Imation Apollo 500GB 2.5" Portable Hard Drive
Manufacturer: Imation
Product Name: Imation Apollo 500GB 2.5" Portable Hard Drive
Review Date: 10/03/08
Author:
A few days ago I took a look at a Verbatim 160GB 2.5" portable hard drive and I found it to be a decent little product, but today I’ve got the Imation Apollo 500GB 2.5" portable hard drive for review. The Apollo is well made, looks nice, is small and portable and actually averages out to be less expensive per gigabyte when compared to others out there.
So read on to learn more about a great little portable hard drive…
The Apollo comes in an attractive box with pictures and a bit of information on it.
Included with the Apollo is the usual documentation and a dual connection USB cable to provide additional power if need be.
I have to saw that the Apollo is a very attractive portable hard disk, when I first opened it I was very impressed not only by it’s looks but by how small it is. The Imation Apollo seems very well made, it feels sturdy and rugged, and it’s lightweight.
Here is the Apollo compared to a couple other 2.5" enclosures I have on hand, it’s easily the smallest:
On one end of course you’ll find a USB connection, the mini style of connector, on the top you’ll also find a small LED indicator that glows blue when powered and blinks to indicate activity.
Of course I was curious and had to pull it apart, something I would highly advise against, besides being very difficult to get apart it’ll most likely void any warranty on the product. Opening it up I found a Samsung HM500LI 500GB, 5400RPM 2.5" hard drive.
Specifications:
Imation Apollo 500GB 2.5" Portable Hard Drive
Imation Apollo 2.5" Portable Hard Drive
The Imation Apollo 2.5" Portable Hard Drive offers high-capacity mobile storage for data, photos, presentations, videos and music in a pocket-sized device that is lightweight, stylish and extremely durable. The Apollo drive is fully USB 2.0 powered and does not require an additional power supply. A blue indicator visually shows when data transfer is in process. The Apollo Hard Drive is available in 160GB, 250GB, 320GB and 500GB capacities, and comes with easy-to-use Total Media Backup software that is compatible with both PC and Mac.
Features:
* The sleek, ultra slim design easily fits in the palm of your hand or briefcase pocket.
* Fully USB 2.0 powered, no additional power is required
* Available capacities include 160GB, 250GB, 320GB and 500GB
* Easy-to-use Total Media Backup software included
* Three year limited warranty
Size (LxWxH): 127.4mm x 80.9mm x 17.2mm
System and Software Requirements:
* Windows® 2000, XP, Vista
* Macintosh Mac OS 10.2.8 and above
* Linux® 2.4 and above
* Total Media Backup software compatible with PC and Mac
Before I get into any testing, Imation did include some backup software already on the drive, you just have to install it. It’s called Arcosoft Total Media Backup, and personally it’s not something I would like to use as my backup software..
Total Media Backup just blanket copies or backs up everything with the parameters you set, you can’t go in and specify certain folders of files to be backed up. You can select the formats, like MPG, DOC, AVI and everything else, but it just searches you hard drive for these file formats and backs them up. You can select full backup or incremental, where it only backs up new files added since the last backup.
Checking the Arcsoft website I found that the version included with the Apollo is a scaled down version, the full version includes burning capabilities as well and a few other features.
Don’t get me wrong here though, Arcosft Total Media Backup could be useful to someone, just not me personally. It’s a great, easy to use backup software solution for those that might not have much experience with this type of thing, in the right hands it could prove very useful and worthwhile.
A few days ago I reviewed the Verbatim 160gb 2.5" portable hard drive, so I thought it would make a good comparison for the Apollo, and compare to another I’ve got on hand and the OCZ Rally2 Turbo Flash Drive.
I used SiSoft Sandra 2009 Removable Storage Benchmark for testing and comparison, higher scores are better.
From all of my time reviewing I’ve learned that it seems the larger things get the slower they are until technology catches up with them, and obviously this is very true here. The Speeds aren’t the greatest, but it’s not really a good comparison either, it would work much better if I had other 500gb HDDs to compare to, but it gives us a general idea anyway.
Personally I’ll take the capacity over the speed any day, the Verbatim was only 160GB, while the Imation Apollo is 500GB, so yeah I’ll take the slower 500gb over the faster 160gb….
