AfterDawn: News

Iomega launches gaming console HDD

Iomega has announced its all-new Media Xporter drive, a game console-oriented 2.5-inch portable hard drive that will provide storage for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles.

The company says the new drive will make it "easier than ever to use game consoles and high definition televisions and other large screen TVs to share photos, videos, and music collections with family and friends."



The very portable, wallet-sized drive is USB powered and will use the USB 2.0 ports on either console to offer a plug-and-play solution alongside 160GB of media storage.

According to the press release the drive is "designed for use the Xbox 360 and PS3, the Media Xporter is also compatible with Apple computers and Microsoft Windows and is bundled with software to convert media to console-friendly formats, where necessary."

The drive is available now and retails for $120 USD and in Europe for 99 euros.



Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 17 Apr 2008 15:37

• Previous article

• Xbox 360 sales 'have more than doubled' since price cut

• Next article

• March: Wii leads as Xbox 360 and PS3 were very close in huge month

• 33 comments

• emugamer

  Any drive can be used. How is this new. Stick any drive in an enclosure....2.5", 3.5". Doesn't matter. Rosewill makes a nice compact enclosure for a 2.5" drive. Am I missing something new here?

  17.4.2008 16:27 #1

• Hunt720

  Im glad somebody else said what I was thinking! It is usually cheaper to build one yourself. It only takes about 5 minutes anyway.

  17.4.2008 16:33 #2

• SDF_GR

  ^^ I agree with all that plus that before 2-3 months
  I have installed this
  
  
  to my 60gb version PS3.
  Hitachi
  160gb 7200rpm,16 MB buffer
  for 130euros more or less.
  100euros for an external or 130 for a fast internal??
  Dosent worth the money IMO.

  17.4.2008 16:50 #3

• emugamer

  Iomega finally replacing their older technology?
  
  
  

  17.4.2008 18:35 #4

• tripplite

  its a pitty, i hate Iomega drives.....but if its the only option then i'll take it....but im sure now with this drive released hackers must be close to a cure for this dilemma!
  

  
  

  17.4.2008 18:46 #5

• Moomoo2

  Not all external drives compatible, right?

  17.4.2008 20:09 #6

• emugamer

  As far as I know, as long as you format an external as FAT32, it is compatible. I formatted a 160GB partition on my old 500GB Lacie Big external (it's about 3 years old now). I use it for my PS3. As long as you can plug it into the USB port in a PS3, any size should work. I haven't read otherwise. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but you should be able to buy something like this:
  
  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822111017
  
  for a lower price and more than 3x the size.

  17.4.2008 20:35 #7

• chubbyInc

  My external don't work on my 360, but it's not Fat32. So it could be possible only Fat32 works. My 8GB flash drive works fine for me right now. Feel sorry for those who spent the extra money on those useless 120GB 360 hard-drives.

  17.4.2008 21:58 #8

• ZippyDSM

  Interesting how dose this deal with the 360s locking out of USB HDDs? remember the USB HDD on the 360 is set to read ONLY...
  
  I wonder if they have a program that can freely move data off the 360 HDD, if so it would be worth 100$ just for that feature.

  17.4.2008 22:28 #9

• gallagher

  How are they set to read only when they can send info back thru the USB's? They do through the controllers (take vibration) and they do through the network adapter which is USB.

  18.4.2008 04:08 #10

• DXR88

  Originally posted by gallagher: How are they set to read only when they can send info back thru the USB's? They do through the controllers (take vibration) and they do through the network adapter which is USB.Limited Access, Only Certain files can be transferd anything off live cannot be moved. save files cannot be moved, music is moveable Wallpaper and Avatars are moveable, less there from live.Video's Can be moved less there from live.
  
  
  I think thats about it.

  18.4.2008 07:53 #11

• rainofire

  Why buy this, I rather get a 2.5" SATA 320gb for a better price to put into my ps3, and get my 2x 500gb external HDD and plug them into my usb ports on my ps3. And there you go 1.3tb of storage space. Good for all the videos I download, 1.3tb should last me 2 weeks before I need to get me another 500gb HDD.

  18.4.2008 08:40 #12

• ZippyDSM

  its 113 now,its not to bad bu the trouble is it dosent say if its locked out from moving stuff around on the 360....

  18.4.2008 08:58 #13

• DXR88

  Originally posted by rainofire: Why buy this, I rather get a 2.5" SATA 320gb for a better price to put into my ps3, and get my 2x 500gb external HDD and plug them into my usb ports on my ps3. And there you go 1.3tb of storage space. Good for all the videos I download, 1.3tb should last me 2 weeks before I need to get me another 500gb HDD.
  What Format Do you use PS3 on, because if its FAT32 it's would be pointless for 1.3T. Unless you like 15 hardrive's 3 Primary 12 extended i wouldn't use FAT32 on PS3, if im not mistaken ext3 or ext2
  works on PS3 too.

