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Western Digital’s SanDisk Professional 26TB G-Drive is totally different from the SSD version. It’s a much larger external drive, uses a traditional (enterprise-class) hard drive as storage, and is not bus-powered. In return, it has much higher capacity and much lower cost-over-storage ratio.
This 26TB version is the latest variant of a lineup that started in 2022 and is a far cry from the original 4TB version in terms of capacity and possibly other aspects. It’s also the first drive from Western Digital since the company split off NAND-based products to SanDisk.
Tip
Western Digital (WD)’s decision to split off the NAND-based product to Sandisk (a light name change from “SanDisk”) as a separate company means it retains all hard drive-based products, including those with “SanDisk” in their names. Similarly, Sandisk gets all NAND-based products, namely SSDs and memory cards, including those with “WD” in their name.
Here’s the bottom line: If you’re looking for a huge amount of storage space on a relatively compact desktop external USB-C drive that’s not too sappy in performance, at the retail cost of $650, the 29TB SanDisk Professional G-Drive is an excellent buy. Give it a shot today!
SanDisk Professional 26TB G-Drive: A solid external hard drive
The idea of the SanDisk Professional G-Drive is as old as the first external hard drive: It’s a standard 3.5-inch internal hard drive housed inside a chassis that has a USB-C port to connect to a host.
However, two things make the particular version I’m reviewing different and “modern”. The first is the fact that it has the highest capacity of a hard drive to date, which is 26TB. And the second, it features USB 10Gbps (USB 3.2 Gen 2) and includes a 20Gbps-rated USB-C cable.
Like all 3.5-inch-based external drives, the SanDisk Professional comes with an external power adapter allowing it to work with any USB port, regardless of its power output. However, you do need an adapter or a different USB-A to USB-C cable to connect to the legacy USB-A port.
It’s worth noting, though, that despite the support for the fast USB standard, the new external drive’s performance is limited by the internal drive’s SATA3 connector, which has a ceiling speed of 6 Gbps. That plus the overhead means the drive will likely sustain a few hundred MB/s in real-world usage.
The table below shows the hardware specs of the SanDisk Professional G-Drive.
SanDisk Professional G-Drive: Hardware specifications
| Capacity | 4TB: SDPHF1A-004T-NBAAD 6TB: SDPHF1A-006T-NBAAD 8TB: SDPHF1A-008T-NBAAD 12TB: SDPHF1A-012T-NBAAD 18TB: SDPHF1A-018T-NBAAD 22TB: SDPHF1A-022T-NBAAD 24TB: SDPHF1A-024T-NBAAD 26TB: SDPHF1A-026T-NBAAD |
| Interface | USB 3.1 Gen 2 with USB-C |
| USB Compatible | USB 2.0 and newer |
| Box Content | G-DRIVE Desktop Hard Drive USB-C to USB-C Cable Quick Start Guide AC Power Adapter |
| Dimensions | 8.27 x 5.24 x 1.61 in (21 x 13 x 4 cm ) |
| Weight | ≈ 3 lbs (1360 g) |
| Storage | Enterprise-class 7200RPM 3.5-inch hard drive |
| Write Copy Speed (estimate) | 4TB, 6TB, 12TB: 250 MB/s 8TB: 260 MB/s 18TB: 270 MB/s 22TB, 24TB: 280 MB/s 26TB: 260 MB/s |
| Read Copy Speed (estimate) | 4TB, 6TB, 12TB: 250 MB/s 8TB: 260 MB/s 18TB: 270 MB/s 22TB, 24TB: 280 MB/s 26TB: 270 MB/s |
| Encryption support | None |
| Supported Operating Systems | macOS 11 and later Windows 10 and later (reformat required) |
| Power Intake | 110-240V |
| Power Usage (per 24 hours) | ≈150Wh |
| Warranty | Three years |
| U.S. Retail Cost | $149.99 to $659.99 |
Simple external storage
Out of the box, the SanDisk Professional G-Drive is preformatted in the APFS file system to work right with a macOS computer with support for Time Machine backup.
You can use the drive with other platforms, such as Windows, but reformatting is required. If you want to use the drive with both, the exFAT file system is more suitable, but in this case, it won’t work for Time Machine.
Other than that, the external drive is simple storage space. It comes with no bundled software or security features. In other words, the drive is designed to add more storage to a computer and nothing else. But that’s generally the case with any external hard drive.
It’s important to note, though, that since there’s only one hard drive on the inside, the SanDisk Professional G-Drive doesn’t have a way to guard its content against hardware failure. As a result, consider it only a backup drive—you should never put the only copy of your data on it.
SanDisk Professional 26TB G-Drive: Excellent SATA3 performance
I tested and used the SanDisk Professional 26TB G-Drive for almost a week before publishing this review, and was generally happy with it. The drive worked as intended, with a couple of things to note.
The first is that it takes a bit of time to power up or wake up. You’ll have to wait up to ten even more seconds before it appears on the host computer when you plug it in or when it goes into an idle mode.
To overcome that, you should use it as a stationary drive permanently plugged into a desktop, and adjust the OS to let it go into sleep mode accordingly. In this case, I noted that the drive shares the power status with the host computer—it automatically turns on or off depending on the machine’s status.
It’s important to note that, like all mechanical computer hardware, you should never move a HDD-based external storage device around when it’s in operation or risk “bricking” it. It is what it is.
The second is that while the drive was largely silent, now and then I could hear the subtle sound of the internal drive. Also, I could feel the slight vibration during operation when placing the drive on the same desk as my keyboard. However, again, that is normal for a mechanical storage device, especially one that spins at 7200 RPM.
Other than that, the drive ran cool and didn’t even feel warm to the touch. And it worked reliably during a day-long operation.
I didn’t pick “day-long” out of my you know it. That was the time needed to fill it up during my testing, if you ever want to do so. While fast compared to other drive-based external storage devices, the SanDisk Professional 26TB G-Drive, as expected, was much slower than SSD-based counterparts.
In terms of throughput speeds, the drive proved to be faster than WD’s estimates, sustaining at around 280MB/s in my testing. At this speed, it took me over a day (over 25 hours to be precise) to write (approximately) 26TB of data on it. And the drive didn’t slow down during the process.
I tested the drive with all USB standards, and generally it plateaued when connected to a USB 3.2 Gen 1 (commonly known as USB 3.0) port. In other words, you won’t get faster performance using it with a 10Gbps or 20Gbps USB port.
SanDisk Professional 26TB G-Drive's Rating
Pros
Tons of storage space with excellent performance for a HDD-based device
Straightforward to use
USB-C port with included cables
Cons
Takes a long time to boot up or wake up
Reformat required for Windows users; a bit pricey
Conclusion
With a massive amount of storage space packed in a relatively compact design, the SanDisk Professional 26TB G-Drive SSD is an excellent external drive for anyone needing lots of capacity.
It’s worth noting that the more data the drive can hold, the more data you could lose should the hardware fail. For this reason, you should only get the drive for backup purposes. In this case, it’ll work out well. Consider it today!
I’m not a fan of Sandisk, so I’m so glad to find out this one is actually from WD. Thanks for the info, Dong. Honestly, nobody reviews this stuff better than you. Short, to the point, and with a bit of humor. Well presented, too. I dig it.
SanDisk is quite great overall, despite some rough patches, and the split will likely make both companies better. Thanks for the kind words, Joe!