The Cheapest I found the 500gb Apollo online for was $172 plus shipping and the cheapest I found the Verbatim online for was $98 plus shipping.
Which, without shipping averages out to 61 cents per gigabyte, while the Apollo averages out to be 34 cents per gig, the Apollo is a much better deal.
Conclusion:
The Imation Apollo is an excellent choice overall for you portable storage and backup needs.
The Apollo might not be the fastest, but it is the cheapest on average per gigabyte from what I found online, and as I said I’ll take the larger capacity over the speed anytime.
The Apollo looks great, it’s small and lightweight making it very portable and it seems well made.
The only suggestion I could make is that Imation should include a carrying case with it to protect the Apollo and carry the USB cable around with you easier.
Pros:
-Small and lightweight
-Large capacity
-Seems well made
-Low cost per gigabyte
Cons:
-Not the fastest
-Included software is basic
Grades:
Overall: 
Design: 
Performance:
I just got an apollo 250gb, nothing to complain about it, just de perfect deal for me at least, a simple way to carry my movie collection and simply connect it to the usb input of any tabletop divx player.
Awesome!
just got the imation 160GB apollo portable hard drive. i guess imation read your review coz it now comes with a leather carrying case
nothing fancy just something to protect it from the usual bumps and scratches.
I bought apollo 320gb 28 days ago…. with just one bump, half of my files are already CORRUPTED. the hard drive is still usable but i can’t put large files anymore because of the bad sectors that i cannot detect. the hard drive has an unusual sound since the bump. i should have bought simpletech instead of imation apollo because i never encountered any problem from my other simpletech hdd since i bought it. maybe because they’re using hitachi hard drives….. unlike in my apollo hard drive, they’re using toshiba…..it sucks…
Don’t know what to tell you, I haven’t had a problem with it yet, and I dropped it a couple times… nothing is perfect, especially electronics… be careful with hard drives…
I have had my Imation Apollo 500G for a couple of weeks, worked fine and didn’t seem slow backing up my 5GB of files, but today my laptop could not recongnize it a couple of times, hope this is not going to be a regular thing. I would be interested to know if anyone else has this problem.
Appolo 500 gb now includes a carry case in the box. There is an elastic band which goes on the outside of the case on the back side. I dont know whats it use but i am able to slid in the usb cable in it. So maybe the manufacturers read your review.
I have picked up my second 500GB drive and it’s working really well. Only $110 inclusive so REALLY can’t complain.
In fact it’s cheaper than buying the raw drive so this second drive I’m going to strip out and put in my laptop.
Any tips on opening up the drive other than brute force?
my Apollo imation 160 Gb hard disk is not working now after i had changed my new computer. i think it is the problem of the USb drive. i dont know what happened …if somebody can help. Light is on but its not recognised by the system
I have my Imation Appolo 500GB since the last 4 weeks, it worked well but since a while the USB does not recognize my Laptop, seems to be a problem by the Imation! now must findout how to manage this Problem!
Bobby
Hi, can you give any instructions on how to take out the drive? I can’t seem to remove the casing at all.
Thanks!
Ive had the Apollo 250 gig for a few months now and just discovered that i cant put a file that is 5 gigs in it. There is clearly enough space for it but its saying that i need to clear space for it, the only thing i can think of is that it wont accept files over a certain size. I don’t know why. Has anybody else have this problem?
Because it’s formatted in FAT32 so you have a 4gb file size limitation, if you want to lift that re-format to NTFS
I have just bought my second Imation Apollo. The first was a 160 and this one is a 360. The first has proven to be very unreliable. Always having problems getting it detected. sometimes it works but more often it does not. Pretty much unusable.
I have just started using the new one. Having to format it NTFS so I can copy across big files but again it was not detected once so far. I also got an error that the drive was full? don;t know what that was about hopefully a format will fix it. Otherwise it will go straight back tomorrow. I saw 160Gb Maxtor with 5 yr warranty. Might try that one.
Just to add some more to this. I am trying to back up my old PC and copy My Docs and Desktop. There is fair bit of data will files from DVD images to txt files. several Gigs. Any way the copy keeps failing with Device is not ready.
