G-Technology G-Speed Q High-Performance 4-Bay RAID Storage Solution 8TB (USB3.0/eSATA/FireWire 800) (0G02836)

My unit arrived quickly, very well packaged and functioned right out of the box. I have a Mac 27", a 17" Mac Book Pro and I must say it took longer to unpack it than it did to get up and running. I use this G-Speed Q in Raid 5 and down load only photo files to it. I purchased a spare 2TB drive as a "Hot-Swap" back-up drive for this Raid 5 set-up. This drive is fast and integrates into my workflow perfectly. I only store my image files on my computers as a temporary measure while working with them in Adobe PSCS6 and LR5. I then transfer them to this G-Speed Q for my first level of secure storage. For my second and third level of secure storage I download all images to my (4) G-Tech G-Dock ev 2 Bay Drives with 10 1TB G-Dock drives. 2 of those ten 1 TB Drives are for back-up replacements, only! Level two secured images are stored on individual 1 TB G-Dock ev Drives and placed securely in my 2 hr fire safe and stored off site. The Level three images are kept on site, ready for use or transfer. The G-Dock ev Drives are small, fast and can be plugged into and used with any computer with a USB 2.0/3.0 port, while on travel, in the field shooting, etc. Then when returning, plug them into the G-Dock for lightning fast downloads and transfer to the G-Tech Q raid 5 Unit for storage & processing and then to the 1 TB ev Drives stored in the safe.OK, sounds like a lot but if you have ever lost images to a crashed computer HD, failed HD or fire and theft etc. you need to have a redundancy storage back-up plan or suffer the loss. Trust me, it will happen, it is just a matter of when??I completely recommend the G Technology product line. It is the best I have ever used and I will continue to use this Great Gear!!** Please Note: I updated this review 4-13-2016 because I purchased a second G Speed Q and another 2 TG Spare Back-Up Drive to replace my old and slow Apple Time Capsule. This Q Drive is for my 27" 5K Apple desktop and it was and is a 100% "Plug and Play set-up!" I opend the box, pluged in the power and USB-3.0 cable, Shazam, the Icon showed up on the my Desktop totally configured and ready to go... in 15 seconds! I open Time Machine and there it is, I named the Q Drive "Time Machine" I selected the G Speed Q Drive Time Machine Drive and the full back-up started that second and completed without a hick-up! :-).Thank you G- Tech. for this very well designed External Drive Storage System. I am very well pleased with you, the outstanding equipment and design/function and to top it all off, your great customer service!V/R The PhotogDog

Found this used on Amazon. So for the price, an excellent value.

Great drive. Just cost to much