Customer Reviews for Other World Computing 500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable FW800&400/USB3 5400RPM Storage Solution
Other World Computing 500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable FW800&400/USB3 5400RPM Storage Solution
500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Oxford FireWire 800&400+USB3 5400RPM 8MB Cache Portable SATA 2.5" based Storage Solution. Connection Cables, Carrying Case, Prosoft Data Backup, Intech HD SpeedTools, and 3 Year OWC Warranty included.
Average Customer Rating:
(14 Reviews) 14
Rating Breakdown 14 reviews
5 stars
11
4 stars
1
3 stars
2
2 stars
0
1 star
0
11 out of 12(92%)reviewers would recommend this product.
Customer Reviews for 500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable FW800&400/USB3 5400RPM Storage Solution
Review 1 for 500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable FW800&400/USB3 5400RPM Storage Solution
Overall rating
Just what I needed
PostedDecember 26, 2012
I bought this so I could quit using my old Apple Time Capsule for backups. I was tired of the wifi connection drop-outs that sometimes happened when Time Machine would start a backup.
I use the FireWire 800 connection and backups are done before you know it.
The drive ships with a FireWire 800 cable, a USB 2 to USB 3 cable and a disc with data backup software.
Pros: Quality, quiet, small footprint
I would recommend this to a friend!
Anonymous
from Mountainair, NM
Age: Over 65
Experience Level: Hobbiest
Owned Product: less than a month
Verified Buyer: true
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Review 2 for 500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable FW800&400/USB3 5400RPM Storage Solution
Overall rating
otimo product
PostedNovember 20, 2012
received on time and I am already using case ... very fast .. I'm using him as a 750 gb hd that was in Pro mac .. was very fast ... conecxao extra doors are very fast to ... usb and normal as any other .... but the high speed of it .. really are high-level
Pros: Quality
I would recommend this to a friend!
Burini
from Brasil
Age: 35-44
Experience Level: Power User
Owned Product: less than a month
Verified Buyer: true
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Review 3 for 500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable FW800&400/USB3 5400RPM Storage Solution
This review is from 320GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go USB 3.0 / 2.0 7200RPM Portable Bus Powered Solution..
Overall rating
Solid Product
PostedSeptember 20, 2012
I have 5 and highly recommend them to friends and family. True, there are more compact and stylish external drives on the market but these feel solid and durable. Plus, I really like the clear enclosure which allows you to easily see and read the hard drive label. This is handy if you upgrade the drive mechanisms or need to keep track of multiple drives because you can easily tell what's inside. I have been using Mercury On-The-Go portable drives for over 4 years and very pleased.
Pros: Quality, Durability, unique see-thru case
Cons: not real pretty
Paul
from Paul
Age: 45-54
Owned Product: over 6 months
Verified Buyer: true
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Review 4 for 500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable FW800&400/USB3 5400RPM Storage Solution
This review is from 500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go USB 3.0 / 2.0 5400RPM Portable Bus Powered Solution..
Overall rating
Cheap and effective fire insurance
PostedJuly 3, 2012
I just purchased my fourth OWC Mercury On-The-Go USB drive. They have proven invaluable for sending back and forth to clients and photographers for large file transfers, as they are small and easy to use. This summer I found another use for them; the Colorado wildfires have posed a serious threat to property, mine included, so I videoed my entire home and its contents for insurance purposes. These large video files went directly upon the On-The-Go drive and to the safe deposit box at my bank. The small size of the drive makes this possible. I have probably 10TB of various OWC drives, and while there are cheaper drives on the market, they are no bargain if they fail. I've had excellent luck with all OWC storage products and will buy no others.
Pros: Quality, Durability, small size
I would recommend this to a friend!
MountainMan
from Woodland Park, CO
Age: 55-65
Experience Level: Power User
Owned Product: over 6 months
Verified Buyer: true
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+1point
1of 1voted this as helpful.
Review 5 for 500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable FW800&400/USB3 5400RPM Storage Solution
Overall rating
Disappointing
PostedJune 30, 2012
Having ripped out many a hard drive from all sorts of computers and also having set up plenty of portable bare hard drives I found this kit to be disappointing and difficult. The instructions are split into two separate documents neither of which fully cover the installation process. Normally this wouldn't be a problem because this kind of installation should be straightforward. However, the SSD hold down screw was too long such that it wouldn't firmly hold the SSD in place and the other screws were too short to hold the bridge card in. Luckily it seems to fit in quite snugly without any screws.
But if the ultimate test is does it work? - Well yes.
Is it blazingly fast? - No not really.
With an OWC 500GB SSD in there it certainly doesn't achieve the 500MB/sec max speeds claimed for USB3.0 nor the 200MB/sec for the SSD.
I transferred 150GB using USB3.0 in 31 minutes (which by my calculations is about 80 MB/sec). I did exactly the same test onto another brand's USB3.0 5400RPM SATA 2.5" HD and it took 46 minutes. Did the same onm a USB2.0 5400RPM SATA 2.5" HD and it took 66 minutes.
So I guess there are speed advantages but in the order of two times and no more.
