Iomega Desktop Hard Drive 500 GB Hi-Speed USB 2.0 External Hard Drive - 33654 Reviews

• Very noisy!

  
  By A1VUN4JU731CBH on 2007-10-19
  The drive looks well-built and sturdy with a brushed aluminum case. The backside, however - where all the cables are plugged in - seems to be made from extremely thin plastic which immediately gives when only touched slightly.
  
  It is true plug-and-play, the drive was immediately and quickly recognized, no problems there. I reformatted from FAT32 to NTFS which took a while but nothing out of the ordinary given that it had to format almost 500 GB.
  
  From what I can tell, the drive is very fast which makes it a pleasure to use when having to work with huge files.
  
  The bad part: This drive is noisy. It is by far the noisiest of my external hard drives which are all Western Digital (60 GB & 80 GB Passport drives, 250 GB My Book). No fun sitting at my desk and listening to this "morse code noise" for hours. I have used my Western Digital drives, even the small portable Passport drives, for months as my regular drives (not just for occasional jobs!) and all are performing extremely quietly - not this Iomega drive. I read where other reviewers said it ran quietly but not the one I got. This one is LOUD and is already getting on my nerves to the point where I have decided to make it the backup drive and not expose myself to these sounds every day.
  
  Another thing: It gets very hot. I have it sitting in the stand on my desk with plenty of airflow around it but it is almost too hot to touch. Again nothing that I have ever experienced with my WD drives which get warm but not hot.
  
  All in all, I am not very impressed and will probably stick with WD drives in the future.
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Easy, Fast and Reliable

  
  By AD73VMNYB8XVX on 2007-04-22
  This is a GREAT external hard drive. It's fast (7200 RPM), can stream a movie straight off it and simultaneously backup a movie with very few lag spikes. It's quiet, only hear it every once in a while when it's doing some heavy duty writing/reading. It's Reliable, haven't had a single problem with it yet.
  
  Best of all, the price is right. I wholeheartedly recommend this external drive to everyone.
  
  Just plug the usb cable and plug in the ac/adapter and you're ready to roll. In fact, I'm going to go get another one myself.
  
  

• Nice hard drive

  
  By AHDU0M3UW2WEV on 2007-03-17
  I didn't buy this hard drive on amazon, but thought i'd write the review.
  Set up is really easy, just plug the usb and the ac adapter and you are ready to go.
  It has a great design, a stainless steel look and a blue light in the middle that looks kind of cool.
  You can put it standing up or flat.
  Doesn't take much space.
  File transfer is fast. I'm not really an expert and I don't count the nanoseconds or anything, but it works for me.
  No problem playing video or audio from the unit.
  I have noticed that when I leave it on for long periods of time, it does get a little hot, but since I only use to back up files from time to time it's not really a problem.
  All in all, I'd say this is a good product.
  
  

• From the Mac perspective

  
  By A2WPG31TDR63HY on 2007-09-22
  I bought this because it said it worked with OSX. I know USB is supposed to be a universal thing, but of course all us Mac junkies have had our issues here and there - even with hardware that's SUPPOSED to work. Well, no such problems here. I plugged it in, booted my computer, and the mount point appeared within 30 seconds in the Finder. The aesthetics of the product are nice - it's small, and you can stand it up so it doesn't take up much space. It's very very quiet, only a bit of 'chik chik chik' if you're moving gigabytes back and forth. And the price is oh-so-right for this much space. So if you're a Mac user and looking for some add-on storage, this is the one for you.
  
  

• A great buy!

  
  By A1PIST49WE3XUH on 2007-12-21
  I've been using this hard drive for over a month and I've done my best to really put it to the test. As of today, all I can say is that it works as advertised and that the price paid is way below what I would've expected. Here's my 2 cents:
  
  DESIGN
  The overall design is pretty slick and the brushed aluminum gives it a very futuristic look. It's very slim and will fit almost anywhere. You can use it vertically (stand included) but I'd rather use it horizontally.
  
  HEAT
  The hard drive WILL heat up around 40 minutes of use, at least in my case. The aluminum case will not help at all in dispersing the heat, on the contrary, it will sting a bit if you try to lift it while hot. I find that it gets less hot if used vertically.
  
