Iomega eGo Desktop USB 3.0 2TB review

The first USB3 desktop hard disk from Iomega doesn’t look very different from the company’s previous USB2 eGo Desktop disks. It has the same creaky plastic design and a stand for positioning the disk vertically. Nevertheless, at £120, or 6p per gigabyte, it’s remarkably inexpensive for a 2TB USB3 external hard drive.

We were generally impressed with the performance of the eGo in our demanding file-transfer tests. Large files were written at a fast 94.4MB/s and read even faster at 110.2MB/s. Small files were also read quickly at 103.5MB/s. However, it was among the slowest USB3 disks we’ve seen when writing small files, managing just 46.6MB/s. This is still faster than any USB2 disk though.

Available as a free download is the Retrospect Express HD backup program. Although we found the wizard-style interface awkward, it’s still a potentially useful application if you don’t already have backup software. Backup schedules can be created, while time is saved by it only backing up those files that have changed. It can also keep older versions of your files in case you need to refer back to them. Like most bundled backup programs, files aren’t accessible through Windows Explorer – you need to use the software to restore or retrieve files.

We wish Iomega’s 2TB USB3 eGo Desktop disk was quicker at writing small files, but if you can live with this flaw it’s a good value USB3 disk.