IOMEGA 250GB EXTERNAL ( 33088 )

Rating:
Summary: Review update!!!!!
Review: I have to post this under a different name. Amazon does not allow multiple reviews. anyway....

This drive performs great!!! the noise is not an issue, the speed is good, no crashes (its been on for over a month). In short this is a great drive for SOHO who doesn't want a lot of hassle with setting up and configuration. I would revise my original review to 4 1/2 stars.

Rating:
Summary: First Impressions
Review: I recently purchased this drive after picking it over the Buffalo LinkStation 250GB. There are a lot of opinions about the LinkStation on the Web, but not any about this drive. It could be because it is a new product? Anyway, alot of people complaned about the LinkStation failing due to firmware issues, so i deceided to give Iomega a shot, not without some hesitation. I owned a Zip "click of death" drive years ago and swore I would not buy another Iomega product, oh well.

Pros:

os: WXP Pro

1) easy to setup. The supplied software handles mapping the network drive.
2) Included backup software, works ok for small SOHO backups.

3) Low noise level (There is one concern please see the con section).

Con:

1) Lack of security settings for individual users access to folders. It seems that this drive is designed with the less technical user in mind. maybe Iomega can provided this capability via a firmware update.

2) Lack of USB 2.0 or Firewire port. This drive can only connect through Ethernet. No growth capabilities provided.

3) You can FTP to the drive except when I logged in as root my password was not accepted. I think I will investigate this further, it would be great if you could set up FTP access for different users. Again maybe a firmware update?

4) One rather disturbing thing. When I powered off and powered on with a short delay between operations a high pitch whine sound started to come from the drive. I powered off again and waited 20 minutes and powered it on again, this time the sounds from the drive were "normal". Its been on now for 24 hours+ with no abnormal noises. I contacted tech. support and they blamed this noise on a loose connection or "long" ethernet connection. Hmmm, I have it attached to a hub, with the cable that it came with, and did not touch the drive between powering off and on.

I can recomend this drive if the "strange' noise doesn't mean it is going to fail. I will post after 30 days to update. It is easy to setup and use. It should basically be considered by a home user or small business that doesn't need any special NAS needs.