Customer Reviews

Iomega MiniMax 500 GB USB 2.0/FireWire 400 Desktop External Hard Drive 33746

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Setup for Mac easy as usually with Macs: Plug and play. Fits very well under a Mac Mini, a new Airport Extreme or an Apple TV. Fan is audible, not really annoying, but also not really soft.
All in all, very nice product.

I bought this drive to place under my base station, but it interferes with the wireless signal and causes the connection to be lost. I thought it could be used this way (as advertised here) but was wrong. In the literature that comes with the product it never states that it can be used with an Extreme Base station. While it would've been nice to be able to stack it under the base station on my desk, I now have to find a new location for it far away, defeating the space-saving purpose I had in mind to begin with. I also thought I could plug it into my base station and use it as a USB hub for connecting additional devices to my wireless network (as advertised here). That won't be happening now either. So, the extra money I spent for these nifty features has gone to waste. My own fault for not calling Iomega and asking them directly. Would've been better off buying just a regular external hard drive that stores vertically. I gave it 4 stars because otherwise Iomega makes a good product and I am also happy with the Retrospect software that came with it. And, I'm not sure if they are responsible for the product description given here or Amazon.

I have had Western Digital, Maxtor & Seagate 750G (The Seagate didn't work at all). This drive was so easy to install on my Imac with 400 firewire and I quickly backed up 250 gig of photos. Slight hum of the fan but not as loud as my maxtor. I am going to buy another one since they are stackable and will continue to add them as I need more space. I like the 500G size since I have all my photos backed up on 2 drives and burned to disk as well. I dont trust any hard drive to last forever and will remove a drive once full and keep in a safe place. It is very fast to get in and retrieve/edit my large .tif files. It also looks very nice.

The fan is so noisy that I returned it. In comparison, I have an almost identical Mac Mini-sized drive from Acomdata that is completely silent. Get it instead!

I bought a couple of these to use with my iMac, one as a primary data drive and one as a backup drive. My plan was to put them under my Airport Extreme Base Station since they are the same form factor. The feature set is great: three FW400 ports and a 3-port USB hub. However, there were three things that really bothered me.

1. They run really, really hot. The top of the case is too hot to touch for more than a moment and I was really concerned that the heat would eventually lead to a reduced lifetime of the drives and the AEBS that I put on top of it. In addition, the warranty is only 1-year.
2. The fans are not very silent. The fans inside are always running and while I don't consider them to be loud, they are certainly fairly audible. They are much louder than my iMac (which is fairly quiet).
3. Did I mention that they run really hot?

In the end, although I loved the form factor and the built-in FW400 and USB hubs, I decided that I didn't want to risk problems down the road with the heat and returned them.

Despite the fan and heat sink capability, my Iomega MiniMax ran increadibly hot under by Mac Extreme Base Station - really to the point where I couldn't put my hand on the Extreme Base station. No way this can be good for anything. I love the idea and looks, but I had to return it in a day.

It fits great with my Mac Mini, but it seemed to be a lemon from the start. It would often power off and not power back on for days. When it would stay on, there would be connectivity issues and no computer was able to connect to it using USB or Firewire.

I had to return it to the manufacturer which took a couple weeks (Iomega lost track of it...). It worked fine once I got it back from Iomega but a couple months after its warranty expired, it no longer could power up and became a brick.

Overall I'm not terribly impressed with Iomega for its support and reliability.

while the product may or may not function well, the word service is not in the iomega vocabulary. not only is their website one of the most poorly designed that i have ever encountered, the idea of a $25 fee for telephone support on an IN warranty item is piggy (out of warranty is not serviced at all), and the online chat service is staffed with people who do not have a clue, and the information they give is not alway accurate! instructions are incomplete and poorly written. customer support (by email or online chat, unless you want to spend $25 to speak to someone. this is very unusual for a new product) is vague and often incorrct. there is no cd included anymore, although you are referred to 'instructions on enclosed cd.' you will have to figure out for yourself how to use this product. find a product that offers better service.

Just received my new Minimax from Amazon and I'm a little disappointed. The install disk is missing from the box (luckily I'm using this with a Mac Mini so don't need it) and also the Minimax itself is scuffed on top (there was no protective plastic cover) and has small chips missing from the aluminium edge. If I was a sceptic I'd say this was a used drive I've been sent. I'm happy to have used/refurb'd hardware but not when I'm paying the $$$$ for new!

Other than the above the unit complements the Mac Mini very well and works with it straight out of the box. Only time will tell if the performace remains good. For my next HD purchase I'll be going with another make.

Half the time this drive will not mount over USB or Firewire. You have to turn it off, then turn it back on again. Repeat a couple of times and you may get lucky.