Iomega eGo 500 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive 34619

5 comments

1. 

   Jonathan C. Lippe on September 5, 2009 at 10:35 pm

   This thing feels strong and reliable. However, I bought it hoping it would work with my XBOX 360 and it doesn’t. But that’s okay. I’ve repurposed it for something else and bought another hard drive. Everything worked out in the end – but it would’ve been nice for this to work in my XBOX 360 for videos and pictures and music.

   It’s got that double ended USB plug – so depending on how you feel about that you should know. I have Western Digital drives that are the same capacity that only have one USB – again whatever your preference.

   But this sucker feels tough – so I trust that my data is secure on it.

2. 

   NutMac on September 5, 2009 at 11:37 pm

   In this information age, data is perhaps the most important thing there is. But let’s face it. Storage devices are boring. Few years ago, manufacturers got creative with USB flash drive design. For example, 1GB Salmon Sushi USB Drive – So real you get hungry!!.

   Beyond the fun factor, however, we often need to carry a lot more information than these USB flash drives can hold. Western Digital started stylish portable hard disks trend with their Western Digital My Passport Essential 500 GB USB 2.0 Portable Drive WDMER5000TN (Real Red) series. Iomega upped the ante with eGo series.

   The drive looks and feels a lot like woman’s cosmetic compact. In fact, my wife and I tried flipping it open. Surrounded in stylish chrome border and beautiful red finish, this is one substantial high quality design. This might strike as a nitpick, but perhaps the only design weakness is the blue activity indicator light. I would’ve chosen subtler, white glow LED found on Apple notebooks. The blue indicator light cheapens otherwise very stylish, high quality product.

   The hard disk itself is very solid. Backed by generous 3-year warranty, this 320 GB hard disk spins at 5400 rpm. It’s formatted as a single 300 GB NTFS format partition. Mac users will need to format to HPFS+ or FAT32. It includes few security software for Windows you might want to backup, in case you are thinking of reformatting. The disk is very quiet like most modern notebook hard disks are and it connects to your computer with a bundled USB cable. The cable splits into two full-sized USB connectors in case your computer isn’t capable of supplying sufficient power. My iMac worked with just one USB connection, Dell Latitude notebook needed two connections.

3. 

   John Treusein on September 6, 2009 at 2:32 am

   This is a solid unit that is truly plug and play. Super quiet as well.

4. 

   Paul C. Huang on September 6, 2009 at 4:00 am

   I have not had problems with 2.5″ Seagate 5400.n drives, including the ones used in the Iomega portable products. However, I detest the fact that they deceive customers by false advertising. This thing is 80% plastic and has two thin pieces of steel/iron on the outside. I went to the iomega website just now and they are advertising ‘full steel protection’ on some pages while other ’solid aluminum’ terms have been replaced with ’sleek aluminum’ or ’sleek steel’.

   What are they trying to pull? They sure won’t pull any steelwool over my eyes.

5. 

   PT Cruiser on September 6, 2009 at 4:42 am

   I’ve had a few portable hard drives in the past, but this is my first Iomega and I must say I’m impressed. It’s very sleek looking as you can see from the photos and it’s lightweight. It has little rubber discs on the bottom corners to keep it from slipping on a desk or wherever. Since I have both a PC and a Mac I tried it first with the PC and then reformated it and tried it with the Mac. (It arrived formatted for the PC) Reformatting was simple using the disk utility and instructions are included with the drive in case it’s something you don’t do often enough to remember. (When you reformat you wipe the drive clean and lose whatever files you previously transferred to the Iomega).

   I was able to transfer information quickly and silently from the computers to the Iomega. I’ve used drives in the past that made some sounds and some that have run warm but this did not seem to generate any heat or sound. If you’re using this drive with a Mac remember to right-click on the Iomega icon and select “Eject Disk” or drag the icon to the trash to eject. If you just unplug it you can cause all sorts of problems. With a PC there’s a little icon in the menu bar to click on to “eject hardware safely”.

   The drive has a Seagate mechanism and comes with a 3 year warranty. In addition the Iomega Drop Guard feature protects the drive when dropped up to 51-Inches. I hopefully will never have to test that! It comes with a dual plug USB cable. It’s powered by the computer so you don’t need a power adapter. There are also some free software downloads that are available with the drive: McAfee VirusScan Plus for Windows (6 months), Iomega QuickProtect for Windows, MozyHome Online Backup (2 GB free) for Windows/Mac, EMC Retrospect Express HD for Windows, EMC Retrospect Express for Windows, and EMC Retrospect Express for Mac. I like the fact that they don’t come installed on the drive, cluttering it up. I don’t have a need for any of these titles, but it’s nice to know if I do I can just download them and don’t have to delete unwanted software from the drive.

   I have a Case Logic Compact Portable Hard Drive Case (Black) that I use for another portable drive that fits this drive perfectly. These are nice cases because of the rigid cover. I’ll be ordering another one for the Iomega eGo. I’m posting a photo of the drive in the case on the main page.

   I’m looking forward to many years of use from this drive and having a nice, shiny new drive should motivate me to back up my important files more often. Based on the few days I’ve used it so far it’s a brand that I would order again, maybe trying one of the other colors.