  18.4.2008 10:44 #14

• ZippyDSM

  heres something better for the 360.
  http://forums.theeca.com/showthread.php?p=76228#post76228

  18.4.2008 10:48 #15

• algtz1

  I have a 500 GB Seagate USB HDD and formatted it using MACdrive 7. Now I can bypass FAT 32's file limit of 4GB. Do you hear me? Now I can transfer my 8+ GB HDWMV movies and play them through my Xbox360. Dude I feel like a king in my own living room. I may save up to buy a PS3 this summer, though, because I heard they support more formats. I am getting tired of converting my entire library to WMV format or Avi format.

  18.4.2008 12:37 #16

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by algtz1: I have a 500 GB Seagate USB HDD and formatted it using MACdrive 7. Now I can bypass FAT 32's file limit of 4GB. Do you hear me? Now I can transfer my 8+ GB HDWMV movies and play them through my Xbox360. Dude I feel like a king in my own living room. I may save up to buy a PS3 this summer, though, because I heard they support more formats. I am getting tired of converting my entire library to WMV format or Avi format.
  yuo can move around a limited set of stuff and stream others its a nightmare anyway you look at it, not being able to move whatever I want when I want makes the 360 hellish.

  18.4.2008 13:05 #17

• emugamer

  Originally posted by algtz1: I have a 500 GB Seagate USB HDD and formatted it using MACdrive 7. Now I can bypass FAT 32's file limit of 4GB. Do you hear me? Now I can transfer my 8+ GB HDWMV movies and play them through my Xbox360. Dude I feel like a king in my own living room. I may save up to buy a PS3 this summer, though, because I heard they support more formats. I am getting tired of converting my entire library to WMV format or Avi format.Good deal man. I hate that the PS3 can only read FAT32. I would love to see some NTFS support, or even ext3. The 4GB limit sux. The PS3 still doesn't support mkv, and most videos have to go through some sort of conversion process to get it into the .MP4, or .vob or .ts format that can be streamed. So if your 360 is fulfilling all of your media needs now, it's probably the way to go instead of dropping half a grand on a new system. Unless there are PS3 exclusives that you are really wanting to play :-)

  18.4.2008 14:51 #18

• emugamer

  Quote:Originally posted by rainofire: Why buy this, I rather get a 2.5" SATA 320gb for a better price to put into my ps3, and get my 2x 500gb external HDD and plug them into my usb ports on my ps3. And there you go 1.3tb of storage space. Good for all the videos I download, 1.3tb should last me 2 weeks before I need to get me another 500gb HDD.
  What Format Do you use PS3 on, because if its FAT32 it's would be pointless for 1.3T. Unless you like 15 hardrive's 3 Primary 12 extended i wouldn't use FAT32 on PS3, if im not mistaken ext3 or ext2
  works on PS3 too.It wouldn't be completly pointless. You can just format everything to FAT32. I formatted a 160GB partition on an external drive. Other people have said they've formatted larger external drives to FAT32. You would just have to make sure all files are split so that you don't have anything over 4GB. Thatis a royal pain. I've actually tried formatting an external drive to ext3 and ext2 and the PS3 USB ports did not pick it up. I formatted the same drive to FAT32 and it worked great. The best bet would be a large internal drive upgrade. Then you can transfer larger files through Tversity and play them locally. But there is still a conversion process that you have to go through.

  18.4.2008 14:58 #19

• ZippyDSM

  Quote:Quote:Originally posted by rainofire: Why buy this, I rather get a 2.5" SATA 320gb for a better price to put into my ps3, and get my 2x 500gb external HDD and plug them into my usb ports on my ps3. And there you go 1.3tb of storage space. Good for all the videos I download, 1.3tb should last me 2 weeks before I need to get me another 500gb HDD.
  What Format Do you use PS3 on, because if its FAT32 it's would be pointless for 1.3T. Unless you like 15 hardrive's 3 Primary 12 extended i wouldn't use FAT32 on PS3, if im not mistaken ext3 or ext2
  works on PS3 too.It wouldn't be completly pointless. You can just format everything to FAT32. I formatted a 160GB partition on an external drive. Other people have said they've formatted larger external drives to FAT32. You would just have to make sure all files are split so that you don't have anything over 4GB. Thatis a royal pain. I've actually tried formatting an external drive to ext3 and ext2 and the PS3 USB ports did not pick it up. I formatted the same drive to FAT32 and it worked great. The best bet would be a large internal drive upgrade. Then you can transfer larger files through Tversity and play them locally. But there is still a conversion process that you have to go through.the 360 has a 32GB partition limit so I have read, whats the "limit" on the PS3?

