Product Description

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)

Product Details

• Size: 500 GB
• Color: Ruby Red
• Brand: Iomega
• Model: 34619
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 2.76" h x 2.76" w x .79" l, 2.47 pounds
• Memory: 8MB
• Hard Disk: 500GB
• Processors: 1
• Native resolution: 640x480
• Display size: 669.2913385827

Features

• Stylish colors - Available in Ruby Red, Midnight Blue and Silver
• Rugged - Perfect for travel environments, the Drop Guard feature protects the drive when dropped up to 51" (40% above the industry average!)
• Secure - McAfee VirusScan Plus, Iomega QuikProtect, EMC Retrospect Express, and MozyHome Online Backup to protect your data and computer
• 3 Year Warranty - with product registration

Customer Reviews

Had reliability problems from the get-go
The Good:

This drive is very flat (thin) and has the approximate dimensions of a thin mid-size ladies' wallet. For me, it has the perfect size to take along on the road. I have other portable drives, such as the Seagate FreeAgent, a SimpleTech and several Western Digital Passports but in terms of portability I like the eGo best. The color red is stylish and although glossy not too prone to visible fingerprints. The rubberized feet on the bottom prevent the eGo to slide around the desk. All in all a good feel.

Setup was very easy, nothing to it at all. It worked right out of the box as all USB external drives should: Plugged the cable into the device, the other end into a USB port on my laptop and that was it. The drive does not come with an external power supply, it only has a dual-USB cable to plug into two USB ports when the power coming from one isn't enough. For my Dell XPS M1330 it worked with one but you might be out of luck if operating the drive with an older laptop since the eGo has no power plug for an external adapter.

The Not So Good:

The drive was very quiet in the beginning, actually inaudible. However, after I had (very slowly and gently!) picked it up during operation and held it at an angle (again very gently), it began making disconcerting clicking noises and quit the data transfer that was in progress. The blue light indicating operations simply went out and nothing happened anymore. I had to unplug and reconnect to get it to operate again. After that, it was audible and on occasion made these weird fast clicking and knocking sounds until the blue light went out again, and rapid clicking could be heard. After a few moments the blue light came back on but it stayed steady which means it is connected but not operating. Naturally I do not like that... Especially not after operating it only for roughly 40 minutes total and the manufacturer's claim that this drive can survive a 51" drop. Or does it only do that when it was not operating at the time?

Several more attempts to copy a large 25 GB folder with subfolders failed, I was never once successful. In every instance the drive quit operating in the middle of it. Also I noticed that even when it copied something, subfolders remained empty. On the surface everything looked ok but the folders had no content. I would get a message saying that the file could not be found and that was it. Only disconnecting/reconnecting and restarting the copy process would help in these situations - until it stopped working again. BTW, a drive error check revealed no problems so I am at a loss as to what is causing this behavior.

Summary:

I am not sure I would trust important data to this drive after observing this behavior. Maybe it is just a lemon since I have read several favorable reviews of this drive but as of this moment I am rather suspicious of its reliability. Too bad because I liked the drive's design and speed. But this is the second Iomega drive I own that has not impressed me in terms of reliable operations so maybe I will just stay away from the brand in the future.

Lightweight portable storage
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.

Nice Hard Drive
I needed an extension to my storing abilities and thought I would try this iomega product. Works as advertised, very easy to setup - no power cable and that helps. The back of my computer is spaghetti junction anyway so I liked the single cord. Nice and small drive as well that does not get hot enough to fry eggs on - also a plus. Hopefully it will last for a few years. Seems as if you need to put all of your data on some sort of "hard copy" anyway - hard drives can die. But this makes access waaaayyy easier. Overall very pleased with this product.