After installing the drive and the software, a series of drive letters appeared on my XP system and I attempted a backup. In the middle of the operation, the device failed because the drives “disappeared.” The Iomega software repeatedly scanned and found no device, then minutes later found & reconnected them. I repeated this about 6 times before connecting with Iomega Support Chat. Predictably, the tech didn’t understand the problem, asked repeatedly if the reason I couldn’t see the drives is because I unplugged the drive .. even once suggested that maybe I was not seeing the drive because I’d shut down my computer. Other than than, told me the problem I had was ‘somewhere in my network.’

I returned the drive to the store and exchanged it and the new one doesn’t show that problem. BUT it means that in a sample of two there is a 50% failure rate. A product like this should have a failure rate of about 1 in 600,000 so either I’m very unlucky or they product quality is very bad.

The second drive was reliable, so I attempted to configure the backup program (retrospect HD) and found that it could take 30-45 SECONDS to move from one screen to the next. Repeatedly. Reboot, remove, reinstall, retry … all the standard options … the software is really just that slow.

After tolerating the slowness of setup, Retrospect DOES make a backup. Then I try Microsoft backup and than works as well.

–now for the shocker–

The Iomega software does not run as a ‘service’ under Windows, so when the user logs off, the drive is disconnected. (this is a weird design feature/flaw of Windows that one would EXPECT the Iomega software to compensate for) — what it means to the user is that even if you schedule an unattended backup for, say, 2am Sunday morning …. you have to REMAIN LOGGED ON in order for the drive to stay connected (mapped, actually) or the backup will fail with “destination volume not found.”

Iomega Tech Support Chat again: same routine -Did I have the computer turned on? Did I have the drive mapped? Did I have a static IP? Does the drive come back when I reboot? He’s asking all the right questions, but clearly doesn’t have the background to understand the answers. The drive DOES “come back” after a reboot, but not UNTIL some user logs on. Meaning that a user has to be logged ON in order to have an UNATTENDED backup.

At the end of the call, he finally told me that their parent company’s PAID VERSION Retrospect backup software DOES reconnect the drive for unattended backups …

1) HAVE to use their backup program?

2) HAVE to pay extra to get a product to work for the advertised purpose?

3) FIFTY PERCENT FAILURE rate?

The bottom line: This is a VERY basic product, suitable for unsophisticated and undemanding use only. The frustrations are that it would have cost them NOTHING to have simply thought it through a bit better and rewritten the same software to act more professionally. Combined with the slowness of their proprietary backup software and unsophisticated tech support, I cann;y honestly recommend this product.

Rating: 2 / 5

Worst user interface ever!

Wasted hours of my life trying to get this thing to work.

My advice? Don’t buy it. You will have more fun eating burning hot lava in Hawaii.

Rating: 1 / 5