  18.4.2008 16:33 #20

• emugamer

  Quote:Quote:Quote:Originally posted by rainofire: Why buy this, I rather get a 2.5" SATA 320gb for a better price to put into my ps3, and get my 2x 500gb external HDD and plug them into my usb ports on my ps3. And there you go 1.3tb of storage space. Good for all the videos I download, 1.3tb should last me 2 weeks before I need to get me another 500gb HDD.
  What Format Do you use PS3 on, because if its FAT32 it's would be pointless for 1.3T. Unless you like 15 hardrive's 3 Primary 12 extended i wouldn't use FAT32 on PS3, if im not mistaken ext3 or ext2
  works on PS3 too.It wouldn't be completly pointless. You can just format everything to FAT32. I formatted a 160GB partition on an external drive. Other people have said they've formatted larger external drives to FAT32. You would just have to make sure all files are split so that you don't have anything over 4GB. Thatis a royal pain. I've actually tried formatting an external drive to ext3 and ext2 and the PS3 USB ports did not pick it up. I formatted the same drive to FAT32 and it worked great. The best bet would be a large internal drive upgrade. Then you can transfer larger files through Tversity and play them locally. But there is still a conversion process that you have to go through.the 360 has a 32GB partition limit so I have read, whats the "limit" on the PS3?I didn't think there was a limit. I believe I've read that people are using 500GB FAT32 drives. PS3hax.net is down now due to server switching, but once it's back up, I'll post a link to the thread. After formatting a 160GB external partition myself to FAT32, I don't see how there could be a limit. I found a handy little Windows utility that will format any size drive to FAT32. Worked great for me.

  18.4.2008 17:28 #21

• ZippyDSM

  Quote:Quote:Quote:Quote:Originally posted by rainofire: Why buy this, I rather get a 2.5" SATA 320gb for a better price to put into my ps3, and get my 2x 500gb external HDD and plug them into my usb ports on my ps3. And there you go 1.3tb of storage space. Good for all the videos I download, 1.3tb should last me 2 weeks before I need to get me another 500gb HDD.
  What Format Do you use PS3 on, because if its FAT32 it's would be pointless for 1.3T. Unless you like 15 hardrive's 3 Primary 12 extended i wouldn't use FAT32 on PS3, if im not mistaken ext3 or ext2
  works on PS3 too.It wouldn't be completly pointless. You can just format everything to FAT32. I formatted a 160GB partition on an external drive. Other people have said they've formatted larger external drives to FAT32. You would just have to make sure all files are split so that you don't have anything over 4GB. Thatis a royal pain. I've actually tried formatting an external drive to ext3 and ext2 and the PS3 USB ports did not pick it up. I formatted the same drive to FAT32 and it worked great. The best bet would be a large internal drive upgrade. Then you can transfer larger files through Tversity and play them locally. But there is still a conversion process that you have to go through.the 360 has a 32GB partition limit so I have read, whats the "limit" on the PS3?I didn't think there was a limit. I believe I've read that people are using 500GB FAT32 drives. PS3hax.net is down now due to server switching, but once it's back up, I'll post a link to the thread. After formatting a 160GB external partition myself to FAT32, I don't see how there could be a limit. I found a handy little Windows utility that will format any size drive to FAT32. Worked great for me.thought maybe unix had an odd limit to HDD size, but anyway you look at it its more friendly than the 360 mess.

  18.4.2008 17:46 #22

• rainofire

  I don't recall a partition limit for the ps3, but I think you have to have at least 10% of the HDD for the XMB.

  18.4.2008 22:24 #23

• mtntop1

  I don't but Iomega products,not after the crappie zip drive they made that went bad and developed the CLICK OF DEATH.After inserting a disk the drive just made a clicking noise and do nothing else.A lot of consumers got ripped off on that one.A class action lawsuit was filed and the out come was that Iomega would give owners a coupon worth $50.00 towards the purchase of another Iomega product.BUYER'S BEWARE!

