OWC On-The-Go Pro

Name: (*) 500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable FW800&400/USB2 7200RPM Bus Powered
SKU: OWCMS8U7500GB16
Price: 119 USD
Availability: OutOfStock
Rating: 4.86 (214 reviews)

500GB Triple Interface Storage Solution

Mac / PC / FireWire 800 / FireWire 400 / USB 2.0 & 1.1

The OWC Mercury On-The-Go FireWire 800/400 + USB 2.0 Storage Solution provides maximum storage in an ultra-portable, totally bus powered design!

Stylishly engineered in a sleek, impact-resistant acrylic enclosure, the Mercury On-The-Go Pro incorporates shock-isolation technology to give maximum protection for your precious data inside. The Mercury On-The-Go Pro is a true must-have for users like you who are seeking High-Performance and Highly Reliable storage weighing less than 11 ounces and that is small enough to fit in your pocket.

Outstanding Features

Compact and Versatile

If you're looking for one of the most compatible mass storage solutions made, look no further! The OWC Mercury On-The-Go drive is all you'll need! Packing a one-two punch of super fast FireWire 800 and USB 2.0, the OWC Mercury On-The-Go has what it takes to truly work cross platform. The Mercury On-The-Go Pro is bus-powered, so it doesn't require an AC adapter!

Cool and Silent

The OWC Mercury On-The-Go keeps everything running silent while still keeping your drive cool with a built in aluminum heatsink underneath the hard drive, and passthrough cooling vents on the top of the case.

Fast and Reliable

The OWC Mercury On-The-Go drive uses the latest Oxford chipset for both FireWire 800/400 and USB 2.0. Designed to work with SATA hard drives, this chipset is the latest evolution of the best performing FireWire chipsets on the market.

Gallery

OWC's A Closer Look

Take a closer look at
OWC's On-The-Go Pro.

Includes the Powerful SpeedTools Utility Suite for Mac

The comprehensive Mac utility used by professionals for accurate Mac diagnosis and maintenance. Click the SOFTWARE tab below to learn more »

Includes

OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro FireWire 800/400 + USB 2.0 storage solution
15" High Quality Double Shielded FireWire 800 connecting cable (9-9 Pin cable)
16" High Quality Double Shielded USB 2.0 certified connecting cable
Carrying Case
Backup and Utility software CD

Intech® SpeedTools Utilities™ OEM (For Mac OS 8.6 - X only)
ProSoft Engineering® Data Backup for Mac OS X v10.2.8 or later
NovaStor NovaBACKUP® for Windows 2000 or later
Carbon Copy Cloner® for Mac OS X 10.4 or later

On-The-Go Pro Assembly Manual (4.9MB PDF)
Over 1.5GB of Freeware/Shareware/Public domain software installed
OWC 3 Year Solution Warranty with 48-Hour Turnaround Time
Complimentary Level 1 Data Recovery

Gallery

Product Specifications:

Chipset

Oxford 943 FireWire/USB chipset

Standard Mechanism

500GB HGST Travelstar™ Z7K500 Specifications:

Specifications

Form Factor

2.5″ HDD

Interface

SATA 6.0Gb/s

Capacity¹

500GB

Formatted Capacity²

465GiB

Rotational Speed

7,200 RPM

Cache / Data Buffer

32MB

Manufacturer Model Number

HTS725050A7E630

Format

Unformatted (Instructions on formatting here)

Physical

Height (max)

7mm (0.275″)

Width (max)

69.85mm (2.750″)

Length (max)

100.35mm (3.951″)

Weight (typical)

95g (0.209 lbs.)

Bytes per Sector

512

Areal Density

630Gb/in²

Reliability³

Contact Start-Stops

600,000

Warranty

3 Year HGST Warranty

Performance

Transfer Rate (Max)

600MB/s

Track-to-track Seek

1.0ms

Average Seek Time

13.0ms

Average Latency

4.2ms

Power

Maximum Start Current, DC

5.5 Watts

Seek Power

2.1 Watts

Read Power

1.8 Watts

Write Power

1.8 Watts

Idle Mode

1.7 Watts

Idle Mode, Active

1.0 Watts

Idle Mode, Low Power

0.8 Watts

Standby Mode

0.2 Watts

Sleep Mode

0.1 Watts

Environmental (Operating)

