iomega Prestige Desktop 1TB USB 3.0 Black External Hard Drive 35180

Pros: The hard drive itself is very solid. Its the enclosure its attached to that gave me this headache. The USB 3 cable it comes with has a solid grip. Too solid! When you try to remove it, the connector comes with it. And dealing with customer support is no fun.

Cons: USB connector on the external enclosure easily comes off. I bought 2 for work and the USB connector came completely off.

Manufacturer Response:

Hello -
Thank you for providing this feedback. I appreciate hearing about your experience. We have not seen the issue you are reporting on the USB 3 Desktop drive. We'll investigate with our Quality team to be certain that we understand any issues related to the connector.
Thanks again!

Pros: Drive was recognized by Windows Vista right out of the box. However, I bought it for use as a DVR drive attached to a Dish Network receiver, so have no opinion as to its capabilities as a general external HD for Windows.

Cons: This drive does not work as a DVR drive for Dish Network. I tested it for different receivers (221k; 722) and the situation was identical for both. The drive is recognized by the receiver, which invokes a format. Thereafter, the drive is recognized to the extent that a My Media menu item appears on the DVR main menu. Any attempt to actually access, manage, or use the drive generates an error message demanding a reformat. Further testing shows the drive was in fact formatted for Dish. Iomega's website offers no warning of this incompatibility. Iomega support is limited and will neither acknowledge an inherent problem for use for Dish Network, nor help diagnose the problem, etc. You cannot reach Iomega by phone without paying a stiff fee, which is perverse when the issue is whether or not to box the item up and send it back. Dish Network tech support has no data on this drive. Wii and other game console users should be likewise warned.

Other Thoughts: Out of the box, the drive is partioned into a conventional data partition, and a virtual cd. I was told to download an encryption utility in order to either hide or delete the virtual cd partition. I tried this, which recovered a small amount of space for the data volume, but the drive still is not usable as a Dish DVR external drive. Iomega chat tells me that encryption is "off" by default, and that the drive does not have its own sleep mode, going into "sleep" only if an attached device (e.g. PC) so directs.

Manufacturer Response:

Hi -
Thanks for your feedback on this special use case. Iomega doesn't test our standard external USB drives for compatibility with DVRs. Most DVR manufacturers have their own proprietary firmware. Iomega's DVR Expander, for example, has been tested to confirm that the DVR can take over and reformat the device. You'd want to check with Dish to find the requirements for their DVR manufacturers. Once you have removed the encryption software, this device is just a standard USB external drive. It doesn't have any additional "sleep" functionality.