Iomega eGo 250 GB USB 2.0 Rugged Portable Hard Drive 34265 (Ruby Red)

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Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 3.4 x 0.9 x 5.9 inches ; 1.1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0013U3RA6
• Item model number: 34265 IOM
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (189 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #9,417 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: February 12, 2008

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description
Carry your files everywhere in style with the Iomega eGo 250 GB Portable USB Hard Drive. This stylish and compact ruby red portable drive features the patent-pending DropGuard feature, which gives it the durability to withstand the hazards of everyday travel. Small enough to fit into a briefcase or purse, the eGo will quickly become an indispensable travel accessory.

The eGo is ultra stylish and easily transportable with a bus-powered design. View larger.

Choose your favorite eGo from a variety of colors. View larger.

Stylish, Portable Design
The eGo drive is extremely sleek and stylish, with a swooping, ruby red design. It is ultra portable, with its small size and bus-powered functionality that eliminates the need for an external power supply. And with its DropGuard feature, which protects the drive from accidental damage caused by drops of up to 51 inches, you won’t have to worry about damaging it while on the road.

Play Your Digital Media Anywhere
With 250 GB of storage capacity, the eGo can hold up to 1,000,000 photos, over 4,625 hours of music, or 375 hours of video. The drive features a USB 2.0 connection for fast transfer rates and is compatible with both PCs and Macs with USB ports.

The drive includes a license for the award-winning EMC Retrospect Express software, which provides fast backups and added protection for your data. The software features a powerful interface that allows you to schedule either a single or complete system backup, personalize your backup schedule and location, back up open files, back up without logging in, encrypt files, and obtain backup verification. With EMC Retrospect Express, you'll never have to worry about losing your data again. And, with the built in integration of Mozy Home Online Back up software you're always safe against theft or destruction of your data. MozyHome offers a simple, secure online backup service to store your critical data offsite.

The Iomega eGo Portable USB Hard Drive is backed by a one-year warranty.

What's in the Box
Iomega eGo portable hard drive, USB cable, FireWire cable, HTML user manual and help files, EMC Retrospect Express backup software, and quick install guide.

The eGo matches perfectly with Dell laptops.

Product Description
Take files anywhere, in style, with the Iomega eGo Rugged Ruby Red Portable Hard Drive, USB 2.0 - an extremely durable drive which includes patent pending Drop Guard feature to withstand the toughest of travel environments. Available in 250GB capacity, it holds up to 1,000,000 photos, over 4,625 hours of music and 375 hours of video. Plus, the Iomega eGo Portable Hard Drive requires no external power supply and includes a free EMC Retrospect HD backup software license.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

229 of 230 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Iomega Seems to be Best of Breed with USB Hard Drives, February 6, 2008

By	S. Gerber "samthewebman" (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is my third Iomega. First was a "Silver Portable" 40GB drive. Ran perfectly for over a year and I gave it to my son so he could finally back up his WinXP system. Then I bought a 120GB USB/Firewire "Silver Portable" and it ran perfectly for over a year and was just retired to my backup computer so I could buy a larger one, my first Iomega that's not a "Silver Portable".

If you've read complaints throughout Amazon about the Western Digital and Maxtor and others regarding some very important flaws like running noisy, breaking in a few months, and not getting enough power from the USB port, then do consider this one. This drive runs very quietly and only draws around 100mA from a standard 500mA USB port.

You've probably read that it's important with Windows XP to format your USB hard drive using the NTFS file system and then set it in device manager's "Policies" tab to "optimize for performance". That's quite true and worth mentioning. You'll get best speed this way and really don't lose anything except compatibility with Windows 95, 98 and ME. What are they, you ask? ;>) Also, the drive comes with an 8MB cache which helps give it such fine performance.

Comparing this drive to my other Iomega Silver Portables, it's supposed to be more shock resistant but I don't plan to ever test that. On the negative side it is larger and cannot be placed in a shirt pocket like the others. It's just a bit longer, wider and heavier - no problem at all though for a brief case, a laptop's accessory compartment, or even a small woman's purse. It runs a bit warmer also. Not hot at all but I'm just spoiled by the other Iomegas which run cooler. It does not have rubber feet but is not especially slippery either. I'm more comfortable with things like this by placing them atop a piece of Rubbermaid non-skid rubberized shelfing material, cut to fit, but that may be overkill.

