Iomega unveils new external Mac drives

Making a presence at Paris' Apple Expo 2007, Iomega has revealed several new Mac-compatible external hard drives. The top of the line is the 1.5TB UltraMax Pro Desktop, which houses two SATA-II drives in a meshed enclosure resembling the Mac Pro. The drives can be set to RAID 0, 1 or JBOD configurations, and interfaces in the primary version include two FireWire 800 ports, one FireWire 400 port, and a USB 2.0 connector. Buyers can also pick an alternate version with eSATA and USB 2.0 interfaces, the former allowing speeds up to 3Gbps. The drives are now available for $600 each, and require Mac OS X 10.3.

A new standard UltraMax combines one eSATA port, two FireWire 800 ports, one FireWire 400 port and one USB 2.0 port on the same drive, but is limited in capacity to 500 or 750GB. Consequentially, it also drops RAID support. The two main models should be released in October for $220 and $320; another 500GB model, limited to FireWire 400 and USB 2.0, should be ready in the same month for $190. Mac OS X 10.1 is required.

The company's MiniMax line has had a 750GB drive added, boasting a hub with three USB 2.0 and three FireWire ports. As normal, it is meant to be stacked with Apple's Mac mini computers. Mac OS X 10.1.5 is needed, but no price or release date has been announced.

Iomega is lastly updating its eGo portable drives, boosting maximum capacity to 250GB, while introducing a second 160GB drive with both FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 interfaces. These each run on Mac OS X 10.1, and should ship by the end of October for $260 and $160. A 250GB dual-interface model is planned for the fourth quarter.