Product Description

The Iomega® Home Network Hard Drive 500GB offers an easy way to share files over your home network (up to 4 users). Share photos, music and video while increasing your storage capacity. The Discovery Tool Home utility (PC) makes set-up a snap and automatically configures to work with any computer on your network. This cost-effective network hard drive (NAS) includes EMC® Retrospect® HD software (2 licenses) for Touch-Free backup of all your important files.

Product Details

• Brand: Iomega
• Model: 33455
• Dimensions: 3.70" h x 8.50" w x 12.30" l, 5.00 pounds
• Memory: 8MB
• Hard Disk: 500GB

Features

• Maximum Storage - 500GB
• Hard Drive - SATAII
• Weight - 2.88 lbs
• Journaling File System -- Journaling File System prevents data loss in the event of a power failure

Amazon.com Product Description
Amazon.com Product Description The Iomega Home Network Hard Drive 500GB offers an easy and economical way to share files over your home network for up to four users. Share photos, music and video while increasing your storage capacity. And it even comes with the Discovery Tool Home utility that automatically configures any computer on your network.

The Iomega Home Network Hard Drive 500GB offers: Storage for up to four users on a home network. 500GB of storage capacity. A 10/100 Mbps Ethernet port for fast networking.

The Iomega Home Network Hard Drive works with PCs, Macs, and Linux. View larger.

Attaching the drive to your network is as easy as plugging in an Ethernet cable. View larger.

Easy Setup and Fast Performance
The hard drive features 7200 RPM speed with an 8MB cache connected via an SATA-II interface for fast data throughput. A 10/100 Mbps Ethernet connection links the hard drive to your home network. To ensure compatibility with your home network, there is support for a variety of network file protocols including Microsoft (CIFS/SMB), Linux/Unix (NFS), Apple® (AFP), Internet (HTTP 1.1), and FTP. A web-based interface makes management easy, without the need to install software. The device can also be connected directly to a computer via USB and will then function as a normal external hard drive for that specific computer. A journaling file system helps guard against data loss in case of power failure.

The Iomega drive is compatible with most backup software and included is a copy of EMC® Retrospect® HD software (2 licenses) for touch-free backup, and the ability to have backups automatically done on a scheduled basis. The Iomega Home Network Hard Drive 500GB is backed by a 1-year warranty.

What's in the Box
Iomega Home Network Hard Drive NAS appliance, Ethernet cable, power supply, Solutions CD with user manual and backup software for PC and Mac, and quick install guide.

Customer Reviews

Not useful for real world backups
I'm disappointed with this item.
It has a limitation that should be highlighted to everyone, that I wasn't aware of. Network mode is only available if HD is formatted with FAT32 file system.
Why is that important?
That is important because FAT32 has a size limitation for files of 4Gb and, in the real world, we backup HDs as single file images that have hundreds of Gbs.
Iomega claims their implementation of the network protocols abstracts an strategy for storing this files in chunks of 4Gb, but I wasn't able to store any files larger then 7Gb approximately. My 70Gb backup had never completed.
I would only recommend this drive for backups as a USB drive.

be sure to get a backup for your backup, then a backup for the backup of your backup...
Excellent product (for 6 months - see the "REVISED REVIEW" below). However, the software that comes bundled to automatically back it up daily or weekly ONLY works with a pc!

I got onto the Iomega website, which was wonderful, by the way, as far as finding help for just about everything. I talked to a tech support guy on the chat, and he was nice, but didn't offer me much help - EVEN THOUGH they sell backup software on their website...so he said to just copy and paste hard drive to the network drive (the iomega drive), and I should be fine. BUT, it doesn't work to do that...

BUT, if using it simply as a network storage drive, it is awesome! Since it's a NAS drive, its not the same as a plain ole' external drive. It's pretty fast via wireless, probably due to the ethernet connection to the wireless modem - so I can copy things over pretty fast.

Oh, re: the size of the drive (500g). It turns out, a lot of bigger drives are just two smaller drives (e.g., a 1TB drive is 2 500 gb drives). So, I think its smart to get 500g drives...

Oh, stainless steel finish (not cheap plastic that looks like steel) - very nice if it has to be visible.

So, overall, a great drive, and I'd recommend it to anyone who needs external storage (vs. a regular external hard drive) - due to the ethernet connection (which means speed & wireless connectivity) (it also has usb), and the general quality of the support on the site. Mac owners - if you have the new OS (leopard?), then you'll be fine without the bundled software, its built in. 4 stars instead of 5 for that issue with the software...

***REVISED REVIEW 5/3/2008***
I've left the above review because I still think it is valid (although one questions if it is still valid if the drive only works for a few months...anyway...). However, I am downgrading my recommendation to BUY WITH CAUTION and I must tell you about my experience after the drive quit working.

It would no longer allow me to save to the drive, telling me repeatedly (yet randomly and unpredictably) that I did not have sufficient privileges to save the data (which I created in the first place - like word or powerpoint files).

So, I went on to the iomega chat (which I still say positive things about, even though their policies are bunk). The guy determined that I need a new drive, and offered 2 options. First, they could send me the new drive with a shipping label to ship back the old drive (this would allow me to pull my data off of the old drive) - but it cost $50 additional. Second, I could send back the old drive, and once processed, they would send the new drive. Shipping will cost me, and they will not get the data off the old drive. So, I have to either pay $50 or buy a new drive to BACKUP my BACKUP! What?! I had to go buy a backup drive to backup my backup drive....

Now I'm wondering, do I buy a backup drive to backup my backup of my backup drive...and then a backup drive for that backup drive? (and thus, the game goes merrily on)

I think I'm most frustrated that I have to pay shipping to get their faulty product back to them. It seems really unreasonable considering that what they are essentially doing is make a million of these things with no quality control, and then when the quality is poor, they make the person (who is already not thrilled) pay even more to get it back to them...and wait for the new one.

My new drive is the WD 500 GB My Book home edition - but it is not a network drive...It is a temporary solution until I get this one back... Good luck in your search!

REVISED 9/8/09
I used my new network drive from May-Sept. 2008, and put it away (I resorted to only storing media files on this drive and using the FAR superior WD 500 GB My Book for backing up my computer due to unreliable nature of the Iomega drive). When getting it out to do another backup in July 2009, it did not work...at all! (no data, no read, no write)! So, I went through the whole process again, and found out it was too late to do anything because the 1-year warranty had expired.

I called to talk to the supervisor, who understood completely and was going to have *his* supervisor call me to rectify the situation and get me a new drive. Over a month later, I call them to see what is going on, and a different supervisor tells me his colleague and the service reps were wrong - nothing can be done. They offered me an insulting 15% off a new drive via their web store, and said that was all they could do for me (a very big difference from getting me a new drive).

All in all, I will do what I can NOT to buy an Iomega product EVER again (and I hope you will seriously consider before purchasing one from them yourself)- if nothing else, their lack of understanding and inability to think beyond the 1 year warranty (which is very poor compared to 3 and 5 year warranties from WD) indicates they are not concerned about their customers. Shocking that a company would do so much to *not* get me a product that works.

Best of luck in your drive search!

A bit disappointed..
Hi,

The Iomega Network drive is awesome, but I'm nevertheless a bit disappointed.

1) It's not possible to copy files larger than 4GB from MacOS X. According to their tech support, this limit is by design, but not for PC users..

2) When copying a file to the network drive from MacOS X, the modification is set to the current time, which confuses backup software

3) The backup software enclosed (Retrospect Express) is only for PC, and even then pretty useless. In my case it was unable to make automatic backups as it didn't find the drive on the network...

Jan