Iomega eGo Portable Hard Drive user reviews (250GB, Brown)

Pros OK storage capacity, decent enough data transfer rate for a small compact drive, USB powered, great for quick data back-up while on the go, nice companion software for on-line backup.

Cons First unit DOA.

Not enough on-line storage for back-up with EMC Retrospect. Installed, evaluated and didn't want to ante up for the fee basd service.

Summary Firstly, mine happens to be black. But I do like the trend towards vanity colors. The DOA was kind of a bummer, but what the hey... I went along only so far. Iomega customer support solution was a 7-10 day turn-around. So I put the turd on hold and called Dell. Luckily I had purchased eGo 250 from Dell (Love those guys and gals!!!) and a brand new one was at my front door the next morning. Some companies do not have the same sense of urgency as us lowly consumers. But in Iomega's defense, the on-line tech chat worked really well, confirming what I already knew, the thing was TOAST.

Once I had a working drive, just plugged it in and it pops up as device. Could not be easier. Using Vista 32-bit on 2 desktop machines, two laptops and one XP MCE (SP-3) desktop, all networked at home, and it is so nice to be able to drag and drop over the network, or just plugged in directly. Have bunches of media, mostly music and photo but many video projects too. It did not seem to work with my Belkin four port wireless USB hub on my laptop, but maybe with a little cursing and experimentation it will.

In the past, way way long ago, I got burned on the early ZIP 100, SCSI, and inherited a ZIP 250 that still works. As the data storage market continues to mature, and "cloud computing" looms overhead (pun intended) this little guy is just one more tool floating around in the messenger bag. That sucker is pretty full these days, so let's hope the basic eGo has at least a fair durability factor as I did not want to be seen in public with a camo clad drive, which has a better ?banging around? rating.

All in all with so many choices out there, Iomega did a pretty fair job of styling mixed with acceptable performance.