This happens anywhere from 5 to 50 secs. I have re-partioned and re-formated (full format). It seems as though this is another dodgy drive. That is now 2. My opion of Imation is rapidly deteriorating. And this one is brand spanking new. Today. No bumps, drops, etc.
i have the same issues of the drive not being detected. But i think using the Y-usb cable helps alot as i think it needs a 1000mA to run reliably.
Everyone having trouble with the computer not recognizing the drive on windows based computers- try these steps below (this happened to me on a Simple Tech drive). Sometimes windows assigns the same drive letter to two devices thus only one will show up. You have to change one of the drive letters for it to recognize the drive.
Right click on “my computer”
Select “Manage”
Under storage click on “disk management”
You should then see drives on the right side of the of the window, one might should have the amount of storage space that your external hard drive has
Right click on that drive
Select “change drive letter and path”
Select “change”
Pick a different letter from the drop down box
Click “ok”
Hopefully that helps
i bought 500gb imation, but when try to use it is only 465gb… 35gb were missing? it is unreasonable why does the 35gb is just for the installer of mac or windows,honestly its too big reduction! any explanation?, hope this is not cheating!?
please reply me @ rexsoto@yahoo.com
thank you!
That’s normal for hard drives…
this drive is compatable to use…
BTW . u sure can get samsung hard drive inside ? OR IT DENPANS ?
hi
i have apolo 2.5 portable hdd 160gb and i can not open on mac powerbook g4
please help meee
Recently I bought a Apollo 2.5″ 320 GB External Hard drive but the capacity is only
300 GB. Please give a solution to get back my 20 GB.
Reply at : daksh_96@yahoo.co.in
i just bought mine like several months ago, has nothing but extra movies on there to make space for my laptop, and now, the damn thing wont even work properly!!!!!!…….Hell, it wont even open up on my laptop now….!!!!!…..thats all i have to say about this hard drive…
i bought one a few months back i thought the case was great and the leather pouch that it comes in but once it was full of movies it plays fine but when i want to tranfer data it will move a few gb then it comes up with path not specified and i have to reload it it is a big pain and takes days to tranfer data
if anyone has any tips please help
My boss gave me an Imation Apollo 2.5 Portable HDD in order to leave more space on the network. At work my computer (Windows XP) recognizes this device without a hitch. The same goes for any laptop that’s connected. My home PC desktop (Windows XP), however, somehow doesn’t even register the fact that the Apollo is connected. The blue light of the Apollo is on, but it doesn’t buzz, like with all other computers. I’ve tried changing the connecting cable, but no result. My computer is a five year old Head Start. It works fine, except for some occasional USB-problems with memory sticks.
Is there anyone out there who’s had the same trouble and resolved it?
Congratulations! Imation has read your review! They linked to your review on their product site.
http://www.imation.com/en/Imation-Products/Hard-Disk-Drives/External-Hard-Drives/Apollo-Portable-Hard-Drive/
I can’t wait to get myself one Apollo!
i bought my imation apollo 2.5 500gb hdd what can i do now because it can’t recognize by my laptop.. pls help to fix it
Right now I am a little bit pissed with my Apollo hard drive. My computer (Win XP) at home does not detect the drive. That is so annoying! I already treid several thing but it does not work. As a I can see several people have this problem. Why is it still going on? Imation has to do something against it.
Thx
I have a external portable disk drive with Imation Apollo USB 2.0 2.5″ Portable hard Drive 500GB . It has problem because I did mistake in reformat so that now could not open. Pleas e send me the free software so that I can reinstall its’ software in to my external drive mentioned.
i have a proble with the same model but with 320 gb
when i pick the safe removal it never let me take it out
well not always but the mosy of times
any idea???
im worried that some day i would ruin it
my whole life depends of apollo
BTW dont use the gray one
if your pc dont detect the hdd
maybe and just maybe (cuz this happend to me)
the usb port doesnt send enough energy
i suggest that you buy a usb 2.0 pci card
i bought one and it works
and if you have a laptop… maybe tour laptop its too old and you need 2.0 usb ports
anyway the gray port can overload your hdd so … dont use it
and for the guy of 300 gb that happends to every pendrive hard disk flash card
always you loose some gbs you can format it but that would take a while i dont think that you already fill your hdd right????
sorry for the bunch of comments
remember windows 7 fix usb storage devices
and if you cant enter to your hdd use total commander
if you use karpesky and the folders disappear you can see them with tatal comm too just change some things in the options its some thing about (only experts)
hummm anything else huuuh……
O!!! and to fix the disappear folders… (in total comm). in win xp copy the folders and change their icons… in vista its easier just right click and chage the icon
you know properties change icon choose the one and done
remember to use scandisk and defrag regurally
and thats the way you will have a long life apollo HDD
hi guys i just buy protable hdd 2.5 but its conecting in computer is there any software or driver to use plllz help me.
