Iomega UltraMax Hard Drive, eSATA/FireWire 800/FireWire 400/USB 2.0, 1TB – 34166

5 comments

1. 

   Tosch on September 26, 2009 at 6:01 am

   Wish we had seen the warnings about the noise these units make before we bought them. We originally saw a similar unit (500GB) on the apple website and asumed if apple liked them, they must be good.

   We bought four of these units for data storage in video production company, sometimes we need silence. But after one to two months of use, two of our units started buzzing so loudly that they had to be turned off. So much for easy access to data.

   IOmega has had great customer service sending us remanufactured units in exchange for our new ones, but one was buzzing badly right out of the box that it couldn’t be used, either.

   If you need to work in a quiet environment, I’d recommend you go with a different drive.

2. 

   E. VanHorn on September 26, 2009 at 7:12 am

   I have owned this drive for several months and primarily use it as a network drive for media storage. There are a couple of noticeable and annoying traits apparent. First, the unit has a glaring indicator light which required a piece of electricians tape to make it merely tolerable. Secondly, the drive is extremely noisy and seems rather poorly made. Lastly, the heat generated by this model requires it to have considerable airflow to keep it from becoming nearly inoperable. I would definitely not purchase this brand again and strongly warn anyone considering the purchase of this model to investigate it thoroughly.

3. 

   David Stephenson on September 26, 2009 at 9:54 am

   I just bought this drive and started to set it up with my iMac. I didn’t realize how nice it is the the iMac doesn’t have a fan. When I powered up the Iomega drive the fan was so noticeable that 3 minutes later I had it powered down and back in the box. I am going to find a fanless unit possibly from LaCie. If you don’t mind the fan noise or have the unit in a location isolated from your computer this may be a great drive. The reviews of the smaller drives have been good. But for me this was a deal killer.

4. 

   Twiddles42 on September 26, 2009 at 10:34 am

   Pros:
   
   ——–
   
   * small form factor
   
   * two FW 800 ports for direct daisy-chaining
   
   * FW 400 port for a separate device (NICE TOUCH!!)
   
   * eSATA port (not needed, but nice!)
   
   * 7200RPM
   
   * great price!
   
   * aluminium case feels sturdy, not cheap
   
   * size of cable inside case suggests the actual drive is a SATA drive. Makes replacement easy if HD goes out but want to keep the case for its ports. (Logical, given the eSATA connector.)
   
   * white and blue LEDs?

   Cons:
   
   ——–
   
   * Without a fan blowing at it, the drive gets warm to the touch — despite the drive’s shell being of aluminium construction for faster heat dissipation. See notes below for more detail.

   Other thoughts:
   
   —————-
   
   Between a new WD Studio Mac edition (1TB) and this Iomega, I went with the Iomega. It’s 7200RPM, so it’s faster. The number of included ports is fantastic, and I can now hook up my firewire CD-ROM drive on its own FW400 channel. The other FW800 connector will go to another drive one day (maybe even the WD as it’s harder to find the Iomega model.)

   I started a 660GB file transfer from a two year old WD 1TB drive fitted in an external USB case — the whole process took 7 hours. Appx 1.5GB/minute transfer rate is not bad under these circumstances (from USB to FW800), probably. This might also explain why the drive got warm – the constant level of activity. The USB drive was much warmer to the touch, so putting a small fan nearby to blow air over both drives helped immensely. The USB drive is going to be recycled once the transfer is complete.

   Now, I had read others’ negative reviews. Most of them discuss the integrated cooling fan. Too few reports of faulty hard drives (which are a possibility by default to begin with) to worry myself over.

   For $150 or less, it’s rather a fair bargain.
   

5. 

   Cory Tolliver on September 26, 2009 at 11:48 am

   I am using this drive to put all of my iTunes Music, and Video files onto. I do not run the drive at all times; I just turn on when i want to listen to music or use my videos to edit. The people who gave this drive poor rating are right in some aspects; The Indicator light is very bright, but I have mine on top of my entertainment center, so I just turned it to the side. Second, it is somewhat loud of a drive, but what drive isn’t somewhat loud. I just turn the volume up and everything is fine. Third; copying of large files onto the drive does seem to take a while, but I only have used the usb 2 and the firewire 400; those are not relatively fast connections.
   
   I have not had any hardware issues, but I know that Iomega has great customer support, so if anything arrises, I will contact them.
   
   Quality product, for a great price.