understand, but it's literally one of the most expensive drives on the market and promoted as the best. It's just too noisy. I have 4 case fans on my recently built case and this drive actually pushes out more noise than 4 120 fans, a 140, and the GPU fan put together.

Overall Review: I really try to push for quite systems, and this was just a sacrafice to get the best quality. Others talked about noise being a little bit of an issue, well coming from iMac computers to a quite case I just built, this takes the award for noise pollution. I will try to sell locally and replace with some internal 3tb drives when I can. It is actually competing with the condenser on the back of my fridge in the same room...

Pros: very fast, multiple connection options (and the cables for each connection type are included), aluminum housing is both aesthetically pleasing and improves heat transfer from the drive.

Cons: Preformatted for Mac, so yay if you are a Mac user, but be prepared to do serious reformatting if you are a Windows user.

Overall Review: This is a fantastic drive, and if you are a Mac user you can just connect it and go. For Windows however, you will need to delete the existing partitions on the drive (the EFI partition will require deletion via the diskpart command line tool), and then do a low-level format of the entire drive, which takes about 60 hours. I found that initially connecting the drive via USB or Firewire kept Windows from plunging into endless drive polling while doing the partition deletion and formatting. Once the drive is paved with NTFS, the SATA connection seems to give the best performance, and the performance is among the best I've seen on an external drive. Overall I'm very happy with it - just be prepared for the upfront work if you plan on using it with Windows.

Pros: My company purchased this for me, and I use the ESATA connection with a Dell Optiplex 990 i7. The internal drive is a Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000 (HDS723020BLA642) SATA 6, 64MB cache, 7200K RPM. Silent. The case is ridiculously solid and cool and even. No rocking or rattles on my desk. The power brick is small and stays cool. Looks nice, very professional appearance. Well ventilated. Super well made.

Cons: Price. Would love to buy one for myself at home. That's the reason I looked it up here.

Pros: Comes with Cables, reliable. Easy to use. We use one as an archive drive for our cameras. It's worked for nearly a year with no complaints. It's rock solid and I'd recommend it highly. The drive is in a server room where the temperature is about 85F on an average day.We've tried My Books, HP drives and this is the only one that's lasted more than 6 months without issues.

Cons: Didn't Install itself and configure the software

Overall Review: We're looking at upgrading to the 3 TB unit because we're adding to our security cameras and 2TB is already used.

Pros: Seems well built. Connects easy. No setup woes. Reliable so far. No daily chain problems.

Cons: Is a big loud. Front LED is too bright, at night. Had one connection problem, but has no returned.

Overall Review: Apart from being a bit more expensive than some, it has proved reliable, compatible (iMac 2010), and easy to set up. Will probably buy a second one to back this one up. Looks great. Is a tad loud, but not annoyingly so. The LED is a bit too bright at night, but not a big deal. Over all very very happy with it.

Pros: Just the right size for what I need, for now anyway. Its great to buy a drive, external for that matter that is Mac formatted and not having to format it before I use it. It looks awesome, sleek like the iMac or mini Mac with the brushed aluminum. The casing is very solid.

Cons: The fan is a little loud. Im using it to store my iTunes library, although when the TV is on, I can not hear the fan.

Overall Review: The fan should be temperature controlled to where it would only run if the drive is getting too hot.

Pros: Good size, quiet, so far reliable.

Cons: Heat sink gets hot. If you have pets or kids, make sure to put it in a hard to reach location. The LED light is far too bright. Every time it flashes, it looks like someone is taking pictures in my room. I had to cover it with electrical tape.

Pros: Looks nice. Stays Cool. Shiny?

Cons: Unreliable. Failed on multiple large copy jobs. Disconnects randomly.

Overall Review: Drive connected to a 2012 Mac Pro running Lion via FW800. Was planning on using the drive as part of a media server. When populating the drive with media files, copy job of 1.2TB failed at 600GB. When copying the remaining 600GB, drive failed at 400GB. When copying another 500GB, drive failed at 300GB. Drive also disconnects at random times. If you leave the drive you often come back to a Red Stop Sign saying that the drive disconnected without ejecting. Have tried to adjust sleep settings to have the computer never sleep and the hard drive never sleep. Didn't work.