Hitachi Uses Its New 4TB HDDs in the G-RAID and G-DRIVE External Storage Devices

Just two days after it unveiled its first 4TB hard drives with 1TB platters, Hitachi has put these solutions to work into a new series of external storage products dedicated to video productions professionals.

The new drives are built by Hitachi's G-Technology subsidiary and are known as the G-DRIVE and the G-RAID, the latter of these using two such HDDs in order to deliver an impressive 8TB of storage space.

Just as its name point out, the drives installed inside the G-RAID are configured in a RAID 0 array, enabling them to achieve higher transfer speeds.

For easy set up with Apple computers, the G-RAID is formatted right out of the box as a single drive using the HFS Plus file system. Windows systems require for the drive to be reformated.

“We understand the process of creation, and today, digital video editing is no longer facility-driven – It’s driven by the places and lifestyles of the people doing the work,” said Steve Pereira, vice president, Hitachi GST, Europe Middle East and Africa.

“Our G-RAID Thunderbolt demo connected to a MacBook Pro shows how our customers can get lightning speed and huge capacity in a single RAID 0 storage solution to easily edit anywhere.

“Built like a tank, our G-RAID solution has been the cornerstone of our business, and we look forward to bringing our Thunderbolt-based family and 4TB-based solutions to the market.

“With G-Technology’s high quality, high performance commitment, our customers can continue to focus on their work and not on their equipment,” concluded the company's rep.

G-Technology will begin shipping its 4TB-based G-RAID and single-drive G-DRIVE solutions with eSATA, FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 in October. Pricing is still unknown.

In the fourth quarter of this year, Hitachi plans to introduce a new version of the G-RAID and G-DRIVE that will include support for the high-speed Thunderbolt interconnect.