  NOISE
  As for the noise factor, other reviews have deemed the hard drive to be noisy and that it makes clunking noises. It will make some noise, obviously, while working but I find it to be noisier if vertical. So there's a trade-off between noise and heat based on what I just wrote in the heat factor.
  
  PERFORMANCE
  The hard drive is a total workhorse and I love to beat the hell out of it. I've had files going to and from the hard drive while watching a 600+MB .avi movie and while burning a DVD with files from the hard drive. The movie plays without a hiccup and in my case it makes me wonder how much abuse this baby can take! I'm simply excited to have this toy in my arsenal and I fully recommend it to everyone out there.
  
  MAC EXPERIENCE
  I bought the hard drive to use it with Time Machine and I'm happy to say that I made the right move. TMachine will only use a sector of the HD and will let you upload and download files without any hassle to the rest of the HD... BUT once it has been formatted to be used with a Mac, you won't be able to use it with Windows. Oh, XP will detect it all right but that's as far as you'll get. Luckily I'm less PC-dependent as days go by and don't rely on the HD to move around files from PC to PC or from PC to Macs for that matter.
  
  
• Awesome..
  By A3AHTZK6MH7B8S on 2007-08-01
  This is the best deal out there right now for a 500g external HD. It's very quick, easy to use and to integrate with Windows. I did quite a bit of research before purchasing it and it's the least expensive out there with all these variables (currently). If your looking for a solid external to manage media files; you will not be disappointed with the Iomega.
  
  
• Lost All My Data
  By A3CF0IY1ZYRHHF on 2008-03-08
  With an established name like IOMEGA gets endorsed by a Company that sets high standards that APPLE does, you would expect IOMEGA to design a device that will protect your data, and be there in an event that files get damaged or lost. The drive lasted me about 5 months. I noticed a warning sign when my OS said it had to index the drive after it was working fine all those months. The following day, the drive would not mount. It would turn on and make a cracking popcorn noise but never show up on the desktop. This was my easy method of backup. Fortunately I have data stored on both external drives and DVD data disks, so no real loss of data occurred. However it is taking me days to get all of my data back onto my main hard drive to begin the Time Machine Process with a new drive from a well trusted company called Western Digital. I have never had a problem with Western Digital and have four of them on my computer now. This was my first, and LAST IOMEGA product.
  
  
• Amazing technology, amazing deal
  By A2HV66Q0LKG75D on 2007-09-12
  (Note: I am a PC user running Windows XP, so I can't say how this device works on a Mac.)
  
  Wow. I still remember a little over a decade ago my dad purchasing a 500MB additional internal hard drive for our desktop. I would never have imagined that I would have the option to purchase, for a measly $120, a hard drive 1,000 times larger! (And ordering over the internet would also have been a foreign concept...)
  
  Iomega has been in business for years. Remember the zip drive? This particular product, at Amazon's heavily discounted price, is an amazing deal. Certain reviewers complained that the product comes with 465GB instead of 500GB, but the reality is that ALL hard drives will show up as having less memory space than advertised because of formatting and primarily because of a difference in terminology: the Iomega indeed comes with approximately 500,000,000,000 bytes of memory, but then the computer considers a Gigabyte to be 1,024,000,000 bytes instead of 1,000,000,000. Same goes for how it calculates megabytes and kilobytes...a kilobyte is 1,024 bytes.
  
  So far, I have used the drive to take my video files off my laptop and to back up files, but I even installed Quake III on it to use it for testing...and was able to play without any extra lag time. Make sure you have a USB 2.0 port, however (all computers that are of fairly recent vintage should have them).
  
  We will see how it fares long term, but as of now, I wholeheartedly recommend this little marvel. I still can't quite fathom how big 500GB is, and the price is awesome.
  