Shock

400 G max at 2ms

Ambient Temperature (°F)

32°F to 140°F

Ambient Temperature (°C)

0°C to 60°C

Altitude

-304.8 m to 3,048 m (-1,000 ft to 10,000+ ft)

Environmental (Non-Operating)

Shock

1000 G max at 1ms

Ambient Temperature (°F)

-40°F to 149°F

Ambient Temperature (°C)

-40°C to 65°C

Altitude

-304.8 m to 12,192 m (-1000 ft to 40,000+ ft)

Acoustics

Idle (Typical)

2.3 bels

Seek (Typical)

2.4 bels

1GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes. Total accessible capacity varies depending upon operating environment (typically 5-10% less). The actual total capacity will depend on your own defined file settings/preferences.
In terms of standard gigabytes, 1GiB ≈ 1.074GB and refers to the actual formatted capacity of shown under Mac OS 10.5 or earlier and Microsoft Windows OS.
Specific application environments such as temperature and duty cycle will affect the overall reliability rates.

500GB* HGST TravelStar Z7K500 Hard Disk Drive**
*1GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes. Total accessible capacity varies depending upon operating environment (typically 5-10% less). The actual total capacity will depend on your own defined file settings/preferences.

**OWC reserves the right to replace or upgrade to equivalent or better components.

Drive Interface

SATA (Serial ATA)

Drive Cache Size

16 Megabyte (16,384k)

Drive Rotation Speed

7200RPM

Port Configuration

FireWire 800 - (2) 9 pin powered ports
USB 2.0/1.1 - (1) 5 pin mini B port

Max Data Transfer Rate

FireWire 800 - 800Mbps (or 100MB/sec)
FireWire 400 - 400Mbps (or 50MB/sec)
USB 2.0 - 480Mbps (or 60MB/sec)
USB 1.1 - 12Mbps (or 1.5MB/sec)

Port/Interface Bootability

FireWire 800: Supported on Macs and PC's meeting minimum requirements. - Click for more info
FireWire 400: Supported on Macs and PC's meeting minimum requirements. - Click for more info
USB 2.0: Supported on Macs and PC's meeting minimum requirements. - Click for more info

Format

Pre-formatted for Mac OSX
View instructions on Windows formatting

Macintosh System Requirements

Mac OS 8.6 to 9.2.2, Mac OS X 10.0.x or later and an available USB 1.1 or FireWire 400 port.
Mac OS X 10.2.8 or later. Including ‘Lion’ 10.7.x and an available USB2.0/1.1 or FireWire 800/400 port.
Time Machine® Compatible: Mac OS X 10.5 (version introduced) and later.

Windows System Requirements

Windows 98SE or later and an available FireWire 400 or USB 2.0/1.1 port.
Windows 2000 or later and an available USB 2.0/1. or FireWire 800/400 port.

Linux Requirements

Linux compatible via supported USB and FireWire interfaces.

Power Supply*

Bus Power via FireWire 800 supported on all models equipped with an available FireWire 800 port either factory stock or via add on FireWire 800 PCI Card.
Bus Power via FireWire 400 on all models made in 2001 or later via Factory ports or any model with add on FireWire 400 PCI Card.
Bus Power via USB on most computers with USB 2.0 port factory stock.
Optional AC Adapter* (available as a separate purchase here)

External Case Dimensions

3.5" (W) x 5.5" (D) x 1" (H)
88.9mm x 139.7mm x 25.4mm

Enclosure Weight (no accessories)

0.69lbs. (0.31kg)

Software Included

Intech® Hard Disk SpeedTools Utilities™ OEM (For Mac OS 8.6 - X only)
ProSoft Engineering® Data Backup for Mac OS X v10.2.8 or later
NovaStor NovaBACKUP® for Windows 2000 or later
Carbon Copy Cloner® for Mac OS X 10.4 or later
Over 1.5GB of Freeware, Shareware, Public domain software installed

Product Manual

On-The-Go Pro Assembly Manual (4.9MB PDF)

Operating Environment:

Temperature

(operating) 5°C - 55°C (41°F - 131°F)
(non-operating) -40°C - 65°C (-40°F - 149°F)

Relative Humidity

(operating) 8% - 90% RH (Non-condensing)
(non-operating) 5% - 95% RH (Non-condensing)

Shock

70G 2mS; (non-operating) 175G 2mS

Vibration

(operating) 1.0G (5 - 300Hz)
(non-operating) 5.0G (5 - 500Hz)

MTBF (hours)

1,200,000

Load/Unload Cycles

600,000

Warranty

OWC 3 Year Solution Warranty

The best warranty is one you never have to use - but should the need occur - we're proud to provide a superior level of support and service coverage to our customers. OWC and NewerTech storage solutions come fully backed by an Industry-leading 48-hour turnaround time which includes complimentary Level 1 data recovery for the first year, plus additional data recovery options available throughout the warranty period, for complete peace of mind ownership confidence.

