Iomega Desktop Drives

The desktop hard drive series from Iomega are external hard drives that connect to their host computers via USB or eSATA connections; providing those hosts with from 360 GB to 1.5 TB of storage space. Multiple models and capacities are available in the product line, all of which are based on/include 7200 RPM drives. Three primary families of drives are now offered: the Silver Series, the eGo series, and the Pro Series.

The Silver Series drives are offered with only a USB interface (1.1/2.0), and are listed as compatible with Windows (2000 Pro/XP/Vista) and Mac (OS X 10.3+) computers. Single disk 360, 500, 750 GB and 1 TB flavors of the drive all feature 8 MB of cache or better; while dual-disk versions include the 640 GB, 1 TB, and 1.5 TB all with SATA drives and featuring up to 8 MB of cache with support for JBOD volumes. All ship in silver enclosures, with the exception of the 360 GB drive (which is black). Pricing ranges from $114.95 to $332.45. Note that the 360 GB, 640 GB, 750 GB and 1 TB (dual-disk) flavors of the drives are listed as being available only in limited quantities while supplies last.

New to the vendor's "Desktop" line is the introduction of eGo drives, themselves extensions of the vendor's portable eGo external drive product line (the portable line ships in multiple colors, boasts capacities from 160 GB to 320 GB, and can be purchased with USB or combination USB/FireWire interfaces). The desktop eGo drives ship with a single 1 TB disk, a USB 2.0/1.1 interface, and 8 MB or better of cache. A license is included for EMC Retrospect HD (Windows only; software must be separately downloaded). The eGo desktop drives ship in three colors (red, black, and blue), are NTFS pre-formatted, and include an Energy-Star qualified adapter. Pricing is currently $256.45.

The Pro eSATA drives support both eSATA (data transfer to 3 Gb/sec) and USB 2.0 connections (for those PCs without an eSATA interface). Two drives are now available in this category, boasting 500 and 750 GB of capacity, respectively. The eSATA drives include EMC Retrospect Express backup software (for both Windows and Mac) and a buffer size of 8 MB or better. Compatibility is listed for Windows 2000 Pro/XP/Vista and Mac OS X 10.2+. eSATA interfaces for the host computer are not included with the drives. Pricing is listed at $151.95 and $218.45, respectively.

The Iomega desktop drives are available now. Contact Iomega for further information.