Iomega REVs Desktop Storage

The REV Drive, Iomega's latest portable desktop storage device, offers IT professionals a simple, flexible way to back up large amounts of data.

The REV Drive, Iomegas latest portable desktop storage device, offers IT professionals a simple, flexible way to back up large amounts of data.

The compact REV drive resembles Iomegas Zip drive product line. The great thing about the REV drive is that it uses disk cartridges that are about the size of a Zip disk but that store much more data.

I tested the first version of the REV drive, which shipped last month and comes with one 35GB disk. Using native compression, each REV disk can store 90GB of data. Iomega plans to release higher-capacity disks later this year, officials said.

The REV drive is simple to set up; I merely connected the external REV drive to my PC using the USB 2.0 interface and installed the drivers and utilities provided. After I inserted the hard drive cartridge into the drive, the drive was ready to back up data.

Although the REV drive currently does not support FireWire interfaces, Iomega plans to support them in the next release. An internal REV drive is also available using the IDE interface. I would also like to see Serial ATA support in the future.

The USB 2.0 external REV drive with an included REV disk costs $400; the internal model costs $380. 35GB REV disks are priced at $60 each or $200 for a four-pack.

For more info, check out www.iomega.com.

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