View more information about the OWC 3 Year Solution warranty

Note: Do not disassemble or otherwise open your OWC solution prior to the conclusion of OWC's 3 year Warranty period. Doing so will void the remainder of the OWC warranty.

Manufacturer provided specifications for Other World Computing p/n MS8U7500GB16 UPC#: 718122777570

Software

Prosoft Engineering® Data Backup 3 for OS X v10.2.8 or later

Backup Made Easy. Data Backup makes it easy to backup to FireWire and USB drives, network drives, CDs and even DVDs. Make schedules so you don't need to 'think' about backing up... It does it for you.
A $59.00 Value! View detailed software info, or click here to purchase softwareseparately from solution

NovaStor NovaBACKUP® Solution for Windows®

NovaBACKUP has been helping millions of users recover from data loss and disasters for over 18 years. Feature rich, NovaBACKUP provides a powerful backup solution. Built-in support for hundreds of the most popular storage devices and a step-by-step backup and restore wizard makes NovaBACKUP extremely easy to use. Requires Windows 2000 or later.
A $49.95 Value! View detailed software info

Intech® SpeedTools Utilities™

Intech SpeedTools consists of a suite of utilities managed by an application which controls the launching, documentation and version control of each individual component utility, such as Disk Defrag and QuickBack. An easy-to-use installation and removal application is provided to make installation a snap, yet powerful enough to allow you to customize which utility component set you would like to create.
An $89.95 Value! View detailed software info, or click here to purchase software separately from solution

Reviews/Awards

"The specific unit reviewed is a 1TB drive and it's a great addition to anyone's hardware setup, particularly if you're a road warrior." — Dave Taylor, Ask Dave Taylor
"OWC has created an upgradable enclosure solution with their Mercury On-The-Go Pro that is Mac and PC compatible and it can handle drives with terabytes of storage or a fast SSD." — Chris Rauschnot, MacTrast
"This versatility and size make it a great accessory for laptop or desktop computers." — Tom Piper, AppleJAC
"Performance is generally very good... clocks in at well over 40MB/s... " — Christopher Phin, Mac Format
"Performed very well... topped the chart among pocket-size portable external hard drives" — CNET, Rating: Very good
"The Best of Both Worlds: Performance and Portability." — The Mac Observer
"Small, Lightweight, Very Rugged and Priced Right" — Scott Kelby, Photoshop User
"A Little Powerhouse In Your Pocket" — Ko Maruyama, Creative Mac
"Highly Recommended."
"Faster Than Most Pocket-Size Drives." — PC Magazine
"Nice Package... Solid Components in a Great Looking Acrylic Case... I Carry This With Me All the Time" — PC Magazine
"Among The Fastest External Drives We've Tested" — Macworld
"The Powerhouse of Storage Systems" — Linsey Knerl, Tom's Guide
"That drive is great... it's my favorite enclosure... it looks AWESOME!!" — Leo LaPorte, Andy Ihnatko, MacBreak
"Very Fast - Faster Than My Fastest Hard Disk." — Marshall Clow, MacNN
"An Ideal Storage Upgrade Situation." — John Guilfoil, BlastMagazine.com
"Blazing Transfer Speeds" — Roberto Baldwin, MacLife
"Plenty of Oomph" — Dennis Sellers, Macsimum News
"I Am Very Satisfied With this Enclosure...I Like the See-Through Case...The Ports Are Laid Out Nicely." — Bryan Sherman, The Gadgeteer
"This Enclosure Has Never Failed Me" — Terry White, Terry White's Tech Blog
"MyMac recommends all OWC On-The-Go external bus-powered drives… conversation pieces and workhorses for eleven years. That's an impressive lifespan for an external hard drive." — John Nemerovski, MyMac.com - On-The-Go Pro 240GB SSD Triple Interface & On-The-Go Pro 500GB SSD Triple Interface
"...fast ...speed cuts down working time and waiting time. ...it's hard to find any fault..." — Marshall Rosenthal, GadgetReview
"...converting my old internal drive as an external one with the Mercury On-The-Go-Pro was a snap" — Michael Grothaus, The Unofficial Apple Weblog
"... performance of the drive is among the best in its class ... this latest product among a line of consistently quality products from Other World Computing, receives a solid five stars." — Randy Yagi, Examiner.com
"This is 1.5TB, which is huge, it can have full length feature films on it." — Amy Scalia, "Queen of Chic", Fox 28 News

