Iomega eGo 160GB external hard drive

News of this...er, "designer" hard drive first appeared on Register Hardware back in June , and it’s the latest product in a growing trend of making once ordinary-looking hard drives a little more interesting – the LaCie Golden Disk is another great example. The aesthetics alone were always going to spark interest for external …

[Peter Amling]

Any real photos?

Does anyone have any actual photos of the back of the unit? No one seems to have any pictures of these drives except the one's found on iomega's web site. Any help would be appreciated.

[Julian Bond]

1.8" version?

So where's the 1.8" 160Gb version of this sort of thing?

[laird cummings]

Another 'swipe me!' gadget...

More shiny kit looking to be stolen... And this time, small enough to vanish in a heartbeat.

OTOH, this one seems to be actually *worth* swiping. Nice bit of gear, temptingly packaged.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm confused ...

You say first:

"The only ports - a USB connector and a 5V power socket, both alongside a reset switch ..."

but then

"The 160GB capacity is a nice size for a 2.5in portable drive, and the fact it's USB-powered means you won't have to schlep a spine-crippling power brick around with you in your man-bag. The cable sprouts a secondary, USB plug that slots into your laptop just in case the primary doesn't provide enough power."

So - is it USB powered or is it powered by the 5V jack? Or is it both (USB for a port that can handle it, but wall power if you are on, say, an unpowered hub or something)?

[Tony Smith, Editor, Reg Hardware]

Re. Power

It's both, or rather either. Use one or two USB ports, or used a USB port and the power brick. Don't want to carry the power brick? Use the two USB ports. Only got one USB port? Use the power brick.

[zahadum]

performance = chipset ... no specs in this review = useless

i didnt see any mention of either the mechanism or the chipset.

so the review is basically useless in terms of comapring benchmarks.

also: the interface!

how can anyone fail to not (especially for a mac-based review) the absence of firewire800! ...

fw800 delivers at least 50% greater sustained performance (sometimes 2X) -- from the same mechanism - compared to pokey usb2!

perhaps i can understand the omission of e-sata or even enet/wifi ... though in this era of Time Machine (on leopard), NAS should seem de rigeur for any aux drive! ...

but the performance hit taken on usb just isnt worth it, so i cant see how anyone could seriously try to sell -- or review! -- a product that didnt have fw800!

[dave]

zahadum...

2.5" USB HDDs are useful primarily because you can plug them into more-or-less any old machine, and have oodles of lovely data at your disposal.

How does your fw800 connection compare on that front? What point in a portable hard-drive that you can only really use on your home PC?

[frank denton]

Look at the £/$ prices !

It's a very nice looking bit of kit but I don't like 'gadgets on show' and will choose another product that is less 'bling'. Having said that, Iomega do seem to have done a very good job of it and I'm sure it will be popular.

I notice that its £132 or $133 ! How they can justify pound/dollar price parity for something that can be shipped in bulk with ease to the UK is beyond me. (Wait a minute, we always get screwed like this don't we?). Maybe I should go to New York on a weekend shopper flight and bring a few back then sell them on e-bay ? :)

[Richard Eustace]

price?

The price is stated as £132 (I assume quoted from iomega press release or something)

But if you click the online price link you can get it direct from Iomega for £82.42

Why would iomega say it cost £132 then offer it online for £82.

Odd

[Dan Callahan]

Re: Power

I have to ask for a clarification of the clarification; Can the eGo drive be powered by just *one* USB port, without the power brick?

"Use one or two USB ports," seems to contradict "Only got one USB port? Use the power brick."

Thanks!