Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Portable USB hard drives are becoming a commodity, from numerous manufacturers. I've used several from SimpleTech, Western Digital, and now this Iomega entry.
Compared to the WD entries, this one is very slightly larger (not enough to make a difference in any context) and weighs about the same.
The USB cable included is a special Y-shaped one...the second USB connector can be plugged in to supply extra power in case your USB port does not provide sufficient power to spin up the drive. My laptop's USB port was able to power the drive without needing to use the second connector. I did have one issue with the documentation here, since it says that the power port is the one marked with a lightning bolt icon. Neither connector on my cable was marked, so I went to the Iomega support site and asked a rep (using an online chat function). He told me that the power connector was the one with the thinner wire, which was easily found when I knew what to look for.
I do actually prefer this type of cable over the single connection one (without the extra 'power' connector) that came with my WD drive, but that's just me being a geek. My personal geeky 'Holy Grail' has always been to find a way to transfer files between all of the USB stuff I carry without using a PC. I have, in my tote bag, a Media Player from Archos, an iPod, a Kindle eBook reader, several thumb drives, and occasionally a camera. All of these use USB for transferring files. No manufacturer has, as yet, developed a really good way to transfer data between them, or to/from a portable hard drive, without using a PC. I did actually manage to do it with this drive, plugging the power cable into a 'Tekkeon TekCharge Mobile Power and Battery Charger' and using a 'Memorex TravelLink' to host the transfer. I moved an mp4 from a thumb drive to the Iomega drive I was testing, just to see if I could do it. The transfer was agonizingly slow (I think the Memorex, which was developed in 2005 and I believe has been discontinued, uses USB 1.1 speed) but it did work and I was able to play the movie afterwords off the Iomega drive. So, it's doable with this configuration, but it's not pretty by any means. I wish someone would develop a better way to do this...
This drive is formatted for NTFS. For portable drives, I tend to prefer using FAT32 since even nowadays I occasionally run across a software or hardware interface that can't use NTFS. I went to Iomega's support site and did a search on FAT32, which led me to a downloadable application that easily reformatted the drive as I needed.
All in all, the drive is nice. It performed silently and quickly when plugged into my laptop and it's light enough to carry around. Given that it has a better (IMHO) cable than others, if the price is equivalent I'd buy this one without hesitation.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Iomega eGo 500 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive 34619 (Ruby Red)
Take files anywhere in style with the Iomega eGo Portable Hard Drive USB 2.0 with Protection Suite. Sporting a sleek aluminum enclosure, the eGo is the perfect companion to your laptop or netbook computer. Plus, the Iomega Drop Guard feature protects the drive when dropped up to 51-Inch (40% above the average!) so you can be confident your portable hard drive is rugged! Iomega Protection Suite is a comprehensive collection of valuable software to protect your data and computer that includes McAfee VirusScan Plus, EMC Retrospect Express Backup software (system backup), Iomega QuikProtect (file-level backup), and MozyHome Online Backup service. This sofware is included free with your Iomega product purchase and available via easy download. Available in 3 colors (Ruby Red, Midnight Blue, and Silver) and up to 500GB capacity, the eGo is protected by a 3-year limited warranty! (registration required for extended warranty)
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