But if the ultimate test is does it work? - Well yes.
Is it blazingly fast? - No not really.
With an OWC 500GB SSD in there it certainly doesn't achieve the 500MB/sec max speeds claimed for USB3.0 nor the 200MB/sec for the SSD.
I transferred 150GB using USB3.0 in 31 minutes (which by my calculations is about 80 MB/sec). I did exactly the same test onto another brand's USB3.0 5400RPM SATA 2.5" HD and it took 46 minutes. Did the same onm a USB2.0 5400RPM SATA 2.5" HD and it took 66 minutes.
So I guess there are speed advantages but in the order of two times and no more.
Response from Other World ComputingMarketing, MarketingJuly 2, 2012
This product was meant as a temporary solution to getting some use from the removed Apple drive on your 2010-2011 MacBook Air while a more customized solution was in development. The Mercury Aura Pro Envoy is that customized solution: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/...
The second instruction booklet is to show what is different for installation of the MacBook Air SSD as opposed to a 2.5" hard drive that the On-The-Go line was designed for: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/fire...
Transfer speeds will vary depending on your setup, our marketing simply states the fastest theoretical speeds of the interfaces. The top speed limitation is always the lowest common denominator.
For example, while USB 3.0 has a maximum speed to 500MB/s - the fastest MacBook Air stock SSD we've seen has a maximum speed of 200MB/s (some models were slower), so right off the bat, the top speed can only hit 200MB/s if you have the fastest SSD. Now, let's say you're plugging the device into a USB 2.0 port as found on the 2010-2011 MacBook Air models that the drive would be removed from and the theoretical maximum speed is then reduced to 60MB/s.
The data itself can also be a determining factor on real world speeds. One large file transfers faster than a bunch of smaller files. It is kinda like driving - you can have a car that has a top speed of 200 mph, but if you're only driving a few feet at a time you're not reaching that full speed with each individual transfer.
The second instruction booklet is to show what is different for installation of the MacBook Air SSD as opposed to a 2.5" hard drive that the On-The-Go line was designed for: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/fire...
Transfer speeds will vary depending on your setup, our marketing simply states the fastest theoretical speeds of the interfaces. The top speed limitation is always the lowest common denominator.
For example, while USB 3.0 has a maximum speed to 500MB/s - the fastest MacBook Air stock SSD we've seen has a maximum speed of 200MB/s (some models were slower), so right off the bat, the top speed can only hit 200MB/s if you have the fastest SSD. Now, let's say you're plugging the device into a USB 2.0 port as found on the 2010-2011 MacBook Air models that the drive would be removed from and the theoretical maximum speed is then reduced to 60MB/s.
The data itself can also be a determining factor on real world speeds. One large file transfers faster than a bunch of smaller files. It is kinda like driving - you can have a car that has a top speed of 200 mph, but if you're only driving a few feet at a time you're not reaching that full speed with each individual transfer.
TonyB
from Perth WA
Age: 35-44
Experience Level: Power User
Owned Product: less than a month
Verified Buyer: true
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Review 6 for 500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable FW800&400/USB3 5400RPM Storage Solution
Overall rating
I need it. Product is good
PostedApril 19, 2012
This customer did not provide a text review.
Pros: Quality
Cons: Quality
I would recommend this to a friend!
apg028
from Hong kong
Age: 25-34
Experience Level: Home User
Owned Product: over 6 months
Verified Buyer: false
Share:
0points
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Review 7 for 500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable FW800&400/USB3 5400RPM Storage Solution
This review is from 750GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro Portable FW800&400/USB2 7200RPM Storage Solution.
Overall rating
Excellent solution to my VM requirements
PostedMarch 13, 2012
I have been using the OWC external drives for many years and rely on them for back-ups, Virtual Machines to host various applicaions for digital printing and color management, and booting specialized versions of operating systems to test new software. In every case, these devices have performed flawlessly.
Pros: Quality
Cons: none
I would recommend this to a friend!
agster
from Mid-West
Age: 55-65
Experience Level: IT Professional
Owned Product: over 6 months
Verified Buyer: true
Share:
0points
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Review 8 for 500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable FW800&400/USB3 5400RPM Storage Solution
This review is from 500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable FW800&400/USB2 5400RPM Storage Solution.
Overall rating
Not Quite a Triple
PostedMarch 7, 2012
OK, I should have been even more careful reading the micro-print and examining the images, but OWC has never mislead me in the many years I have used their services
Note the "Triple" refers to the chip set, not the ports, It has only FW800 and USB2, but no FW400. I thought this would be the ideal backup drive for my older iMac which has FW400 but not FW800. I would have ordered a converter if it were more obvious.
Note the "Triple" refers to the chip set, not the ports, It has only FW800 and USB2, but no FW400. I thought this would be the ideal backup drive for my older iMac which has FW400 but not FW800. I would have ordered a converter if it were more obvious.
Cons: no fw 400 port
I would recommend this to a friend!
Trebla
from SoCal
Age: 55-65
Experience Level: Power User
Owned Product: less than a month
Verified Buyer: true
Share:
+2points
2of 2voted this as helpful.