I Brought the 500GB a couple of months ago. Really liked the design of the case that came with it
I’ve never had any issues with the drive myself reads and writes files at very good speeds.
I was very impressed with the quality of materials used, One thing worth mentioning is that it is extremely light weight. Tempted to buy another one.. haha.
Thanks Imation/Samsung!
A while ago my Apollo 2.5″ 500GB stopped working. Windows, Linux and Mac OS only pick it up as ‘RAW’, and any attempt to partition it or format it in *any* file system is unsuccessful. It will say success, but the moment I reboot the machine (or unmount the drive), it goes back to being RAW.
Anyone have this problem?
btw, can you post the directions on how to open the case?
My imation hard disk is a few months old. It used to have a problem of not getting detected on some computers (I use it to back up files from various computers I own) and now it’s not getting detected on any of my 4 computers, regardless of whether they are XP, vista or mac. I am contemplating changing a new one but I still need to recover the data inside. It may have a great price, but I am certainly not getting the value from the price.
Imation hard disk is on “FAT” format which it can be use on Mac & Window platform. For FAT format; Disadvantage is, it is not stable on Window platform (sometime it can’t be used on certain workstation- some of the user have already experience it). While Segate HD is on NTFS format which is much stable on Window platform but it can’t be use on Mac platform. Besides that, Seagate hard disk is unable to convert from NTFS->FAT if you want to use it on Mac platform. Before you purchase, you must know the hard disk is going to be use on Window or Mac platform.
For Window platform, it is recommence to use “NTFS” which I know “Segate” is on this format. For Mac platform, it is recommence to use “FAT” which I know “Imation” is on this format.
I just bought an Apollo 2.5 Portable Hard Drive 500gb & will possibly regret it for the rest of my entire life. It begin smoothly when i was copying all my important documents, years & years of family photos, video of my kids growing up and ect. I ejected it from my desktop pc & tried to transfer the file to my mac and my mac did not detect the drive. Thinking it was a compatibility problem i went back to the shop in order to sort out the problem for me and apparently the drive was faulty already as it did not detect in any of the pc in the shop whether window’s or mac.
My agony now is that all my documents and important stuff regards to my work is in the hard drive and the shop is not even sure whether the data can be recovered since it failed to detect the pc. Does anybody here knows whether my data can be recovered if the hard drive can’t be detected. If they were to open the case warranty might be voided.
I am having the same problem that several people are having when they plug their 500gb in and the blue light is steady on but the computer does not detect it. I just reformatted it to NTFS and it has read it several times, but then today it just is not reading. Can anyone help shed some light on this subject?
got the apollo 500gb 2 months back. all was great until my laptop couldnt detect it anymore. tested it on several other laptops, same outcome: blue light on but its not detected. losing my hair over this. i’m really tempted to open the case…
I have the 1TB Apollo 3.5″ model. I have been using it on USB 1.1 machine and now I have a USB 2.0 machine I cannot get it to connect at above 12 Mb/sec. I used to use it for incremental backups so that was fine, but now the drive is completely useless for any normal file transfer. The types of files I want to store on it, take 15 hours to copy over. I tried reformatting the SAMSUNG HD103UJ Media drive with Disk Utility on Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.8 and all I get is “File Formatter System Failed”. I’ve tried the quick and the 7 hour format with the same result. I am stuck with the volume being formatted with a “Master Boot Record” Partition Map Scheme. While this format is quite readable, it certainly makes Flash Drives perform more and more slowly over time, so I was wishing to format the device as a HFS+ Journaled. I guess this would be the GUID or Apple Partition Map Scheme. Regardless of the format, has anyone had a problem where the device is stuck on USB 1.1?
I have the portable HDD-500GB, I don’t know what is rong with it, my laptop detected for the first time only but no more now. I’v try it on a several laotops and desktops, I’m going crazy.
I don’t know what to do, plz help me……………….
