SanDisk Professional 8TB G-Drive Enterprise-Class External Desktop Hard Drive - 7200RPM Ultrastar HDD Inside, USB-C (10Gbps), USB 3.2 Gen 2, Mac Ready - SDPHF1A-008T-NBAAD

I have two of these and only on ordering the second did I notice that there were a lot of reviews mentioning random "disconnects". Most seem to be using Macs, but at least one complained that it would "vanish" from My Computer. I've seen large thumb drives that randomly become "inaccessible" to Windows (though remain in My Computer), but never heard of external HDDs doing this. What a nightmare that would be. Thankfully, using Windows 10, I have not experienced any such issues with these drives. I did disable "Selective Suspend" and the ability for Windows to turn off the drive in Device Manager, but I have no idea if either of these steps were required, as I never saw the first one disconnect or vanish and I had Selective Suspend on at that time. Like a lot of external drives, these do eventually "sleep" with inactivity and this causes a few second pause on the first read. After that, they stay awake until the next period of inactivity (seems to be measured in hours, not minutes). These drives must be reformatted for Windows using Disk Management (context click the Start Button to find it on a menu). That's simple to do and documented enough that a Google search will easily find the instructions. 10.9TB out of 12TB seems about par for the course, as apparently Windows "loses" some of each drive. Have also seen advice to be sure to use the cable that comes with the drive. That's ridiculous, unless all other available cables are not up to the latest standards. I've used these drives with random USB-C and USB-C to A cables without any issues. These drives are also seem very sturdy and I've heard that they can run standing on end or lying flat. Will be putting that to the test soon, as I need one of them to fit into a tight space in a cabinet.

I was very happy with this drive for 5 months--right up until yesterday when it failed. I have the 6TB version formatted APFS and I've been using it as a Time Machine backup drive on my Mac. While performing an hourly backup yesterday MacOS reported that the drive had ejected. I ran First Aid on the drive and it reported bad sectors and that the drive was not repairable. At the time it failed it was only 60% full. I alternate between 3 drives for backups just for occasions like this so I simply erased the drive and tried again. Same problem. Then I repartioned, erased, and tried. Same result. So I started the long process of trying multiple file system formats including APFS, Mac OS Journaled, and even ExFAT. I also tried partitioning into multiple volumes and testing each volume separately. Everything I tried had the same result. When I attempted to write to the drive it would begin and after less than a minute the drive would eject itself. The message was the same one you see if you unplug a drive without unmounting first--a simple warning that the drive was ejected without being unmounted. Looking at the drive in Disk Utility I can see that despite the warning message the failed drive was not actually unmounted nor was it ejected. I just can't write to it. Since experiencing this issue I've read a number of similar reports with this specific model. I have been a big fan of Sandisk until now. I have over dozen Sandisk SD cards and several Sandisk SSD drives which have all performed well for years. This model (a mechanical drive) is the first Sandisk drive that I've had trouble with. But unfortunately, and unlike much cheaper Seagate and Western Digital backup drives I've used in the past, this drive is now completely useless. Even after a failure my cheap WD and Seagate drives can simply be reformatted and used for non-critical storage tasks but this 6TB Sandisk G-Drive is now completely unusable since it will no longer stay mounted. Regardless of how it's formatted the drive unmounts and ejects itself as soon as a write is attempted. Very disappointing.

Great backup drive for my videos and photos. The transfer rate is not the fastest in the world, but I had no issues and my files are now easy to view. It is compatible with my Macbook Pro straight out of the box. I was worried about the speed and the loudness of the fan but honestly I have not had any issues with either.

Works great out of the box. No install needed. Isn’t super loud. It does get warm but not hot.

It docked it a star because of the bad joke of a manual, both paper and online. Because other reviews have complained of noise, let me note that mine, an 8TB model, is NOT noisy. It's not silent, but I would call it quiet; it makes a sort of dull, muted clucking, and is much quieter than the drive it replaced. It seems fast; they claim "up to 280 MB/s" and my initial Time Machine backup transferred 2.2 TB in 3 hours, or an average of 200 MB/sec, real world, intended use, multiple files. I'm using it with a 2023 Mac Mini, M2 Pro chip, connected directly to one of its "Thunderbolt 4" (USB 3 connector) USB ports. As stated, it comes "Time Machine ready." For those who care about power use, even on fairly low-power devices: it consumes almost nothing in Time Machine use. My previous external hard drive used 15 watts continuously, and since it was really only being used once a day for backup I thought that was annoying; that's 0.36 kWh a day or 10 kWh per month, or around three or four dollars where I live. This one draws 10-13 watts when running. However, it apparently goes into a low-power sleep mode when not active. The indicator light goes out and the power consumption is below what can be measured accurately with my Kill-A-Watt monitor. I think this may be a feature of the drive itself, as I have "put hard drives to sleep when possible" disabled in macOS. In Time Machine use, the light is off most of the time. The lights comes on occasionally when not backing up, perhaps due to Spotlight indexing? In any case, over 24 hours it consumed 0.04 KWh. Of course it's only a couple of weeks old, but so far I have NOT experienced any problems at all.

Update: Apparently, this can be common with other manufacturers, too. The company was great in following through and replacing my G-Drive, as it was still under warranty. Thank you! Original: I have the Sandisk Professional 12 TB G-Drive. It’s mostly been okay on a new iMac for 364 days. (On the western digital website, a 3-year warranty is indicated.) Mine was fine one day, and, while spinning and sounding normal, will no longer mount anywhere. Apple Disk Utility is, therefore, unable to perform First Aid. I am, therefore, unable to partition it, in an effort to save data. Reading current reviews of Sandisk externals, quality and customer service are poor. There is one review here where argumentative persistance with a WD superior resulted in free data retrieval. There is also a website with a free firmware download I found for the Extreme by WD that has resolved some people’s problems. You can search by serial number. The SD Professional is not on the list. Me? I want to throw mine through the window, yet it has 2.3 TB of my personal and professional life on it. I was just reorganizing, consolidating, soon to make a second external copy. Its failure screwed up my online subscription Backblaze backup, too. Run!!!

I rarely write product reviews. But this product is so bad I feel compelled to warn buyers. Beware of this product. It has been nothing but problems. I do not know how it interacts with windows, but it does NOT work well with Mac at all. Bottom line: Do not buy this SanDisk. Go for the WD My Desk. I have had it for a year, and it constantly disconnects for no reason. Randomly, just disappears. Restart it, it usually shows up again. I store all our photos on this. I have been constantly having to restore the Photos library after it disconnects. Well, that is until two days ago, when the Photos library just disappeared. Gone. 20,000 photos gone. I was able to find the file in Time Machine and restore it to this drive. Seemed like it was all fixed. And then...poof. This entire drive is now empty. It cant be repaired in disk utility. Thankfully I was able to pull the old file from time machine and add to another external drive. Hopefully I have no more issues. But i will not use this drive ever again. I have been using WD My Desk external drives for 15 years. I have NEVER had an issue with them, at all. I have purchased 7 over the years as I have needed more and more storage. Every one has worked perfectly. I decided to try this SanDisk because it is the "professional" model. What a joke. It's a piece of garbage. If you need an external drive for Mac, get a WD My Desk. Do NOT buy this SanDisk

I fully trust this line of Sandisk professional drives. I’ve been using them for quite some time and this one is no exception for its reliability and value.