Customer Reviews

Iomega Portable Hard Drive, FireWire 400/USB 2.0, 160GB - 33749

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

My biggest worry in ordering this product was whether it would work without an additional power source (e.g., USB) over Firewire. Some reviews of other capacity Iomega drives had mentioned this as an issue with their computers.

I have the 15" 2.2 GHz MacBook Pro and it powers this drive just fine over the Firewire port, even when the MacBook Pro is running off battery.

The other question I had was whether the drive came with cables--it does, both a USB and a Firewire cable are included.

The included Firewire cable is obscenely long (3 or 4') to use on a lap tray on an airplane, so I will shop around for a 1' cable.

I cannot comment on the reliability, but the speed seems reasonable for a laptop drive, and it works for what I need. The Iomega name does not ring the sound of quality in my ear (having had a number of Zip drives in the day), but I figured I'd take the chance. So far so good!

I purchased this item about 4 months ago! It has been really great! I use it with my 2006 Model Apple 17" PowerBook G4. I take a lot of pictures with my 12 Megapixel Canon 5D and I'm running out of space even with the original 120 GB hard drive of this fine Laptop computer.

*** What I Like about it (PROS)
1. Requires no power adapter or AC Cable
2. Firewire works fine with some computers where the standard USB does not provide sufficient power
3. Includes the $20 double USB cable for computers like mine that does not provide enough USB power
4. It's silver and a prefect match for Apple PowerBook and MacBook Pro computers
5. Drive is bootable with a Mac, so you can install another operating system (I run Leopard 10.51 from the computer internal HD, and Tiger 10.4.11 from this External Drive
6. Heavy duty Firewire cable.
7. Nice Blue light that shows Drive activity.

*** What I Don't Like about it (CONS)
NONE or perhaps FW cable is a bit too long.

I originally purchased the WD Passport 120 GB Drive, but using it was a problem. It never worked with the above mentioned Laptop without additional power. I used a powered USB hub and connected the Western Digital Passport to it to make it work. Although this drive has the same issue if used with a USB cord (mini to Standard), this IOMEGA provides 2 solutions to this problem: 1) it provides the double USB cable that should have been included with the WD Passport and wasn't, and 2) it works fine when you use the FireWire Connection. Problem solved and I'm happy with this product.

I wanted a portable FireWire drive to implement TimeMachine backup on my laptop. This Iomega unit has worked flawlessly out of the box.

I'm not a fan of USB-only drives, as they use up two USB ports (one for data, the other for power); it doesn't help that on the MacBook Pro there's one USB port on either side of the unit. With a FireWire drive, the USB ports can be used for other devices.

The Iomega drive is much more stylish than the product images show. The top and bottom have an anodized aluminum finish similar to that of the MacBook Pro; lengthwise, the sides are rippled and the ends have white plastic caps.

I hope to get several years' use of the drive but only time will tell.

This is the first Iomega product I purchased since the days of the notoriously unreliable Zip drives I'm glad to see that Iomega has (seemingly) bounced back from that era. Well, except that you have to pay $25 for any technical phone support...

Note to Mac users: Remember to reformat the drive before syncing with TimeMachine.

I did a lot of re-searching and reading reviews before finally deciding on this unit. I love that it has both USB and Firewire connections. I use the Firewire connection with my Powerbook G4, and it read it with no problems. Just in case you're not sure the Firewire on Powerbooks are powered.I also love that its powers off of your Firewall and USB, so no power supply is needed. I didn't have to use the install disc for this on my mac although it is included. There are no rear pictures that I recall on this unit, but it has a small switch with 3 settings middle is off, to the left is for USB/Firewire connection, and to the right, is for DC (if you decide to use a power supply to power the hard drive, which is not supplied, but not really needed either).It has a connection for the USB (cable supplied) and Firewire (Cable Supplied).The firewire cable is a tad long which is perfect for a desktop, but not as well suited for a Laptop. This hard drive is very small and ideal for portablity. It also is a very good match for a macbook pro or powerbook (silver). It does have some fans that run inside on occasion, but overall its a very quite unit.I've also noticed that it gets somewhat warm but never hot to the touch. I don't know how long it will last, but we all can only hope for the best on that one.

Overall for $99 dollars this is a great product thus far, and worth every penny ! I would recommend it, to anyone looking for a portable drive, and actually already have.

It will take me longer to write this brief review than it did to connect the drive to a USB port on the BookEndz dock attached to my MacBook and begin backing up the hard drive with SuperDuper. To somebody whose first computer was an IBM Convertible in the 1980s, the simplicity of today's technology never ceases to be amazing. The drive has performed flawlessly for more than a month, running 18-plus hours daily, seven days a week. The only improvement would be the addition some sort of protective slip case so I could carry the drive on client visits instead of lugging the laptop.

Sleek and working fine. No issues powering of the firewire port on an older G4 powerbook.

Just received drive today, plugged it into the firewire port on my PC and it worked without problem. The unformatted capacity of the drive is 160GB and 149GB when formatted. If you check "enable compression" when formatting the drive, the capacity will increase to 160GB without too much of a performance hit. (Note: The drive comes formatted as a FAT32 hard drive, but I prefer NTFS so I reformatted it right out of the box.)

Pros:
- Great looking little drive, even the white firewire cable was a nice touch.
- whisper quiet
- Package included both FW and USB cables.
- Full-size CD with Retrospect backup software included.

Cons:

- At first glance, Retrospect seems a little clunky, but it may grow on me.

It works. I'm happy. Hope your experience is similar.

I love this Item. It is small/compact enough that I am using it for my new HP Laptop for backup prepossess. There is no need for a power supply when using the USB cable supplied. The cable connects to the back of the Hard Drive then splits into two USB connections, one for Power and one for data. I tried to use a fire-wire cable, but there was no power. A power supply is needed for the use of the fire-wire cable(This statement is probable obvious to some, but I thought I would include it in case some may not know, that is with my hp I know nothing about the mac). Back to the Hard Drive. It is small enough where I can easily put it into the laptop carrying case that I purchased. Easily fits into one of the cases extra little pockets hidden in and around the case. The hard drive stays cool to the touch except when in heavy use. I have Mcafee Security center and about once a week it preforms a scan, well, when a scan was being done I knowtest that the Iomega was getting warm to the touch. So when the drive is used it can warm up.

I use this on my Macbook running OS Leopard. I partitioned the drive using disk utility, and use part for general storage and part for system back-up using Time Machine. It works flawlessly and is extremely fast using firewire 400 or USB 2.0.

I read a lot of good reviews for this hard drive, so I decided to give it a try. Maybe it's because I have a Mac, I don't know, but my drive didn't work for me at all. I looked under system profiler to see if my MacBook Pro recognized it at all; it showed up as a firewire device but that was it. I even tried to see if my Windows XP virtual machine would recognize it; it didn't. I got an error message. I'd also like to mention I tried both the firewire and USB cables that came with the drive; neither worked. I ended up getting an RMA from Amazon the day after I received it.