I would like to clear up some USB slots on my computer and replace the Y shaped USB cable with an I shaped cable. Anyone know whether this is possible?
Thanks.
my lap is a Toshiba satellite and it HDD works really good…
I have bought the 320GB Apollo with the hope of using it to bulk store DivX video to play through the usb port on my dvd player, as i have been using a 4GB flash drive till now. The player does not seem to pick up the files on the Apollo as it did on the flash drive. Can anyone help??
I have a 320GB Apollo, bought to bulk store divx video for playback on my Pioneer vx-dv171 through its usb port. I have been using a 4Gb flash drive till now with no problems. The player does not pick up any video from the Apollo and just displays “usb data” in the screen. Can anyone help me?
I have a 500GB Apollo, and it was well recognized by my laptop. However, i can’t format it or write anything there, because i got a message like this “the drive is write-protected”. Any ideas?
I have the 500GB Apollo, and after a month it is no longer recognised. The blue light on the case goes on, but the external drive is not recognised at all. Imation are refusing to fix it or even look at it. I would highly recommend NOT buying anything from Imation in the future. I know I wont be.
@Mopar: You probably have to format the drive to Fat16. Well at least with my Divx player I´m required to.
Where can I find a link to download the driver software for windows of imation apollo 500GB external disk drive. Hoping your kind urgent support please.
Note: Please my email address: junpolinar@gmail.com; please give a download link…
@ Axel: I tried that already. No luck unfortunately. Any other ideas gratefully accepted.
Bought my Apollo” 2.5 250gb HDD over a year ago never had a problem with the drive had a problem with my computer where it wouldn’t read anything. but that was my fault for playing with the bios. quick bios reset and again no problems. oh wait its sometimes slow. depending on how long Ive had my computer running (10-15days) then it seems tired lol after being turned off for like an hour good as new again
already getting another one but 500gb, hopefully it is as hard working and fault free as the 1st.
Cheers Imation.
(defrag and scan once every 3monthsish )
I got my Imation 320G to backup my files about 6 months ago, its always been reliable and faster than any other usb drive, I’ve never had any issues……. until today, I reformatted the drive prior to transferring the contents of my laptop ready to update to Windows 7 (bear in mind this is my back-up drive), once i transferred all my files it wouldn’t let me safely remove the drive, i tried restarting my computer and it still wouldn’t, i figured there was just a file on there the computer was associating with daily use, so i turned of the coputer and disconnected the drive. i connected it to our desktop to ensure everything was fine, and it was, so i formatted my laptop and installed the new Windows 7…….. I connected it to my newly formatted laptop and now – the first time ever – no computer will recognise the drive. The blue light comes on, but stays on instead of flashing, and it is making a very faint whurr whurr noise – not continuous. I have tried everything to get any computer to recognise it, There is 250G of years worth of music, programs, photos of my daughter growing up, research and work for Uni…… now it is all gone! I have a 640G Western Digital desktop drive, that is connected to our desktop media computer, running a continuous media centre server, has 550G worth of streaming movies, and it has never played up. I don’t get it…. If anyone could help, please please help me…… I’ve really lost everything I’ve ever worked on, and all my research and memories
My computer couldn’t detect the Imation Apollo 2.5 500gb after i’ve dropped in just once, I don’t understand. All my important data is in there! I tried taking it apart but to no avail I could just take out the screws and that is as far as i went. Someone has got to help!!
i have the same problem… my imation apollo cant be detected on any computer, its not on device manager… every one i talked to said that my files are gone… its depressing.. anyhow, i’m still trying to find a way to fix this.. anyone who can help, please e.mail me? when i connect it to a pc, the hard drive turns on (whirring sound and blue light is on) and thats it… please help….
Crap drive, slow and not reliable. plugged it into a mac book pro and repaired it to regain most of the data but still the slowest drive in history. Contacted imation direct and was told they can do anything for the warranty because i am not in the country i bought it in. Overall it SUX
my imation apollo 2.5″ 500 GB external hard driv cant be detected on any computer, its not on device manager either… every one i talked to said that my files are gone… its depressing..even the people at the computer store say they cant do anything.. anyhow, i’m still trying to find a way to fix this.. anyone who can help, please e-mail me when i connect it to a pc, the hard drive turns on (whirring sound and blue light is on) and thats it… please help….
pls mail me at jitheshjd@yahoo.co.in
pls somebody help…
I just bought the Apollo 2.5 500 GB and it is in fat32?!
