Iomega Ships Pocket Backup Drive

Based on a 4200 RPM 2.5-inch hard drive, Iomega is now shipping an ultra-slim Iomega Portable Hard Drive. The company claims the package will fit in a shirt pocket and weighs less than 6 ounces. The drive can operate without external power (it sucks power from your USB 2.0 port instead), but a supplemental power cord is provided.

The product comes bundled with Iomega Automatic Backup Pro, Backup software for Windows ME/2000/2000 Pro/XP (Home/Pro) that offers automatic file backups, compression, file recovery, multiple revision backup, and more.

Iomega is selling the portable drive in 40GB (~$120), 60GB (~$150), 80GB (~$200), and 100GB (~$300!) configurations. Other software is bundled in addition to the backup software.

This is an interesting choice for Iomega, since it puts them in fairly direct competition with commodity makers of portable hard drives. The Iomega can claim small form factor, ruggedized enclosure, low power requirements, and bundled software. And they do indeed need to focus attention on those advantages, when you consider that I constructed my own portable USB drive with a $30 USB 2.0 enclosure plus a $60 120GB hard drive (both brand new), giving more storage than Iomega's $300 package at a price lower than their cheapest offering. Of course, my portable hard drive won't fit in my pocket and requires a wall wart for power. But you've got to really value that small form factor and no-external-power convenience to pony up that extra $200, I think.

See Also

• The Iomega press release on this product.

March 24, 2005March