Iomega eGo USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive Review

Form Factor
While it does come in four different colour possibilities (ruby red, blackbelt, midnight blue, silver), the eGo 3.0 portable hard drive that I was sent was the "Midnight Blue" version. To me, it's a dark metallic blue with silver accents and calling it midnight anything is a tad pretentious. One thing which is not pretentious is the down right beefy dimensions of this unit. While not 3.5" portable hard drive large its 5.07" x 3.54" x .87" dimensions makes it a handful to say the least. A big reason for these extra large dimensions is the power grip band which comes pre-installed on the eGo Portable. This rubber like band can and does protect the drive from blunt force trauma. Iomega states this drive is good for a 7 foot drop and it is because of this band of protection that it can boast such impressive states. While I only tested it at 6 feet (as that's how tall I am) it took such abuse and laughed it off as if nothing had happened!

Size comparison between Iomega eGo USB 3.0, Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Ultra Portable & a deck of cards.

As with most 2.5 portable hard drives the only ports gracing the exterior is a white activity LED and a standard micro-USB 3.0 port. Where it is bus powered you may need to use both USB port plugs on the attached cable if you plan on using it on older USB 2.0 systems but by the same token you need not worry about carrying around an external power brick either. To be honest, the only thing missing from the exterior of the Iomega eGo 3.0 was an on/off switch. This always annoys me when I don't see one as I personally consider it a major oversight. You may think otherwise.

One interesting thing worth noting about the Iomega eGo USB 3.0 portable hard drive is the fact that it is a passively cooled device. The reason it can get away with passive cooling is because much like the Seagate GoFlex Ultra Portable, the Iomega eGo relies on a relatively cool, but slow, 5400-rpm drive. In point of fact, the eGo Portable 500GB uses the exact same hard drive as the GoFlex Portable.

Iomega eGo USB 3.0 portable hard drive houses a Seagate 5400-rpm 2.5" drive.

As an aside, one of the most crucial components that make an Iomega eGo portable hard drive so special can not be seen as it resides inside the case. This crucial feature is none other than hardware based encryption/decryption! This is a major selling feature as software based encryption not only wastes CPU cycles it is more vulnerable than hardware based encryption. Needless to say, this easily puts the Iomega in a different category than the Seagate for example, even if the GoFlex Ultra Portable boasts the same hard drive and more customization options.

Software
Unlike most portable hard drives, the software which accompanies the Iomega eGo is actually crucial to its first time use. Luckily, it not only comes preloaded on the drive but actually shows up as a separate "CD" drive. The reason for this is because if you DON'T use and properly enter the password in the software the actual hard drive wont be even seen. This is of course because the software unlocks the encryption and allows the data to be accessed. Luckily, if you DON'T want to take advantage of the software features you can leave the drive unlocked and from then on it will act just like a normal hard drive and show up as soon as you plug it in. Or at least that is the theory. From time to time it does mess up and need to be unlocked again via the software. As I said, its lucky the software comes preloaded as otherwise this would not be an annoyance but a down right BIG FREAKING DEAL.

While simple, the software does have a few other features such as allowing you to reset the drive to factory defaults (though it does erase all the data off it in the process), or change the password. You can also have the software load on start up of windows, lock (or unlock) the drive when you exit the software and other like minded features. All in all it is simple, effective and above all else EASY to use; or basically is everything it should be with no bloatware "value added" features tacked on to make it seem more important than it already is! Lets face it this software is important all by itself and I really can not overstate how refreshing it is to see a streamlined piece of free software.