Iomega 33214 80 GB Desktop External Hard Drive USB 2.0, Silver Series

by Iomega

Product Details

• Item Weight: 4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0007W2IVA
• Item model number: 33214 IOM
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 2, 2004

Product Description

Simple, cost effective storage - Iomega 80GB Silver Series Hard Drive is the affordable way to save your precious memories - save up to 320, 000 photos, 1, 480 hours of music, or 120 hours of video. Not only is this drive economical, but also it is secure with Automatic Backup Software. This easy-to-use drive will look great on any home or office desktop.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent backup drive with some software limitations, October 1, 2005

By 

David (Chapel Hill, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Iomega 33214 80 GB Desktop External Hard Drive USB 2.0, Silver Series (Personal Computers)

Very handy for saving individual files or backing up the entire contents of your computer.

Comes with software that handles the backup easily, or you can use the backup software from Windows XP or use Norton Ghost (if you buy it separately). The Iomega software will backup your entire hard-drive from Windows XP, but not from some earlier Windows editions, like Windows ME (from this it will only backup specified files).

The backed up data can be saved in compressed format, to save space on the hard-drive, or uncompressed, which transfers it more quickly during backup and allows easier retrieval.

My only complaint is that the user guide info could have benefited from a section briefly summarizing what I've just said above. The info is mostly there, but not in an efficiently organized form (it took trial and error to realize the limitations of the backup software with Windows ME.)

Also, there is an encryption function included with the backup software. However, if one tries to encrypt the contents of an entire hard-drive for backup, there's a warning that you won't be able to use the data if your primary computer is incapacitated and needs to be restored from the backup drive. So this seems to be significant limitation, because individual files would need to be encrypted.

Also, you'll probably want to shut down your internet connection and antivirus and firewall (and any other scanning programs) during the backup to avoid error messages.

Anyway, once all the above was realized, the backup drive and software is very easy to use and quick.

42 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So easy . . ., August 24, 2005

By 

D. Coleman (Virginia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Iomega 33214 80 GB Desktop External Hard Drive USB 2.0, Silver Series (Personal Computers)

Forget the instructions and the Iomega software. Take it out of the box, plug it in, and turn it on. Works like a dream. Dragged and dropped all of my music, photo, and video files and they copied with no issue. Verrrry quiet. And fast. This drive is everything the description says that it is. Hope it has a long life. Will let you know if it doesn't. But for now . . . . .

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Every PC user needs one. Period., September 10, 2005

By 

Timmy (Long Island NY) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Iomega 33214 80 GB Desktop External Hard Drive USB 2.0, Silver Series (Personal Computers)

I was prompted to purchase a better backup for my PC after each of my neighbors suffered brutal and costly hard drive crashes. In both cases, they spent hundreds of dollars to send the crashed drives out to a recovery service. One spent $550, the other said "almost a thousand".

The drive installed flawlessly on my Dell, I then used the included software (this is a HUGE plus...this drive included great software!) to backup family photos. The setup was very intuitive and the software just works.

I feel this drive/software is a very good value for the money, a high quality product from a well-know vendor. SInce I did not have to use Iomega's customer support or web-site for help, I can't comment on those.

I strongly recommend this drive. Just click the buy now button.