iomega Helium 500GB USB 2.0 Silver Portable Hard Drive 35421

Pros: Excellent price at the time of purchase ($50 for 500 GB), drive is nice and fast, well-constructed, rugged casing that is also very attractive, very conveniently light and compact (2.5" form factor), don't have to hassle with plugging it into a wall outlet (uses a second USB plug for the power it needs instead), and it is covered under a generous 3-year-limited warranty by the manufacturer. Some may complain about it requiring two USB ports next to each other because it uses a USB Y-cable, but to me this is actually a major advantage because the alternative is having to plug it into the wall, which can be a major hassle at times. Also, USB ports are almost always in pairs adjacent to each other (not to mention desktop computers usually have a lot of them...mine has 10 ports for example), with the only exception I have seen being netbooks that I have no desire to own anyway, so I have never run into the issue of not being able to plug it in. Even my Nintendo Wii that I use it with has two adjacent USB ports, so no problems there either. I, like the other reviewer, did not need to install any software whatsoever to use the drive in both Windows and Linux, as it was plug-and-play in both OSes (I have a dual-boot system of Windows 7 and Linux Mint on both my laptop and PC). The included software suite contains an antivirus and a backup program, but I have no use for those since I already have software for that, so I cannot offer a review on the software either. Taking all of this into account and the fact it was only $50 (only 10 cents per GB) makes this one of the best tech purchases I have ever made.

Cons: It is now discontinued. Other than that, absolutely none.

Other Thoughts: Since you can't buy this new anymore, if you happen to see someone selling it used and in good condition, I would definitely jump on it. This little drive rocks.

Pros: Even if it use a Y cable, you can connect it with only one usb cable, but it seems to be faster with the two clables plugged in, maybe I'm wrong, I didn't invertigated on the subject, it's just an observation. Work perfectly with Mac and Windows after reformatting it in FAT32, it comes in HFS+. Very cheap at $50 and it has a nice built quality with the full metallic case.

Cons: May be a con, it uses USB 2 with a Y cable. Personnaly it's a pro since the computers I need it for are on USB 2...

Other Thoughts: I don't use the included software since I have a Mac and a PC, so I didn't reviewed it.