The SanDisk Professional G-Drive is a reliable and well-built drive with impressive read/write speeds for an HDD. Here's our full review of the 12TB variant.

SanDisk Professional G-Drive Review: Best for creators

If you are looking for a professional storage solution, you may come across different options and recommendations. Some suggest investing in a NAS system, while others suggest buying multiple smaller capacity hard drives. However, if you’re a content creator or handle large amounts of data – investing in a durable, professional-grade hard drive like the SanDisk Professional G-Drive can be a smart option. In this review, I will outline the pros and cons of this drive and see if it is worth the Rs 37,999 price tag.

For this review, I specifically tested the 12TB variant of the G-Drive, but it’s also available in other capacities – including 4TB, 6TB, 18TB and 22TB. The 6TB drive retails for Rs 23,999, the 18TB for Rs 51,999 and the 22TB for Rs 64,999.

It is important to note that my evaluation of the station is based on its suitability for storing finished projects as a content producer. For daily snapshot storage and other purposes, there are alternative storage options, such as configuring a NAS.

Design and Usage: A powerful hard drive designed for creators

Let’s start with the design. The SanDisk G-Drive has a rugged, futuristic look reminiscent of something out of a Star Trek movie. Its metal construction adds to its sturdiness, so it seems to withstand heavy impacts.

Size compared to 4TB WD HDD and Samsung T5 SSD.

In addition, the metal construction helps with heat dissipation, which is crucial when considering hard data that requires read and write operations. During testing, the drive remained quiet and maintained consistent read and write speeds on Windows computers (although it was previously formatted as APFS for Mac users, Windows users must change the format to NTFS or exFAT).

The frequency converter itself is quite large and requires external power via a separate power supply. Therefore, using it as a mobile device can be cumbersome. However, its design is for fixed use – like a stand-alone desktop setup, it serves as a central storage location for all your files that won’t fit on your desktop. Using it this way is most efficient, as alternative usage scenarios can be tricky.

Speed: Incredible hard drive performance

Now to the more obvious question: Is the G-Drive as fast as an SSD? No, it’s a hard drive designed for long-term data storage. However, this does not mean that it is slow by any means. In our testing, the 7,200 rpm G-Drive achieved a write speed of 226 MB per second and a read speed of 218 MB per second in the Crystal Disk Mark comparison.

While these numbers are slightly lower than what the company claims, they’re still pretty good, and actual performance may improve depending on your interface. It’s also worth noting that the drive uses a USB 3.2 Gen 2 connection.

The SanDisk Professional G-Drive uses a USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface.

Even more impressive is its consistent performance. I distinctly remember transferring over 110GB of data from my SD card and the write speed never dropped – a problem I’ve had with some of my cheaper external hard drives, including a 1TB WD Passport drive. In this regard, G-Drive proves to be reliable and simplifies your workflow.

What’s not good: Minor tremors that need to be addressed

First, G-Drive is pre-formatted for APFS for Mac computers, which means it needs to be reformatted to NTFS or exFAT before it can be used on Windows computers. This can be a disadvantage for non-techniques who are unfamiliar with the format.

Second, even though it’s a business-grade drive, it only includes a USB-C to USB-C cable, and a USB-C to USB-A cable is missing from the box. This can be frustrating for users who don’t have access to USB-C ports on their systems.

The G-Drive will occupy substantial space on your desk. (Image: Shaurya Sharma)

Verdict: A reliable and efficient storage option

The SanDisk Professional G-Drive is a reliable, well-designed drive with impressive hard drive read/write speeds. It offers a balance between SSDs and HDDs in terms of speed. If you’re looking for a high-capacity storage solution, it might be worth the investment. However, I recommend only considering storage capacities of 12TB or higher, as considering the price, anything smaller may cost you too much for the available features and specifications.