Iomega UltraMax 500 GB USB 2.0/FireWire 400 Desktop External Hard Drive 33904

by Iomega

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 5.5 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000W8XQS8
• Item model number: 33904 IOM
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 21, 2007

Product Description

Manufacturer Product Description

Manufacturer Product Description With USB and FireWire connection interfaces, the Iomega UltraMax Desktop Hard Drive 500GB ensures that your data can be accessed no matter where you take it. This drive provides an easy way to add 500GB of storage to a computer, it supports Firewire 400 and USB 2.0, and even has a stylish look that complements a Mac.

The Iomega UltraMax Desktop Hard Drive 500GB An easy way to add 500GB of storage space to a computer. Support for FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 for fast data transfer rates. Stylish looks that complement a Mac.

The UltraMax drive matches the style of a Mac Pro. View larger.

Large Storage Solution for your Mac®
The drive is a perfect complement for Macs as it has a sleek silver design that matches the Mac style and it is HFS+ preformatted to work right out of the box. It is compatible with Mac OS X 10.5 and Time Machine. With 500GB of storage capacity, you'll be able to save up to 2,000,000 photos, 9,250 hours of music, or 750 hours of video.

Speedy Performance with Wide Compatibility
The Iomega UltraMax hard drive supports FireWire and USB 2.0 for compatibility and transfer rates of up to 480 Mbps. The drive features two FireWire 400 ports and one USB 2.0 port. The drive will also work with PCs but will need to be reformatted (instructions included). The Iomega UltraMax Desktop Hard Drive 500GB is backed by a 1-year warranty.

What's in the Box
Iomega Desktop Hard Drive, FireWire 400 (1394a) cable, USB 1.1/2.0 cable, power cord, power supply, Solutions CD with user manual, and quick install guide.

Product Description

The Iomega UltraMax 500GB Desktop Hard Drive adds secure, high capacity storage to your computer system.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This hard drive is awesome!, February 21, 2008

By 

Macsimus (Studio City, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Iomega UltraMax 500 GB USB 2.0/FireWire 400 Desktop External Hard Drive 33904 (Personal Computers)

I received this hard drive about a week ago for Mac OS 10.5.2 Time Machine. The drive looks and works great. I own a Mac Pro so as you can see in the Amazon ad, this thing is like a "mini me" of the Mac Pro which I think is the coolest part of it. I have had no problems (yet) with this HD and I honestly do not see it happening.

Iomega has been around for so many years and I trust their products. There is indeed ONLY one drawback to this drive. When the drive is reading and writing, it could get a little loud. I don't think this would justify one less star because the hard drive itself works perfectly so far. The firewire 400 speed is just fine for Time Machine once per hour.

Apple's website has this drive for sale also and this drive has some great reviews there if you want to check out what some other people say about it. Bottom line, this drive rocks and I would recommend it to any Mac or even PC user out there. The look is just so nice.

45 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Works OK, but be aware, March 4, 2008

By 

Donald E. Haselwood - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Iomega UltraMax 500 GB USB 2.0/FireWire 400 Desktop External Hard Drive 33904 (Personal Computers)

The unit works fine. Watch out for cross-platform use. I wanted to backup a mac, a wn2K box, and Linux, as well as transfer files between the machines. Here some things I encountered--
1) Since it has firewire it comes formatted for the mac. So to use it with windows requires reformatting to fat. Be sure to follow the iomega instructions. Windows will partition the drive, but it won't format partitions over 4GB(!); therefore, the iomega format program needs to be used. Furthermore, the fat32 doesn't handle files over 32GB (so a mac system save is too big and fails).
2) I made three paritions on the drive, doing it on the mac, to get the mac filesystem. Then using linux I set & formatted the two remaining partitions to fat32 and ext3.
3) The windows backup software that comes with it did the system save OK, but making a recovery CD failed. I couldn't get past the software key code, probably maybe because the system was an upgrade.
4) Watch out--The base of the unit presses on and if you pick it up by the base it can separate. Crash! Fortunately, I was holding the power cord in one hand and that plus a thick carpet saved what would have likely wrecked the unit.

Overall, the drive works fine. Doing a full system backup on the mac couldn't be easier. Windows and linux proved somewhat of a challenge.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lots of storage for the price, June 7, 2008

By 

D. Barraza "dbarraza" (San Antonio, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Iomega UltraMax 500 GB USB 2.0/FireWire 400 Desktop External Hard Drive 33904 (Personal Computers)

The price was the determining factor for my purchase. But this hard drive is not quiet and does not have an automatic turn on feature that I have had with other external hard drives. If it is plugged into my computer when I turn on my computer I still have to turn on the hard drive. If you plan on keeping the hard drive at a distance from your desktop then you should get a hard drive that automatically turns on and off with the computer. The firewire 400 does not have a noticable increase in speed compared to the USB and using the firewire 400 get my laptop temperature to increase, thus making my fans noisy. This is a good USB hard drive with lots of space. If you want to transfer large amount of data then I would get something with firewire 800 or something faster. This hard drive will do for the average person.