Amazon.com: Iomega Home Media 500 GB Network Attached Storage 34336: Electronics

17 Reviews

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

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3.8 out of 5 stars (17 customer reviews)

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39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Please read the "updates", October 23, 2009

Ryan "Professional Techie" (The Keystone State) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Iomega Home Media 500 GB Network Attached Storage 34336 (Personal Computers)

This is an awesome drive (I bought the 500 GB model), but it can be very slow. I notice that connecting to the drive causes my laptop to freeze for about 45 seconds, then it comes back up. Don't get me wrong, I really love my drive, but it is very slow.

It was also a bit tricky to install, but I didn't have too many problems. BE ABSOLUTELY SURE TO READ THE SETUP PART OF THE MANUAL INCLUDED! IT WILL SAVE MUCH FRUSTRATION! (sorry for caps, but I think this part is extremely important)

The drive has excellent security features. It will automatically find all the user accounts on your computer and put those accounts on the drive. You can also manually add accounts via the web-based setup, which is excellent if you have multiple computers using the drive. I would recommend locking this drive down as tight as you possibly can. This way, if a peeping neighbor comes across the drive, they can't get into your files (even by mistake). Post a comment if you need help securing your drive, I would be happy to help!

As far as the noise goes, I don't notice any, but my drive is in my basement with the home theater and a dehumidifier which drown out any noise it may make.

This part will sound very hypocritical: I know I said that it can be slow, but that's for connecting to it. Even with Wireless-G (54.0 Mbps all over in my house), transfer speeds are good.

I have not tested the software that comes with the drive for automatic backups, I use SyncBack (Google it, 2BrightSparks makes it). This combined with the drive make for good transfer speeds.

TIPS FOR SUCCESS WITH YOUR DRIVE:
- As stated above, lock the drive down tight. This prevents neighbors from seeing files, or even dropping their own in the drive. It uses basic security, but it's very difficult to get around it.
-Secure your wireless network. If you don't have remote access enabled, this makes it about 10 times more difficult to get into the drive.
-"User Accounts" on the drive:
~Be sure to create a folder for everyone in the web-based setup. (Login using the IP address of the drive and click 'Folders' on the left-hand menu panel.)
~Make an account for everyone with each having a unique password. If you have a user account for each person on your computer, then attach each folder to the computer on the individual account to prevent users from seeing each others' files.
-Be sure that you use a STATIC IP address for the drive. (Login -> Click "System" icon on the left -> Click "Network" at the top -> set it to MANUAL, not automatic -> give it an IP address that you will remember.) This makes it alot easier to have it connected to user accounts since it won't be hopping all over your network addresses.
-Obviously, never tell anyone the drive's password. Write it down if you think you won't remember it, then hide the password somewhere safe.
-Put the drive in a locked closet that only you have the key to. This prevents someone from pressing the RESET button and wiping the drive completely (no way to recover these lost files!)

Best of luck to you and be sure to comment if you need help!

UPDATE (11.15.09): I am getting extremely fed up with this drive. It is giving me more headaches than it is worth. I attempted to use the Print Server feature on the drive, and it knocked my drive offline. I couldn't figure out was wrong at first because my network said it was there, but my PCs wouldn't find it. Then when I went to reset it, I couldn't tell when it was resetting because the LED light wasn't changing at all. Furious at the time, I pulled the power cord out of it and plugging it back in and then it decided to work. The manual specifically said that it has a print server and that all you had to do was plug the printer into your drive; needless to say, that didn't work. Neither of my PCs would connect to the printer. And the "best" part of it: my printer didn't work correctly when I plugged it back into the computer! Then I had to spend more time figuring that out. Another "wonderful" part of this drive: if you don't connect to it very often, it disconnects itself, but it doesn't disappear from your computer so you can't re-mount it unless you restart your computer altogether. Now I need to go take an aspirin because I am very angry after having just edited this review! I know I originally said the drive was great, but spend the extra money to get a better one. The original rating of this drive was 4/5, but now it is down to 2/5.

UPDATE (1.20.10): I regret to have to say that with less than 5 months, my drive failed. The network port on it died and iomega wanted to charge me to replace it. I am so very disappointed with this company. Their customer "service" is atrocious, the online representative decided to take an attitude with me. They have lost the very little respect I had for them and they have also lost a customer. I hope you heed my warning--do not buy this product. It's much much more trouble than it's worth. I am so infuriated with iomega and their support. The rep I spoke to is lucky I did not contact his manager--I would have made sure he lost his job.
Rating dropped from 2/5 to 1/5, but I wish I could give it 0/5. I attempted everything I could think of to fix it, then I ended up destroying the hard drive with a hammer to prevent any data from being pulled. So thanks iomega, you've cost me money and my data. I really appreciate it. I might as well have burned $112 or threw it out the window on the highway.

~Gonnie

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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy Installation - Good Back-Up Software, July 14, 2009

Loves Books (Maryland USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)

This review is from: Iomega Home Media 500 GB Network Attached Storage 34336 (Personal Computers)

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The Iomega Home Media Network Storage device is an external hard drive that connects to a network. If you have a wireless router connected to the internet, you have a network. The advantage of a network drive is that multiple computers can access it at the same time. A standard external USB or Firewire drive can only connect to a single computer at one time and does not afford any real security.

The drive comes in a nice aluminum case that can be mounted horizontally or vertically. Connect the power supply and network cable (to your routers extra hub ports) and it's ready to configure. The network interface is auto configuring. If you have a newer router or switch, it will do gigabit. In practice, gigabit speed is about 3-4 times faster than 100mb.

Installation of the Iomega drive was made easy by the supplied software. If you're a knowledgeable IT person, you can skip using their software and just map a drive to it. Once configured with an IP address, you can use Internet Explorer to get into the management software. The management software allows you to set up multiple shares (folders with permissions on them) . This way you can have personal folders that only a single person can access as well as folders that multiple users can access. I set up 2 folders that have single user access (one for each of the two of us). Then I set up folders that everyone (on my network... not the internet) could access... one for music , one for pictures, etc.

A network drive makes it easy to backup important files. Copying the files up to a share provides insurance in case your hard drive fails or laptop is stolen. The drive comes with backup software which works well.
This is not a drive to carry with your laptop when you travel (there's no USB port), but if you need a good reliable drive to access at home this fits the bill very nicely.

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Failure within 9 months, December 29, 2009

MCP - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Iomega Home Media 500 GB Network Attached Storage 34336 (Personal Computers)

I bought this last May and it worked fine through the beginning of November. Then it wouldn't boot up anymore! It turns on and gets stuck in the start up. The drive appears to be dead. Iomega will replace it, but any data is gone. Fortunately, this was my backup drive. Not a great comfort to know that my backup dies in less than a year.

While it was working, it was pretty decent, but very noisy compared to my other drive (SimpleShare - a great drive they don't sell anymore).

I would not buy another one. They should not fail this fast.

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