Storage

Developed by the inventor of the Zip and Jaz disks and drives, Iomega's Rev disks and drives are based on a similar concept of having a drive that remains connected to a computer plus removable storage disks. The Rev system is offered in two capacities: 35GB and 70GB The capacities of both are expandable through bundled data compression software. In this review we focus on the 35GB USB system.

Installing the Rev drive on a computer is straightforward and the supplied instructions are easily understood (though difficult to read in the user manual due to a small typeface). You simply load up the driver software, reboot the PC, connect the drive to mains power and to the computer via the supplied USB cable. Windows XP computers should recognise the drive and included among the My Computer icons.

Once installed, the Rev drive behaves like any other computer drive. You can download files to it from a memory card, transfer files and folders from your computer or create back-up copies of files and folders by either copying the file or folder from your computer to the Rev disk or using EMC Retrospect Express, which is supplied on the Solutions CD. Drag-and-drop copying is supported.

The wizard-based interface in EMC Retrospect Express lets you backup selected files, schedule regular backups in which only files and folders that have changed will be backed up, duplicate files and folders from one location to another and create a bootable CD to enable disaster recovery in the case of a system failure. You can also update and repair backups you have created, verify media and archive files. Facilities are also provided for managing backup devices, viewing the contents of files and folders and customising the way Retrospect operates.


Selecting a folder to backup in Retrospect Express.


Adding the folder to the backup wizard.


The Retrospect Express Activity Monitor tracks file transfers.


Stored files and folders can be password protected.


You can schedule automatic backups with Retrospect Express.

 
Disaster Recovery snapshots can also be set up.

Iomega supplies only minimal information with the Rev drive. A 12-page Quick Start Guide covers installation and usage instructions plus a URL for product support. A second 24-page Data Backup and Disaster Recovery manual provides basic advice on when and how to backup and where to keep backups as well as how to protect a backup system. It also has instructions for using Iomega Automatic Backup Pro – which isn't supplied with the 35GB drive. Both manuals come in five languages and the English typeface is very small (around 7 points).

All Rev disks have a patented phosphor tag identification system and Rev 35GB drives will recognise only Rev 35GB disks, preventing users from accessing the greater storage capacities of 70GB disks. Rev 70GB drives will recognise and differentiate both Rev 35GB and Rev 70GB disks when a disk is inserted. Compression software is provided to enable users to increase the capacity of a 35GB disk to 90GB. To achieve this, the drive increases both the track and linear bit densities on the disk. This is a very high level of compression, although we found it to be problem-free in our tests.

After a delay of approximately 30 seconds while the Rev drive sorted itself out, it took one hour, eight minutes and 41 seconds to backup a 15.2GB folder (16,363,754,280 bytes) with Retrospect Express. During the backup, data transfer speeds (as indicated by the software) varied from 146.0MB/minute to 672.2MB/minute, with an average speed of around 500MB/minute. These transfer speeds are similar to the speeds offered by other external HDDs with USB 2.0 interfaces.

Disks became quite warm during use, although the drive itself was only a little above normal temperature. According to Iomega literature, automatic internal head cleaning and air filtration are provided in the drive to minimise maintenance.

Conclusion
Just as we were completing this review, Iomega advised us that the 35GB Rev drives and disks were being phased out in favour of the 70GB system. (The product illustration at the top of this review shows the 70GB model, although the 35GB model is similar in appearance.) Rev 70GB drives are much faster than Rev 35GB drives. They can read and write Rev 70GB disks at data rates up to 30.3MB per second. However, when a Rev 35GB disk is used in a Rev 70GB drive, its read/write speed drops from 25.4MB/second to 6.3MB/second because the magnetic properties of the 35GB disk provide less signal to the Rev 70GB heads.

The RRP of a Rev 70GB drive with one disk is $899. Each 70GB Rev disk is priced at $119 (RRP) and a five-disk pack is available for $526. The main advantage of the Rev system is essentially the same as for Zip and Jaz disks and drives: the ability to create high-capacity backups on robust, durable media for off-site safe-keeping. Its main disadvantage is that it is a proprietary system which uses only Rev disks from Iomega.

We feel the asking price for both Rev drives and disks is rather high, when you consider that you can currently purchase a 500GB external HDD for approximately $200. Iomega itself sells an excellent, ultra-portable 160GB external HDD for a similar price.

Like their Zip and Jaz precursors, Rev disks may be more likely to be able to withstand impact shocks than the non-removable disks in the standard drives – and they're certainly less liable to physical damage than optical disks. However, unlike external hard drives, the Rev drives have no switch for turning off power so they aren't energy efficient. To conserve energy, you must switch the drive off at the mains – which could be inconvenient in some computer set-ups.

Potential purchasers may also consider the Iomega system's main competitor in the storage media marketplace: Blu-ray. Although the disk capacity is slightly lower, data transfer speeds with Blu-ray are faster. Blu-ray is also non-proprietary; both drives and disks are available from manufacturers like LG, Lite-On, Pioneer and Sony (which also produces the Blu-ray enabled PlayStation 3). Computer manufacturers like Dell and Sony have also begun to include Blu-ray drives in some PVs and an increasing amount of content (mainly movies) is being provided on Blu-ray disks.

Blu-ray drives for computers currently sell for around $900. A single layer rewritable Blu-ray disk has a capacity of 25GB and costs approximately $43, while a dual layer disk holds 50GB and costs $105. Recordable (write-once) disks cost approximately $34 for single layer and $84 for dual layer.

Type: External hard disk drive with removable disk
Capacity: 35GB (90GB with included compression software)
Interface: USB 2.0
Average seek time: 12 ms (read); 13 ms (write)
Latency: 7.1 ms
Start/stop times: 12/6 seconds (including eject)
Data transfer rate: 25.4MB/ sec. maximum; 20MB/second average
Drive service life: Approx. 5 years
Cartridge life:  2,000 insertion and removal cycles
Power supply: 5.0 +/- 0.25 V D.C., up to 1.2 amps continuous current
Power consumption: Idle - 0.60 A/3.0 W; Start-up/Seek - 1.18/1.5 A, 5/9/5.8 W; Read/Write – 0.89-0.92 A/ 4.5-4.6 W
Dimensions: Drive – 156 x 110 x 35.8 mm; disk – 75 x 77 x 10mm
Weight:  Drive – 392 grams; disk – 73 grams