Customer Reviews

Iomega eGo 500 GB USB 2.0/FireWire 400 Portable External Hard Drive 34421 (Jet Black)

5 star:		(56)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

I was filling up my iBook hard drive with iTunes. I shifted the library off to an external drive.

I had some problems with USB drives on my iBook thinking they had been improperly ejected because they weren't geting enough power from the USB. The WD I was using had no external power supply capability and I couldn't use the "double-USB" cord because my iPod was plugged in as well. I order this Iomega eGo FireWire.

When it arrived, I read it was already formatted for Mac (the others I had to reformat). I plugged it into the fire wire port and within 10 seconds, the iBook recognised it. I pointed my iTunes library to it, plugged the old external into the "double USB" cord to prevent problems and hit "consolitate library". The iBook and eGo did the rest. Since then (about 4 months so far) not a single problem. FINALLY!!!

I highly recommend the FireWire if you have a Mac. I also have eGo USB only versions for my PC (cheaper, but I recommend reformatting to NTFS from the Fat-32 so you can deal with files over 4GB).

I think this hard drive is great; It's lightweight but rugged, and very very attractive! The "Ruby Red" is more of a "Magenta Pink"...and yes, it DOES look like a whiskey flask, as a previous commentor said!

So, I'm a Mac fan, and I haven't had any problems with it. I haven't needed to plug both ends of the USB in order to get enough power; just the main one. I also have one of the newer MacBook Pros (less than 3 years old), so that may be the fix right there.

It reads and writes EXTREMELY FAST. I was really impressed. It works great with Time Machine, too... It's a great deal for this price: it works! (and looks like you spent a whole lot more on $$$ it!)

This seems to be a good product. Interfaces well since it has both USB 2 and Firewire 400 inputs. You may want to get a power source to plug it into if you want to use this for more than just periodic backups or "mobile-only" use.

The only issue I have with this hard drive (and it's a big one IMHO) is that it generates more heat than any laptop I've ever used, and I've worked on the worst "heaters" of all time! I was very surprised to find this out after only having it plugged into my MacBook for 5 minutes. It makes the exterior VERY warm, almost "hot," so when you go to pick it up after using it to backup your computer's hard drive or after a session of mobile recording, don't be so shocked that you drop it. It won't burn you, but it will surprise you if you're not thinking about it.

I've lately been having problems with portable USB drives mounting properly, so I finally gave up and went back to Firewire. This little drive works flawlessly (albeit a little hot). It's small, it's fast, it has huge storage for its size, and it's pretty (!). How can you resist a disk drive that looks like a flask?

This is an awesome little drive!

I purchased it to create full backups of my iMac (OS X 10.5.5) that I can store in my safe deposit box, and I haven't been disappointed. It comes pre-formatted for OS X, so you can just plug it in and go (OS X recognizes it immediately after plugging it in via USB). I chose to reformat with Leopard just to ensure that any file system changes under Leopard were taken into account, and the reformatting process took all of 30 seconds, no problems. It provided great performance with about 260GB being backed up over USB in about 4 hours and, in the event of an emergency, allows you to boot your iMac directly off the drive (using Firewire).

It is physically small (about the size of a small pocket hooch flask), is well constructed and feels very solid and durable in your hand, and is dead quiet when operating.

I am thrilled with this purchase and with Iomega's excellent support for Macs and I'll be back for more!

Note: I have only used this for a few days. I am using the 320 GB jet black model with Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard)'s "Time Machine" backup software that comes with the OS.

The drive comes with both FireWire (IEEE 1394) and USB cables. Drive is powered by either cable's inherent power and, while it has a DC-in port, that goes unused. This thing will get a little hot (who cares?) if you leave it plugged in, but I just backup my MacBook once in a while, unmount the drive, and unplug it.

The twin FireWire ports on the back allow you to "pass-through" to any other FireWire devices you have. Running the Mac's "Time Machine" software, this thing backed up my drive's 120 GB of data in 2.5 hours via FireWire. As the other reviewer said, it looks like a flask! I heart it a little bit extra because of that.

Considering that I remember being just thrilled when Iomega ZipDisks came out - they held 10 megs, I think - I should be just paralyzed with joy that it's possible to get a 500GB portable hard drive for less than $200. In red, no less. The eGo does have a few areas for improvement but all in all it's a good buy.

First, the instructions provided are a tad minimalists and the page numbers don't correspond to the table of contents. (Yes, I notice these things.) It's a little silly to include the vital information that the eGo needs to be formatted to work with PCs in the "using the drive" section instead of in the "Quick install" section. And that formatting thing is problem number two.

Unlike the five other portable hard drives I've purchased in the last 2 years, the eGo needs to be formatted before it can be used on a PC. I'm not sure why this is or whether this actually a good thing. It took over 5 hours to format the 500GB drive I purchased. I can't complain since it turns out I didn't need to use the eGo immediately and now I know how to use the Computer Manager on Vista. But if you need to use a hard drive out of the box and you're using a PC you should look elsewhere.

Those two relatively minor problems aside, this is a sleek, stylish portable drive that actually feels like it could survive a fall from a desk. The ability to use either USB or FireWire is a nice bonus. It's good to see that Iomega is still in the game and still producing durable products that have a unique design sensibility without being pretentious.

I purchased this drive to replace the smaller drive that I bought with a larger laptop. It seems that between the size of Windows Vista and being able to save more data on the primary drive, I was pushing the limits of Retrospect. With only the 300Gb drive, Retrospect would sometimes fail to groom enough from the old backups to make space for a new full backup. This 500Gb drive solved that problem.

As mentioned elsewhere, the drive does run hot. Just in case this might affect the life expectancy of the drive, I try to remember to remove the drive from the PC during the day, and reconnect in the evening before the overnight backup. And, as already noted, the drive does need to be formatted before first use, but I was expecting that.

I got this drive to backup my 200GB macbook pro. It works great with the time machine feature of MAC OS X. Having the firewire 400 along with USB is a nice feature.

The coolest thing about this drive is probably the "flask" design, as this makes it really easy to store and carry around. It has a solid metal case that would probably withstand a decent drop, though I wouldn't recommend doing that.

I've been using the drive for 3 weeks with Apple's Time Machine. It performs very well. Quiet. Fast. Takes up very little space in my pack. Ejects instantly from my desktop. Meets all expectations at a reasonable price. I recommend it.