I O Mega-Value (Iomega Prestige Portable Hard Drive 500 GB)

Member Name: jojoegypt2008

Product:	Iomega Prestige Portable Hard Drive 500 GB
Date:	03/06/09 (190 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Slimline and portable, very quiet, fast, reliable

Disadvantages: None that I can see/am techy enough to realise...

Being a PhD student, in the dying throes of writing up (I am dying (metaphorically), not the thesis, although it's been a close run thing...), I have developed a well-known condition, known to the medical community as 'data paranoia'.
I used to back up my thesis (when it, and I, were both young and fresh) to a tiny 2GB USB flash drive. I'd then occasionally back up to cds, and/or to my webmail account.

From this you will gather that I am no computer whizz. This review is for non-specialists, and so will not be commenting on things with lots of acronyms that I don't understand, apologies to tech-heads.

So, once the word-count hit 50 000, I started having bad dreams in which files corrupted, and precious, finely crafted (I can hear my supervisor snorting) paragraphs vanished into the ether. So, I requested an EHD (External Hard Drive) for Christmas.

My wonderful mum bought this one for me, after much discussion. We'd almost agreed that a 3.5" one would be fine (these are less portable, more bulky, and usually require their own power supply, but are cheaper per GB, for the non-specialist).

At the last minute, mum decided that the data paranoia might escalate to the point where I'd want to carry a copy of my thesis with me at all times, like a talisman (oh, how right she was...), so we decided on a 2.5" drive, which is the size of a very small paperback book, the old-fashioned kind that you can find in old-fashioned book shops.

This EHD plugs directly into the Hi-Speed USB port(s) on your computer/laptop. It has a connector which can plug into two USB ports - if you only have one, don't panic, as it can be powered by just the one port. The only difference I've noticed when doing it this way is that it takes fractionally longer to move things around.

There is no on/off switch on the EHD itself - if it's plugged into the USB ports it has power, therefore it's on, if not, it's off. There is a light which flashes to indicate work in progress (I presume, perhaps it is simply friendly?), and is continuously lit when not working, to indicate a connection to the power source.


Aforementioned mama (tech head, and all round fixit lady), formatted the drive for me, and partitioned it into three bits. I used one part to back up my whole system, OS, programs and data, one part to back up the whole of my data (including PhD), and the third to back up on a rolling basis.

>>>>>>>>>>>>& gt;>>>>>>>>>>>> ;>>>>>>>>>>>>& gt;>>>>>>

How good is it?

Well, to date (fingers crossed, lucky charms firmly in place, evil eye averted) it has been perfect. To back up my whole thesis (well over 2GB of data now), takes about 55secs. Which is pretty fast. I find it 'starts up' (i.e. whirrs a bit and has the auto prompt option box appear on screen) very quickly, and seems to be absolutely no hassle at all. No noise, it's not running hot, it's very attractive and sturdy seeming, it's certainly portable - have just tested, and it in fact would fit in a jeans pocket... the things I do for you....

The only slight (and it is very slight) quibble I would have is that the connector into the EHD itself can come very slightly loose if not pushed in firmly.


I'd recommend this EHD to anyone needing to back up data. I can't give an opinion on using it fifty times a day over five years, but for daily backups, over six months, it's been very reliable so far. Touch wood.

Summary: Great storage back up.

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