G-Tech G-DRIVE SSD R-Series is Rugged Enough to Survive 3-Meter Drops

G-Technology has a new product line of rugged SSD external hard drives called the R Series. This article by No Film School gives a good overview of this promising new product, especially for photographers, videographers, or anyone on the go who needs to protect their portable data. From NoFilmSchool

...Increasingly, solid-state drives (SSDs) are becoming a popular option for daily work drives, where the extra speed is worth the extra cost. With the new R-Series drives, G-Technology is aiming squarely at that market—the drive you can keep with you in your backpack at all times that can survive the rugged life of being the working drive for a filmmaker.

Shock and vibration resistant (the "r is for rugged"), R-Series drives are designed to withstand falls up to 3m, or nearly 10 feet. While most filmmakers drop their drives from waist or desk height, sometimes a drive will fall off the top of a ladder, and it's good to have extra protection built in. Just because it's designed for it doesn't mean you should rely on it, and you shouldn't drop the drive every morning from 10 feet and expect it to last forever, though we do expect to see some stunt YouTube videos dropping the drive from the top of a building and seeing if the data survives. This extra protection is especially interesting when added on top of the SSD drive. SSDs have traditionally already been more durable than HDD (hard disk drives), so the added protection of a rugged case should make this especially stable....[continue reading]