  
• How to repair your failed drive
  By A3VBTNNQ5P5C8S on 2007-11-19
  I had this drive approximately two months when the usb port on the case came loose. I unscrewed the two case screws and removed the cover. The usb button is supposed to be soldered onto the circuit board but it must have just been placed on there waiting to be knocked off. It was not soldered on, period. If this happens to you just unscrew the 5 screws holding the drive to the case and unplug the drive. You can then add the drive to your computers ribbon cable and set it up as a internal secondary drive. The funny part is I did this and contacted Iomega and told them I needed a new case. They then told me that I violated the warranty, by opening the case, and would not receive a new case, because they are not set up to send just a case. Apparently their idea of customer support is to have you load 500gb worth of stuff on your drive, have the case fail, and have to send the case and your stuff to them for data recovery costs, etc. Not happening; and you would think with all the problems this company has had in the past that they would not be trying to pull stuff like this.
  
  
• Failed upon installation - Iomega replaced with a REFURBISHED drive
  By A22YG0NLHURE05 on 2007-12-31
  I do not recommend this drive, or the Iomega company. I bought it from Amazon and it failed immediately upon installation. Iomega's support states returns can only be made through them, so I returned it to Iomega and a REFURBISHED replacement was sent to me! I did not pay full price for a hard drive that failed for someone else!!!!!! I contacted Iomega again to return it for a refund, and they said I couldn't since I bought it from Amazon.
  I am not risking my data on a refurbished drive. Now I have to try to make some of my money back by selling it on ebay, or elsewhere. I bought the Maxtor 750 One Touch (firewire) and have been very happy with that.
  
  
• Great For 6 Months
  By A208L8JSMGPM1B on 2007-11-17
  This product stayed in my home at all times. It was never dropped, mishandled, or abused in any way. It worked great for the less than 6 months that I had it, and decided to suddenly stop working one day when I was downloading a podcast. I got a replacement cord for it, which helped momentarily, but it is dead for good now. I was luckily able to save a lot of the data that was on it when I had it momentarily working again, but my iTunes library is no more. I'm looking at alternate methods to recover my MP3s because Iomega charges you for extraction, even under warranty, and they won't even tell you how much until you send it back in. If you have it extracted elsewhere, there goes your warranty.
  
  They will give you online tech support if you're under warranty, but will charge you $20 by phone for each incident. The website is also very hard to navigate.
  
  I was extremely satisfied until it crapped out for no apparent reason. Even with the warranty, I don't want another one. I'd rather just get my data and get a product that will work.
  
  
• Works as advertised. Lots of storage. Easy to use.
  By A1E55W6ES0FY17 on 2007-10-17
  I got this for my wife, since we have a new child and she is now all about editing video of the child to send to our parents. Video EATS storage space voraciously, and her once reasonably sized 150Gb HD suddenly became a bottleneck when it came to editing video.
  
  So I popped onto Amazon and ordered this 500gb HD and solved that problem quickly, easily and inexpensively.
  
  The only downside I can think of is that the manufacturers ALL abuse the GB symbol as meaning thousands/millions rather than actual 1024 byte sizes. So it isn't 500GB but closer to 460GB. But they ALL do this, so it isn't like if you ordered a 500Gb from someone else that it would have more room.
  
  The drive is reasonably attractive and looks fine on the desk beside her monitor and it seems to function well and is fast enough for video work. No real complaints.
  
  
• Awful
  By A14L4WXFCNOFYV on 2007-08-31
  When I open the box I couldn't believe it. I have to open the hard drive enclosure because I heard that something was loose inside. The hard drive screws weren't there, like if the guy in charge of putting all together forget it. Inside the box is a Seagate SATA Hard disk. This drive is like buying a normal hard drive and the cheapest Chinese external hard drive enclosure you could find. The drive wasn't formatted. No software or CD inside the box. This item has the lowest quality I ever received on an American product.
  
  
• Very nice external HD!
  By A1S27P7KJO9I96 on 2007-11-17
  I just received my 500gb external hard drive by IOMEGA. So far, so good. I am a "Mac", and the only reason I purchased this drive size was to use TIME MACHINE with OS X 10.5 Leopard. Had a minor glitch setting up, but that was my fault, not the machines. Any Mac users out there, a quick tip, after you initialize the drive, disconnect from your mac, then set up time machine, then reconnect to your mac. At reconnect, automatically starts to back up your hard drive. My only complaint, and I'm not the only one who feels this way... is that annoying blue light on the front. Like looking at a neon sign. Way too over the top for something that is supposed to "just be there." Otherwise, I'd have given it FIVE STARS.
  
