Iomega drives any good?

Not sure if this should be here or in the accessories section

I recently visited a number of computer stores in my city (Riyadh) looking for a WD MyBook 1TB

Most stores said they did not have it, that it wasn't coming to the market recently, and that they had no idea when it would come back.

I really need a new hard drive, and all the stores are selling a 1TB Iomega external drive.
I'm not 100% sure which, but I think it's the Iomega Pestige/Profession

Does anyone have any experience with these drives?
How good and reliable are they?

Also, does anyone know which manufacturer's drives they use?

I will be using it mostly to backup/archive data especially older pics and videos, etc.
I will only connect it if I want to add files, or access something on the drive

 

Western Digital My Book is a nice option.. I've got the Home edition and although the version is old , it works very well.. and of course i use e-SATA so its more faster..

 

I know, most of my friends have them

However they seem to be unavailible here for the time being

I am interested in people's opinions of Iomega drives

 

I have an Iomega 500GB external notebook drive. I like it, and been using it without any problem for 3 months. have transferred ~400GB

 

The question more properly should be:

"Are Iomega cases any good?"

That's really what you are buying. The case. With a label.

 

Exactly. Who knows what hard drive is in there. Still though, it doesn't really matter as there aren't any bad drives, and any differences between them don't mean much when you are talking external drives.

 

Werd.

And at least for the Iomega "black belt" notebook external drive, its the best case I've had

 

OK
SO are Iomega cases any good ?

Also, wearetherborg (Star trek fan huh ) can you tell me which brand hard drive is in your Iomega desktop drive

Thanks

 

I opened up an external iomega mdhd blue once and it had a seagate 7200.11 500 Gb inside, if you're curious about the actual manufacturer of the unit inside.

PS: I opened it up because it failed after almost a year, it worked fine when it was working.

 

Its a notebook external HDD. Not sure which drive is inside it....

 

I'd suggest you get your own OEM hard drive and your own case. That way you'll have more than a one year warranty on the part that matters, and you can upgrade in the future without spending as much.

 

Thanks for the info

Seagate makes good drives, so I shouldn't really worry about the drive failing to much

This is what I initially wanted to do
However the shopkeepers themselves told me the external enclosures they sell are crap, and will stop working within a few months
Also, newegg and these sites aren't available here, so I thought I would just go with a branded one to be safe

 

i dont think its crap, they probably have better margins on the "branded" iomega drive.

where else for enclosures and OEM hard drives, there is a market price

 

Probably

BUT the cases were for some unbranded chinese company, so I'm not too sure

I'll check again the next time I go, but I'm leaning towards Iomega as they are and established company

 

the shopkeeper probably wants to sell you that overpriced external hdd because he will have much more profit then selling just the enclosure. with the added bonus that you can't upgrade the enclosure and you will need to buy another external hdd.

Also, quality is very relative. there are bad enclosures, good enclosures, excellent ones. some worse, some better then that iomega one. though I've tried many different ones, even those very cheap made in china ones, and until today, not a single one failed. the only minor issue I had was that I broke a bit of the cheap plastic of the case.... there isn't much difference, if any, in performance or failure rate. anyway, the board controller of the external hdd's enclosures are probably all made in the same factory.

newegg isn't available? pardon me, is that the only site that sells hdd enclosures? there isn't any shop near you that sells you? have you tried ebay? have you tried googling? you have thousands of options.

imo, as almost everyone here says, it's MUCH better to buy an enclosure plus a good hdd of your choice.

 

the cheap chinese enclosures are equally good. its just a piece of metal with a wire. its not rocket science. most of the unbranded chinese companies are the same factories producing the cases for brands.

as warren buffet says.....

"never ask your hairdresser whether you need a haircut"

 

If it is crap and fails within a few months, why would the shopkeeper continue to offer it? Seriously, just take your business elsewhere - they are trying to upsell you.

 

I get what you guys are saying, I'll check the prices of an external enclosure + WD Hdd, and if its cheaper I'll go with that

Otherwise, I'll just get the Iomega, because just a hard drive itself is only offered a one year warranty.

However, here in the third world, the quality of items from china is MUCH MUCH lower than the quality of the same products that are shipped to the West, I know from experience, and they continue to sell bad merchandise because people have no other option (see below for why)

I've had 3 unbranded notebook enclosures fail on me within the same year.
In the end I got a Lacie one thats been working fine for over 2 years now

Mate, In Saudi Arabia options are very very limited

Very few online retailers, which I would avoid anyway a customs here is a huge pain

Apart from that there are a few local shops, that offer a wide variety of computer hardware, and most everyone here goes to them (Including me)

 

never heard of hard drive enclosures failing... anyway if you have that problem just buy something with a warranty. but buying online + paying for customs will probably be much cheaper then buying at a local store. just check the warranty policies.