The Iomega eGo BlackBelt is a super rugged portable hard drive offered by Iomega with 500 GB of storage.  The Iomega Drop Guard Xtreme gives the hard drive unparalleled protection and can protect the device from a 7′ drop; double the industry average.  This portable device does not require an external power supply and is easily connected to virtually any Mac or PC with USB 2.0/1.1 for power and data transfer up to 480 Mbits/sec. It is formatted for easy plug-and-play connectivity and includes free EMC Retrospect and MozyHome Online backup software with 2 GB of free online storage. The Iomega eGo BlackBelt includes an Iomega Power Grip band and a USB 2.0/power cable.

Iomega kicked out a couple of new portable hard drives last month, one of which being the rugged 250GB eGo BlackBelt that we’re taking a look at today. The most stand-out feature we found in the BlackBelt was its Drop Guard Xtreme, allowing the portable drive to take a hit to the pavement from as much as 7 feet in the air and keep on ticking.

This ability to take a long drop is largely due to the black rubber “belt” that envelopes the drive (mostly the corners) protecting it from all angles of impact. The rubber belt is not adhered to the drive so it can be removed if you would like, and your left with a smooth, flat-black flask-shaped chasis that’s maybe a little to big for a pants pocket but will easily fit into the pocket of a jacket.

If you need a sturdy portable drive, either for backup or to carry large media files around – to show work in progress to a client, for example – the Iomega BlackBelt looks like a good, inexpensive, solution. And the best part is that you don’t have to worry about losing everything if the drive slips from your butter fingers.