Iomega 33983 USB 2.0 160GB eGo Rugged Portable Hard Drive (Jet Black)
by Iomega
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Photo Product Details
Manufacturer: IomegaAudio: English (Original Language); French (Original Language); Spanish (Original Language)
Model: 33983
Color: Jet Black
Product features:
- Device Type - Portable
- Dimensions WxDxH - 3.5" x 0.75" x 5.25"
- Weight - 0.48 lbs
- Interfaces/Ports -- USB 2.0 USB
- AmazonBasics IEEE 1394 4-Pin/6-Pin FireWire Cable (6 Feet/1.8 Meters)
- AmazonBasics Ultra-High-Speed HDMI Cable Braided (9.8 Feet/3.0 Meters)
- AmazonBasics High-Speed HDMI Braided Cable (6.5 Feet/2.0 Meters)
- AmazonBasics High-Speed HDMI Cable (6.5 Feet/2.0 Meters)[Supports 3D + Audio Return Channel][OLD MODEL]
- AmazonBasics High-Speed HDMI Cable (9.8 Feet/3.0 Meters) [Supports 3D + Audio Return Channel]
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Iomega 33983 USB 2.0 160GB eGo Rugged Portable Hard Drive (Jet Black)
Customer Review: I suggest getting an external power supply
Summary: 4 Stars
This product is somewhat dated, now that Iomega has developed much larger capacity USB and Firewire portable drives. However, I own this 160GB, so I shall address this specific drive. I own two, used solely for backing up two desktop PCs using Storagecraft's ShadowProtect Desktop Edition software. I don't like the backup software the eGo drives came with so I ditched it pronto.
The eGo drives had been working well, albeit with the occasional hiccup in the backups where the backup might fail, randomly, due to a write error to the USB drive. (Note, the USB drive comes with two USB connectors, one for communication to the PC and the other for power.) I chalked the occasional backup glitches to, well, I guess just bad luck, one of those Windoze things that are inscrutable. Recently, the backups started failing every day on my large desktop PC -- I'm talking a server class PC, a Dell Precision 670, very expensive, my life's blood. I did every imaginable diagnostic on the PC and everything came up clean as a whistle. I then proceeded to contact Storagecraft's tech support, because it was their software that was failing. However, upon further reflection and perusing the Windows XP system event log, it was always a "failure to write" to the backup device. I decided to order an external power supply for the one Iomega while I was going back and forth with the software tech support guy. After installing the power supply, lo and behold, my backup problems disappeared, not to be seen in the several weeks since I installed it. I have no idea why, after using the device for about a year, it decided to flake out and needed more power. Oh well, the power supply, ordered from Iomega, was only $20. Small price to pay for backing up my beloved Dell. As a side note, the 2nd Iomega drive and backups are running fine on a Dell E521.
Let this be a lesson -- even though manufacturers claim you don't need external power, I strongly suggest learning from this and springing for the AC power supply. It doesn't cost much and it will save you a lot of grief. Just do it!
Other than that, the Iomega eGo (actually, both of them) hum along well and do their thing. Yes, I have had occasion to do an emergency "bare metal" restore from my Iomega eGo drive and everything restored fine and dandy. In case you don't know what "bare metal" means, consider yourself lucky! It means you've either thrashed Windows and can't boot no matter what you do, your main hard drive has crashed, or some other ghastly disaster has made your PC sit there dully and stare at you.
I do love these little drives -- if I had need for another one or two I would get the Firewire version. There are articles on the internet (geek sites) that prove that Firewire ultimately has faster throughput than USB 2.x.
Description of Iomega 33983 USB 2.0 160GB eGo Rugged Portable Hard Drive (Jet Black)
Take files anywhere, in style, with the Iomega eGo Rugged Jet Black 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 160GB capacity, it holds up to 640,000 photos, over 2,900 hours of music and 240 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.Digital Cameras & Photo Categories