Is that normal? and will converting it will ruin my phdd?
please help.
y2j_777@yahoo.com
found it works when it wants too, is a complete annoyance…. Sometimes it flat out refuses to work for a while…. Expecting it to die anyday now and i dont have the spare storage to back up its contents…. Found a shop stocking 1TB externals (Maxtor or Western digital i forget) for $118 dollars and considering i paid $107 dollars (Australian) or something like that its a bargain… It looks like a nice stable reliable product, never has it bin dropped or even left the house since purchase and still has issues on and off being detected by anything at all… Will not buy imation in future and from reading comments above they clearly arent supporting their products well either… I expect to someday soon be tossing it in the bin but untill then will use it for a doorstop or something as im hoping it can atleast be trusted to do that
Well.. just an FYI.. the hard drive died for me and I had to RMA it.. I wasn’t using it in the Apollo enclosure though, I was using it with a different enclosure… I had no problem though RMA’ing just the hard drive back to Samsung.. They replaced it with no problems
To those that can’t access the files or are having problems with the enclosure… the easiest thing to do is take it out of the enclosure and hook it up to your computer, then you can be sure to get the files and you might find any problems the drive might have
crappy drive! i have had the shittiest luck regarding technology in these few months.First my laptop broke down so i recovered all the “important” files like over 20 gigs of photos and so on to my Apollo.First it worked fine with my new laptop (with windows 7) but all of sudden it stopped working (of course before i had the time to transfer the files to my new laptop) the proplem is this.I connect the harddrive to my computer.It works fine for like 1-2 minutes then it seems to disconnect(it dosent say its disconnected or anything)?! so i cant really trasfer anything “big” out of there becouse it disconnects before it is tranferred.i have tried it with different USB cables but no luck.Any suggestions? i dont think it my computer but i will try it with other computer as soon as i can and i will get back here to tell how it went.
i have a problem using my hdd apollo 500GB it wont detect in my computer what should i do???please help me..email me…sarangheriz@yahoo.com
how to repair my External hard drive 500GB Apollo.please help me..i have lot of important files in my hard drive..
hi there when will intel or apallo release there usb extrnal 600 gb solid state flash drive 100 extra gegabytes and no spinning platters eather i wounder how fast a 600 gb ssd would back your computer up
Detection Issues. I reformatted my 320GB Imation drive last night (NTFS), and now it cannot be detected in my home Vista machine, my home Mac, 2 PC’s at work (one running XP and one running W2K), but can be detected in a work PC running Vista.
It’s the same symptoms everyone else having – where blue light comes on, slight whirring noise, but just not detecting.. It worries me that Imation provides a Y usb cable – one end for data and one end for Power – knowing full well that doing this, they are announcing that it would require a good amount of power for it to work. Many drivers only have a I cable and work just fine.
Seeing the comments on here and being fully aware of my own circumstances, I just feel the engineering going on at Imation is sub-standard and they have a poor QA dept.
Not sure if I can use this drive anymore for anything important.. Think I’ll leave it to gather dust and search out a new drive (certainly not from Imation)!
I have three 250 GB Apollo 2.5″ HDD. These are light weight, nice looking, sleek etc etc. But these became useless when I upgraded my OS from Windows Vista to Windows 7. Can any one including the manufacturer will suggest the remedies if any at all. Thanks.
i have had mine for a while and have had the same problem as a lot of people, the blue light goes on when you plug it in and just stays on. if you listen to the hard drive, it makes a consistent sound that you would expect from a fully working one and the computer makes a noise when it is plugged in like when you plug anything else in (kinda like a boodoo) but nothing happens and it is not in my computer at all.
6 months from purchase date the 500gb apollo from imation failed… apparently self check goes ok (doesn’t get stuck powering up), but as soon as it gets plugged to the data stream, it gets stuck reading the header i guess…
i wish i knew it had a samsung hd inside… i’ve had such horrible experience with samsung drives that i would have walked away from the deal…
i am using Apollo 2.5″ portable HDD for a while but now it just stopped working. the blue lights is on that means it is on but still my laptop does not recognize it. is there any thing i can do about it?