Review 9 for 500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable FW800&400/USB3 5400RPM Storage Solution
This review is from OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable 2.5" FW800/USB2.0 Enclosure Kit for Serial ATA (SATA) NoteBook HDs.
Overall rating
Great!
PostedJanuary 31, 2012
Bought this so that I could swap out my stock MacBook Pro hard drive with an OWC SSD. I used this to put the SSD in for cloning the existing boot drive. Then I swapped the HD from the mac with the SSD, putting the original HD in this case as an external for the road. Nice design, nice heat sink. One minor point is that the OWC SSD was a touch tight sliding into the heat sink, something that didn't happen when I put the standard HD into the case. It's a touch larger than some of the miniscule cases I have but this case provides far better ventilation and a metal heat sink.
Pros: easy assembly, good ventilation
I would recommend this to a friend!
Mitchw
from Upstate NY
Age: 45-54
Experience Level: Power User
Owned Product: less than a month
Verified Buyer: true
Share:
0points
0of 0voted this as helpful.
Review 10 for 500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable FW800&400/USB3 5400RPM Storage Solution
This review is from OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable 2.5" FW800/USB2.0 Enclosure Kit for Serial ATA (SATA) NoteBook HDs.
Overall rating
Nice looking
PostedDecember 17, 2011
Solid case good chipset, but if you want to switch out drive in the enclosure be prepared to remove 10 screws. Installation is not super easy and I am an advanced technician. Worked as advertised but ended up going with an all aluminium case for better heat transfer since I am not using solid sate and other case has only 6 screws two to hold the drive and four under the feet and has the a slightly better chipset and is much smaller. Do your home work before buying. Look at Mercury Pro Elite with esata and firewire as well since most Pc's do not have firewire ports!
Pros: Quality, includes case, can see the internal drive
Cons: Durability, scratches, size, install
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Ramboxman
from Illinois
Age: 35-44
Experience Level: IT Professional
Owned Product: less than a month
Verified Buyer: true
Share:
0points
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Review 11 for 500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable FW800&400/USB3 5400RPM Storage Solution
This review is from OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable 2.5" FW800/USB2.0 Enclosure Kit for Serial ATA (SATA) NoteBook HDs.
Overall rating
simple, reliable, easy to assemble
PostedSeptember 17, 2011
I have tried several brands of external enclosures. This enclosure is the best of the lot, in my experience. It is easy to assemble and the heat sink design keeps the drive cool. Perfect for enclosing a 2.5" drive and putting it in your backpack.
I like the geek fashion of a transparent case that lets you see the drive.
Pros: Quality, Durability, easy assembly, good heat sink
I would recommend this to a friend!
Share:
+2points
2of 2voted this as helpful.
Review 12 for 500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable FW800&400/USB3 5400RPM Storage Solution
This review is from OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable 2.5" FW800/USB2.0 Enclosure Kit for Serial ATA (SATA) NoteBook HDs.
Overall rating
Good portable solution
PostedJuly 9, 2011
I used this as a dock for reformatting and cloning additional drives, and now I am using it to house my old mac drive after I swapped it out for an SSD.
Pros: Quality, Durability
I would recommend this to a friend!
Share:
+2points
2of 2voted this as helpful.
Review 13 for 500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable FW800&400/USB3 5400RPM Storage Solution
This review is from 500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable FW800&400/USB2 7200RPM Bus Powered.
Overall rating
Well made reliable drive
PostedJuly 5, 2011
The 500 gb drive is well made. It has never failed me. This hard drive is a bit more $$ than other drives, but peace of mind is everything. Customer service at OWC is great. They are knowledgeable. You speak with someone in the U.S. Shipping was the same day as order.
The software is great to use, if choose not to use time machine.
I will be ordering more for both my plastic windows OS and my favorite aluminum MAC OSX. Three year warranty is outstanding.
Pros: Quality, Durability
I would recommend this to a friend!
maclover
from albuquerque, NM
Age: 35-44
Experience Level: Power User
Owned Product: over 6 months
Verified Buyer: false
Share:
0points
0of 0voted this as helpful.
Review 14 for 500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable FW800&400/USB3 5400RPM Storage Solution
This review is from 500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable FW800&400/USB2 5400RPM Storage Solution.
Overall rating
Wicked cool.
PostedMay 11, 2011
I've used this drive as a solid work drive for some 2 years now, and I'm still impressed with its look, speed, and dependability. It's a rock solid trooper whose clear plastic case which reveals the 2.5 inch drive still looks cool to me. Call me a geek but I still like seeing the insides of electronics. It's definitely a unique looking drive.
Portable with fw800 speed is one heckuva combo, and using it to create much of what you see on the owc web site, email, and more is proof positive this is a solid drive for work and play.
Pros: Quality, Durability
I would recommend this to a friend!
sirmixalot
from Lake in the Hills, IL
Age: 25-34
Experience Level: Power User
Owned Product: over 6 months
Verified Buyer: false
Share:
+1point
1of 1voted this as helpful.