  
• Awful - It worked for 1 day and then stopped working!
  By A1MTRDT0J21L05 on 2007-10-20
  I would not recommend this product. It worked for a day and then stopped working. It began making a loud, high-pitched noise and my computer would not recognize the drive.
  
  
• Performs as advertised
  By A3R579VX7DZNOD on 2007-08-19
  Iomega Desktop Hard Drive 500GB Hi-speed USB 2.0 - bought this as a back up drive and repository for ripped music and it has worked fine with no issues (connected to an XP desktop). I had read the reviews about the reality of the "500" GB size so I knew what I was getting as far as $/GB.
  
  The included 1.1/2.0 USB cable is just over 2 foot long which was too short for my needs (from the USB port on my desktop located on the floor to a cool safe spot on my desk away from kids etc.) So depending on your application you may want to get a longer cable or an extension USB hub/cable.
  
  
  
  
• Disk disconnects unexpectedly
  By A3E1781C24F1TX on 2007-12-30
  I am using with MacBook Pro and OS Leopard Time Machine. The message to the effect that "unexpected usb device removal data may be lost" will come up intermittently. This got worse as time went on. Decided to return the drive. The USB connector on the back seems loose.
  
  
• Problems, Problems
  By A12DMHFVP2QJFP on 2008-01-15
  This drive does at great job of keeping you data. It is a hassle and a half getting it to work. Even though it is externally powered it keeps zapping the power fro my computer. After a great deal of manipulating the power plug both at the wall socket and the drive Windows Explorer will finally see it and it works well, for five minutes then it's gone. The on/off indicator lamp is always on when it is pluged in and switched on, but the computer can't see it. I have tried it on two machines with the same result. This is a poor choice for an external drive.
  
  
• Excellent Product
  By A2NI56DTE9URWE on 2007-08-08
  I bought this to backup all my work files. Shipping was a little slow, but after I got it, it was easy to hook up to the computer and format to my Mac computer. It is very quiet. Ive heard reports of some External HD's making a lot of sound, but even after putting my ear near it, it was hard to tell that it was even working. The first thing I did after I set it up, was transfer a 850MB folder. I was amazed how quick it did it. By the time I knew it, it was done. I will probally never need more than the 500 GB (465GB actual ???) but if I do, I am going to get another Iomega. Highly recommend.
  
  My only issue is why does it advertise 500GB when it is actually only 465GB. Not a big deal since 465GB is so much any how.
  
  
• Changes the may need to be made
  By A2B8QB2794Y6O8 on 2007-08-23
  The hard drive works just fine, but it came formatted as FAT32 and large files cannot be backed up as FAT. I had to reformat the hard drive as NTFS to be able to backup my laptop's image to this drive. Maybe there should be a format option to choose from and it be preformatted and tested at the specified type.
  
  
  
  
• Great drive -- but if you want to use it for backup...
  By A1LZDN8PUMTRB5 on 2007-10-10
  Be aware that this drive comes with NO software. Installing it was a 10-second breeze, but since I want to use it for automatic backups I had to buy software separately (I chose EMC Retrospect to purchase; perhaps there is free backup software available somewhere).
  
  So, if you're comparing prices on drives, you should factor potential software purchase into the comparison you are making between this and other drives, like Maxtor One-Touch (which has software included). (Side comment: I switched to Iomega as I had terrible luck with TWO Maxtor drives -- and from what I've read online, many others have too!!)
  
  If you just want to use this drive for extra storage, it's ready to go as is. In any case, now that my new backup software is installed, I look forward to much success with my new Iomega drive handling automatic backups!
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Piece of junk
  By ARW64CYQMY4AF on 2007-12-22
  Unfortunately amazon.com wouldn't let me give it zero stars. Nothing worked. Starting with the AC adapter. Returned product and re-ordered the LaCie 500GB which works BEAUTIFULLY! (And looks so much better.) How Apple could have actually endorsed this product in tandem with Leopard is beyond me.
  