  19.4.2008 09:50 #24

• Snipes_

  Just picked up PS3 for $10bucks(used points). Attached my WD160GB passport and no prob's (paid $80.00 on sale at costco)Set up the folders, copied the files. Dowloaded trailers and copied them to the WD...no problems. I would stay away from iomega...I had a tape (yes tape) drive a while ago...it sucked.
  Haven't tried the WD on the 360 yet. I love the PS3 though. The BluRay is excellent. My TV only does 1080i, but I noticed an improvement over my upconverting DVD sami. (little off topic I know)
  Think I'll pick up a couple 500gb Lacies, they're on sale for about the same price as the Iomega(just to get back on topic)

  19.4.2008 11:36 #25

• algtz1

  Just format the external usb HDD with a program called macdrvie 7.0. Its way better than Fat 32. There is no size limit on files. So you can save files bigger than 4GB. I have Converted some of my Concert DVDS which are 6GB+ to WMV and they play fine. I tried doing the steaming thing but was too frustrated because of all the stuttering during playback. External HDD are definately the way to go.

  19.4.2008 16:29 #26

• emugamer

  Originally posted by algtz1: Just format the external usb HDD with a program called macdrvie 7.0. Its way better than Fat 32. There is no size limit on files. So you can save files bigger than 4GB. I have Converted some of my Concert DVDS which are 6GB+ to WMV and they play fine. I tried doing the steaming thing but was too frustrated because of all the stuttering during playback. External HDD are definately the way to go.Thanks man. I will try it. Getting the program now. So I'm assuming that Macdrive formats to ext2 or ext3. I've tried to do that in the past and it didn't work, but I probably did it wrong or used the wrong program for it. I hope this works out! Heck, I'll throw in a 750GB HDD and put all of my 1080P movies on it. Now I'll just have to convert to to mP4 or something and not worry about splitting the files.

  19.4.2008 16:52 #27

• varnull

  From the FAT32 specifications..
  
  Quote:• A FAT32 volume must contain a minimum of 65,527 clusters. You cannot increase the cluster size on a volume that uses the FAT32 file system so that it contains fewer than 65,527 clusters.
  • The maximum disk size is approximately 8 terabytes when you take into account the following variables: The maximum possible number of clusters on a FAT32 volume is 268,435,445, and there is a maximum of 32 KB per cluster, along with the space required for the file allocation table (FAT).
  • You cannot decrease the cluster size on a FAT32 volume so that the size of the FAT is larger than 16 megabytes (MB) minus 64 KB.
  

  
  
  Free open source software = made by end users who want an application to work....

  19.4.2008 17:14 #28

• algtz1

  emugamer,
  
  Check out this tutorial:
  
  HDD Format Tutorial
  
  Once you format the external HDD correctly, you can load your movies of any size and it will play nicely on the 360 (no more splitting files). Remember that an external HDD pluged into a 360 only plays avi, wmv, and divx files. I haven't been able to play any .mpg or .mp4 files successfully yet using my 500 gig hd. So you will have to convert all your viddys as I have been doing for the past month to .wmv files. For this I use a program called AOA Ripper which lets you convert your dvds to wmv files. And I use winavi wich lets you convert media files to wmv files. Hope this helps

  21.4.2008 12:55 #29

• emugamer

  @algtz1
  
  I will try it just to see if it works. After all of the tinkering I've been doing, I just got an email from Popcorn Hour saying that I'm next in line for the next batch. So $179 is worth my time and energy converting all of my .mkv movies. Now I'll just play them in all their glory with no conversions. Thanks for posting the info though. I'm sure others will benefit from it!

  21.4.2008 13:31 #30

• algtz1

  Can you shed some light on the popcorn player. I heard rumors of it but haven't heard much else.

  21.4.2008 17:23 #31

• emugamer

  Originally posted by algtz1: Can you shed some light on the popcorn player. I heard rumors of it but haven't heard much else.Sure, I'll PM you. Don't want to bring this post too much more off topic :P

  21.4.2008 18:30 #32

• DXR88

  Originally posted by varnull: From the FAT32 specifications..
  
  Quote:• A FAT32 volume must contain a minimum of 65,527 clusters. You cannot increase the cluster size on a volume that uses the FAT32 file system so that it contains fewer than 65,527 clusters.
  • The maximum disk size is approximately 8 terabytes when you take into account the following variables: The maximum possible number of clusters on a FAT32 volume is 268,435,445, and there is a maximum of 32 KB per cluster, along with the space required for the file allocation table (FAT).
  • You cannot decrease the cluster size on a FAT32 volume so that the size of the FAT is larger than 16 megabytes (MB) minus 64 KB.
  
  
  
  
  
  Mh great technical docs. XFAT that the xbox use is a bit diffrent than the FAT32 spec mostly Security, But did upgrade the cluster size Limitation. If we could get are hands on somthing that Mimics XFAT we could use that too unlock the External HDD.
  
  For some odd reason the rear Usb port Has a lesser Security.

  21.4.2008 18:47 #33