From the other reviews I've read including Western Digital, Seagate, Maxtor, LaCie and some others, there didn't seem to be another manufacturer that I would have faith in. Not to demean this drive at all, but if I were to buy it again or buy another for myself, I would definitely consider another "Silver Portable" for its compactness, lower temperature, and ridiculously low power draw from the USB port. At this writing, they are still available on Amazon but will be selling out in the near future. They are:

1. Model 33634 - USB/Firewire 120GB for $100 (I have this one already)
2. Model 33600 - USB 160GB for $80.

Finally, software. The drive comes with a license for some Iomega licensed backup software. Backup software is very difficult to trust, and usually you don't learn how competent it is until your hard drive fails or some virus eats you alive. Crunch time is a bit late to be disappointed by your backup software. I very strongly encourage you to take a hard look at Acronis True Image software. I have it as do some friends and it doesn't disappoint. Even works on a PC with RAID1 hard drives, if that means anything to you. Probably the only program for PCs that does. It even comes with a bootable CD version which runs slower doing the backup than the installed version, but can be very convenient.

I've run dry and this review has run long. Thanks for reading. Hope I've been helpful

Regards ... Sam

284 of 302 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A real jewel of an external drive - but only in looks!, August 12, 2007

By	Yurij Trytjak (Plainfield, New Jersey United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

(Last paragraph added Jan. 14, 2008.)
I took a close look at about 10-12 external drives on the Internet, comparing capacities, dimensions and weights and looks. Yes, looks were important to me because I intended the drive for travel purposes. After a business associate had his notebook stolen in the Hong Kong airport I decided that my notebook would never again contain my entire 'business office' again. I wanted a drive that I could put in my shirt, coat or pants pocket whenever leaving my hotel room, and leave only my notebook with the O/S and applications on it. You can move your Outlook.pst file, your Favorites from IE, anything you want, onto the external drive by right-click/drag/move these (and other) O/S folders to another location of your choosing. In terms of data files I decided to keep only my iTunes system on Drive C: and I put all other data files on the external drive. When traveling I keep the drive on my person at all times. If the notebook goes in the overhead compartment the portable drive stays in my pocket. Before leaving home for any kind of trip I first copy everything from the portable external drive onto a desktop external so that I lose nothing much if my traveling drive meets with disaster. I also copy the entire iTunes system from drive C: to the desktop external.
So, I really needed and wanted a small, light and good looking external drive that would not need external power, thereby available for use at any time. The 160GB Ego USB 2.0 by iomega fits the bill in spades. It's very light, looks like a million, no boxy sharp corners like all the rest, and is advertised as having special shock protection in case of being dropped. I'm not planning to do any end-user testing to prove this point. My wholehearted recommendation for this drive.
One more reminder for backups: you can leave the desktop backup at home when you travel, but when you return take the backup out of the house. Take the backup either to the office, or your detached garage, or some other off-premises location. A backup sitting next to your original data is protection only against hard disk failure. Other calamaties like a fire, or theft, requires that the two be separated a good distance. Hey, stuff happens.
Now the follow-up. I will keep it short. The first Iomega 160 Gig. drive failed after a month, went back for factory repair and it failed again shortly thereafter. Iomega replaced it and the second drive failed a few weeks later. I gave up on it, bought a Stor-It 320 Gig. (also red and pocketable, from pexagontech.com), and it has been performing flawlessly for over a year.

75 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just What I Was Looking For, November 3, 2007

By	Robert Christiansen (Saint Paul, MN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was looking for a portable hard drive to replace the 5GB model I bought a couple years ago. I need to transfer large stereo audio files between my work and home studios and the earlier one was no longer cutting it. This Iomega drive is perfect, and only about $10 more than I paid for the 5GB (which was a bargain at the time)!
The only small drawback is that it requires two USB connections to make sure that it has adequate power. The hard drives I've been connecting to so far have had two open slots available, but just to make sure I went out and bought a small 4-1 USB Hub so I wouldn't be caught flat-footed. My co-workers all really like the drive, and a couple intend to get their own, but their first reaction is that it's a whiskey flask!