Benchmarks

Click any of the benchmarks below to view the results.

Customer Ratings

Write a Review 4.8 / 5 200 out of 214 (93%) reviewers would recommend this product

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: KlownGuy Location: Portland, ME Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: over 6 months

Rating: 5/5 Seven years ago.... April 26, 2018 I bought this portable hard drive in 2011 and it is still working great! Just bought a new one!!

I would recommend this item to a friend! Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer Top 250 Contributor

Reviewer: Chimpur Location: Toronto,On Age: 25-34 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: over 6 months

Rating: 5/5 Solid drive Enclosure November 26, 2017 This is a stylish and durable drive enclosure. It comes with all the cables you'd need as well. I use it to put various versions of OS X on it and use it as rescue disk.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 750GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro Portable FW800&400/USB2 7200RPM Storage Solution. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: JFMorris Location: Huntsville, Alabama Age: 45-54 Experience Level: IT Professional Owned Product: over 6 months

Rating: 5/5 Great drive year after year! October 24, 2017 I've been using this 1TB drive for years now, and its been one of my most reliable portable drives ever. Just keeps on working, and I like the transparent case.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 1.0TB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro Portable FW800&400/USB2 Storage Solution *SPECIAL*. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: SavvySeniorLady Location: South Carolina Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: 1-3 months

Rating: 5/5 Best price; guaranteed product; speedy delivery June 27, 2017 I only consider OWC for computer products. The ordering process is simple, especially with all the online support videos and info. Products are all guaranteed; online videos give full, easy and clear installation instructions. Finally, every time I have ever needed guidance, the support staff has been wonderful. Satisfied customer of many years.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 320GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable FW800&400/USB2 5400RPM Bus Powered Solution. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: peterl7 Location: Austarlia Age: 45-54 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: 1-3 months

Rating: 5/5 great product January 17, 2017 great unit

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 750GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro Portable FW800&400/USB2 7200RPM Storage Solution. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer Top 100 Contributor

Reviewer: MPandP Location: Ca Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: over 6 months

Rating: 5/5 My go to file tranfer device November 11, 2016 I prefer this when transferring data.. dependable and buss powered too. Easy to set up and format.. Mac and PC friendly..

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 320GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable FW800&400/USB2 7200RPM Bus Powered. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: DocFather Location: Bangkok, Thailand Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: over 6 months

Rating: 5/5 As with several previous OWC On-The-Go HD I am very happy with this 750GB September 3, 2016 I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 750GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro Portable FW800&400/USB2 5400RPM Storage Solution. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: nickyname

Rating: 4/5 nice drive August 19, 2016 have not had ANY problem with ANY product from MacSales!

thank you.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 320GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable FW800&400/USB2 5400RPM Bus Powered Solution. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer Top 250 Contributor

Reviewer: Anonymous Location: California Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: less than a month

Rating: 5/5 It keeps on ticking! July 24, 2016 Just getting around to a review, but I've been using this particular drive to make backup clones for nearly 7 years now. Still works perfectly, and I recommend these drives highly.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from (*) 500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable FW800&400/USB2 5400RPM Storage Solution.

Verified Buyer Top 250 Contributor

Reviewer: Anonymous Location: California Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: less than a month

Rating: 5/5 Great Drive July 24, 2016 I'm a bit late reviewing this drive, which I've now been using for 5 years. I bought it for a clone backup, and I've got a few other drives like this one (all less than 1 TB, though). Never a failure, just a great little backup drive and I'm 100% satisfied with this line. It fits perfectly in my bank safe deposit box, also can be carried with me when necessary. Very small footprint. My favorite backup drive.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 1.0TB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro Portable FW800&400/USB2 Storage Solution *SPECIAL*.