  
• A Great Hard-Drive (Especially If You Stand It on End)
  By A2Q8TGPARP81Y9 on 2007-12-27
  After using this product for a few months as portable storage and backup space for some of my larger media files, I'm extremely happy with its performance. It's small and lightweight, and the data writing and transfer speeds are great, so it's perfect if you need to transfer really big files from one computer to another. It's plug-and-play and the USB 2.0 cable comes with it in the box, so it should be no more trouble to hook up to any given system than a USB flash drive. Overall, it performs very dependably, and it looks great (by coincidence, it just happens to match the case on my computer).
  
  One bit of practical advice: in my experience, the drive tends to run a lot cooler and quieter if you stand it on end using the little plastic clip-on stand that comes with it. It still works fine if you lay it flat (it's got little feet on the bottom to stand on and everything), but it will eventually start warming up the surface it's sitting on, and start getting a bit hotter. So, if you're planning to use it for hours at a time (which I've done without problems plenty of times), you might want to consider using the stand.
  
  
• dupped!(sort of)
  By AEOJWHZB5D4MU on 2007-06-02
  the iomega runs perfect,looks great runs quiet,hooked it right up and off i went.the issue i have is that it is marketed as 500GB it is really 465.5GB to be exact.34.5GB is 34.5GB.thank you.
  
  
• good and functional
  By A3MDQZCTOWL1WY on 2007-09-01
  I mean, I'm not about to go extolling the incredible, powerful, sentimental value for an external hard drive. It works well, (as long as you put it in a USB 2.0 slot) is cheap, and, so far, very reliable. I'm using it mainly as a backup drive for my media files, though some older, lower-end games and aps can be run off of it...(nothing with DirectX 9.0 or higher) There's no firewire support, which generally restricts it to data backup. It's a little large, but it stays very cool, which helps alot in easing my fears of losing data (my other external drive doesn't have any cooling apparatus, and worries the heck out of me when it heats up).
  Overall, I think it deserves a "4" for it's nice, simple functionality.
  I mean, come on, a hard drive either works, or doesn't.
  
  
• Only 465GB, but otherwise excellent.
  By A2IMCL0F67IXIA on 2007-08-14
  Only 465GB instead of the advertised 500GB (that's why I'm not giving the full 5 stars - I dislike misleading publicity), but otherwise I am very satisfied.
  I have Windows XP and using this external HD was really a plug-n-play straightforward procedure.
  
  
• Mac Perspective
  By A3CVXQ8R3Q89Z6 on 2007-10-06
  Great product. Very simple to use, just plug in (USB) to mount, then click and drag to transfer files. Videos and songs play as seamlessly as from your internal HD.
  
  The only issue I've had so far is that when I restart my computer with the HD plugged in and turned on, the computer will not recognize it when it restarts. But there's a simple solution: just disconnect and reconnect the USB (or you can turn the HD off and then on again, but I think unplugging the USB causes less wear and tear). A littlle annoying but no big deal. Other than that, works as advertised.
  
  
• Will not auto mount on my MacBook
  By A3IU7W0M4QBS51 on 2007-11-05
  I bought this to connect to my Intel MacBook as a bootable clone drive created via Super Duper. This drive does not automatically mount on my Mac. I have to manually plug and unplug. This makes it useless as it is an "unbootable" drive. Very disappointed.
  
  
• Worked great, until it failed...
  By A17586E82RJDIY on 2008-02-24
  The iomega was a great piece when I first bought it. It ran smooth, took no time at all to reformat to my computer, and I backed up about 60 GB of music on it and over 40 GB of movies on it. Then, one day, it just wouldn't work. All that comes from it is a strange clicking sound, which I've researched, and basically means the hard drive tape needs to get replaced, making almost all of my material unrecoverable. Just great. The drive was never dropped or mishandled. It just stopped working after 2 months. What a waste of time for this company to create such a horrible product.
  
  
• DONT BUY THIS
  By A1LE6ISJQOHPZZ on 2008-02-25
  Iomega WILL NOT stand behind their product
  Drive was dead out of box
  their mac support is NON EXSISTANT
  lost my purchase price for a what is basically now a DOORSTOP
  
  

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