Iomega eGo 320 GB USB 2.0/FireWire 400 Portable External Hard Drive 34418 (Jet Black)
by Iomega
|
List Price: Category: CE See more product details |
|---|
(Click here)
Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Iomega eGo 320 GB USB 2.0/FireWire 400 Portable External Hard Drive 34418 (Jet Black)
Customer Review: Back that Mac up!
Summary: 4 Stars
I purchased the Iomega eGo with FireWire in Ruby Red several months ago. I bought it to use for backups, and to move media files off my hard drive to free up space. I was a little disappointed when it arrived. The red color is rather dull and the texture is unpleasant to touch. The shape is very nice, though, and it's small enough to easily fit in a laptop bag or large pocket.
Included was a two-headed USB 2.0 cable and a 6-6 FireWire cable. I've only used the FireWire cable, and found it wanting. The girth is substantial, but the length is too short. The cord is not very flexible either. The short length and stiffness of the cord caused the drive to fall more than once when it was plugged in. (Iomega does sell a rubber X-vest for the eGo, which might protect it to some extent.) The last straw was when my iBook didn't recognize the drive when it was plugged in with that cord. Now I only use the 6' white FireWire cable that came with one of my Macs. Much improvement; the iBook sees the drive again, and the drive hasn't fallen with this cord.
The eGo is compatible with OS X, OS 9 (and even earlier versions) and of course, Windows. Back-up software is included, for the Mac it comes with a version of Retrospect. I tried it, and recommend finding something else. (Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper! come to mind.) The version of Retrospect that came with the drive is 4x slower than the either of the two I mentioned, it's counterintuitive, and so old that the instructions make no mention of external portable hard drives. (Although if you still use the tape drive you bought back in the 1980s, Retrospect has you covered.)
To be able to use the drive for backing up multiple Macs, I needed to format and partition the drive. The instructions vary slightly depending on your Mac and your OS. I am writing with a PowerPC Mac running OS X Tiger (10.4.11) in mind.
1) Connect the drive to the computer using the FireWire cable
2) Open Disk Utility (Computer>Applications>Utilities)
3) click the icon for the external drive in the left panel
4) click Partition tab in other panel (Intel might use Erase)
5) Choose number of partitions, resize to your needs and give each one a name
6) Format for Mac should be HFS+ Extended, (Journaled)
7) Check Install OS 9 drivers if you have a computer that can boot into OS 9
8) Click Options, and for PowerPC Mac, set to Apple Partition Map (GUID for Intel)
9) Click Partition button (or erase and partition- either one)
It takes a few seconds to partition the drive. After this, follow the instructions that came with your backup software and it will take care of the rest. The first backup up can take a while, and the Mac should not be allowed to sleep or used for any other tasks. Always burn your most cherished files to CD or DVD too, for when the drive stops functioning. As I write this, I'm backing up a home folder from one of my Macs wirelessly,using AirPort Extreme and my iDisk. Off-site storage is good too, but not very convenient at this point because uploading is slow.
When it's in use, the drive becomes very hot. It has no fan inside to cool it down. Heat can kill a hard drive, so I would NOT recommend leaving it plugged in all of the time. Portable drives like these are not meant to be in heavy, constant use. For that you will want a self-powered desktop model with a fan. (Iomega does sell a pricey wall-wart power adapter for the eGo line at their website, which will be great for anyone with weak USB ports.)
Overall, I think the drive deserves 3.5 to 4 stars. It isn't perfect, but it meets my needs. I would buy it again, but not this color. The new version of the FireWire eGo (now labeled "for Mac") comes in red (brighter than this drive, from the pictures), white or blue, at the time of this review. It'd be really nice if they'd offer more color choices for the FireWire eGo as they did for the USB eGo, but I'm just happy to have something that's not plain aluminum.
Customer Review: Its a decent drive!
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this for use between a bunch of macs (of varying age) at work in a recording studio. It plugged in and worked immediately with all the macs (G4 through new Macbook Pro.) Have not used this drive on my PC.
Though its not advisable to do - I've this drive to track audio (digihardware>protools>firewiredrive) and it hasn't had any problem dealing with some big protools sessions.
THIS DRIVE GETS HOT!!!! Though I'm told that's pretty common with palm-drives.
Construction is not great - mine arrived with one of the four case screws rattling around loose in the box. Also, the Amazon box that it came in had NO PACKING to stop the inner box sliding/crashing around (!!! they pad books - why not drives???) Nevertheless, I needed to use it right away, popped the screw back in and had no further issues.
Cheap, big and fast. Recommended.
Customer Review: Exceeds the Power Limits of its Hub Port
Summary: 1 Stars
Drive has never worked. PC continuously says that the USB device has malfunctioned and exceeded the power limits of its hub port. Iomega forums do not provide any information on resolving the issue. Not entertaining the idea of buying and carrying around the cables for additional power supply. Don't throw away your money!Customer Review: Buy it while it is still available
Summary: 4 Stars
The is the second generation of Iomega's 2.5" portable drives. The dual-FW400 alone makes it worth your consideration, even though it looks like a liquor flask. AA members: stay away from this one, because it may cause you to want to 'drink it up'.
I think the rectangular-looking first generation was completely sold out this month, so grab this one while you can. Why? The new eGo line has a plastic case. The 'helium' model could be aluminum, but I have not seen it. The color version is plastic-clad and does not dissipate heat as well as the predecessors.
Customer Review: Hot and Unstable
Summary: 1 Stars
After a few hours of use this unit was almost too hot to touch. Within less than sixty days it was dead!! I have had better luck with LaCie portable drives.