Verified Buyer Top 250 Contributor

Reviewer: Anonymous Location: Alaska Age: 45-54 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: over 6 months

Rating: 5/5 Love these mobile devices February 21, 2016 I love these mobile devices, particularly the fact that they do not require a separate power unit. Big plus!

Overall performance has always been excellent. I highly recommend!

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 750GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro Portable FW800&400/USB2 7200RPM Storage Solution.

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: Anonymous Location: Iowa Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: over 6 months

Rating: 5/5 Simple and powerful December 19, 2015 The best of my 5 external hard-drives. Easy to use.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 320GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable FW800&400/USB2 5400RPM Bus Powered Solution.

Verified Buyer Top 250 Contributor

Reviewer: Anonymous Location: Exeter, RI Age: 55-65 Experience Level: IT Professional Owned Product: over 6 months

Rating: 5/5 My lifesaver December 11, 2015 I've used this drive to back up my Macs for almost four years. Having a reliable backup has saved my bacon more than once. The drive has performed quietly and flawlessly for all this time. I enthusiastically recommend it.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 1.0TB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro Portable FW800&400/USB2 5400RPM Storage Solution.

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: Anonymous Age: 35-44 Experience Level: IT Professional Owned Product: over 6 months

Rating: 5/5 Best external backup drive for a MacBook Pro November 3, 2015 I have used these Mercury On-the-Go enclosures for many, many years and have owned about six of them. I continuously upgraded as new / different bus connections became available. Not a single one ever gave me a problem. Easy to upgrade the drives inside as you upgrade the capacity of your laptop. Fast enough for backups or even booting if necessary. I use these to clone my internal drives and tend to use the FireWire 800 port. They get warm during longer (45m) backups, but that's what the heat sink is for, and they never get super hot. You can rely on them. Has a power switch if you want to keep them plugged in but off. Bus powered, so no need for external power. Small, light, and durable enough to keep in a backpack or laptop bag. Only gripe is that you may not like the small blue light on the controller board. It is not annoying, I prefer it, but it does exist and may annoy you if you are Donny Darko.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 320GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable FW800&400/USB2 7200RPM Bus Powered.

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: agster Location: Mid-West Age: 55-65 Experience Level: IT Professional Owned Product: over 6 months

Rating: 5/5 Excellent solution to my VM requirements March 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.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 750GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro Portable FW800&400/USB2 7200RPM Storage Solution.

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: Trebla Location: SoCal Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: less than a month

Rating: 4/5 Not Quite a Triple March 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.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from (*) 500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable FW800&400/USB2 5400RPM Storage Solution.

Reviewer: maclover Location: albuquerque, NM Age: 35-44 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: over 6 months

Rating: 5/5 Well made reliable drive July 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.

I would recommend this item to a friend!

Reviewer: sirmixalot Location: Lake in the Hills, IL Age: 25-34 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: over 6 months

Rating: 5/5 Wicked cool. May 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.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from (*) 500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable FW800&400/USB2 5400RPM Storage Solution.

OWC 500GB OWC On-The-Go Pro Mfr P/N: MS8U7500GB16 OWC SKU: OWCMS8U7500GB16 Triple Interface Storage Solution 3 Year OWC Limited Warranty

Reviews (214)

Sold Out

OWC On-The-Go Pro

500GB Triple Interface Storage Solution

Includes

Gallery

Product Specifications:

Chipset

Standard Mechanism

500GB HGST Travelstar™ Z7K500 Specifications:

Specifications

Physical

Reliability3

Performance

Power

Environmental (Operating)

Environmental (Non-Operating)

Acoustics

Drive Interface

Drive Cache Size

Drive Rotation Speed

Port Configuration

Max Data Transfer Rate

Port/Interface Bootability

Format

Macintosh System Requirements

Windows System Requirements

Linux Requirements

Related Items

Power Supply*

External Case Dimensions

Enclosure Weight (no accessories)

Software Included

Product Manual

Operating Environment:

Temperature

Relative Humidity

Shock

Vibration

MTBF (hours)

Load/Unload Cycles

Warranty

Software

Reviews/Awards

Benchmarks

Customer Ratings

Reliability³