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gadget — Episode 121 – ioSafe Solo: Disaster-Proof Storage!
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The Solo is a product line from ioSafe that is touted as disaster-proof storage. The Solo encases a 500GB, 1TB or 1.5TB SATA drive within a USB 2.0 enclosure designed to withstand fire, flood, structural collapse and other natural or unnatural disasters. It can withstand a 1550 degree fire for 30 minutes and is waterproof for up to 3 days in 10 feet of salt or fresh water. It’s pretty much made to survive the worst day for your home or office.
| At 15lbs, there is clearly something different about the Solo, but the exterior of the case is relatively simple. The back of the unit has a power switch, USB 2.0 plug, venting for the fan, a 12V power plug and a bolt-down mounting for locking the Solo in place. The front panel has more venting as well as a set of pleasant blue LED lights for indicating when the drive is in operation.
Getting the unit up and running is as simple as connecting a USB cable, hooking up power, and turning it on. Our tests showed that the Solo performed as well as other SATA to USB enclosures, measuring just over 33MBps read and 33MBPs write on IOMeter. Compared to the 43 and 42MBPs respectively that we received from an internal Maxtor 7200rpm hard drive on our test system, the Solo performs about 24% slower than an internal drive, though that number might rise or fall depending on the performance of your USB bus. The disaster protection of the Solo starts with its outer shell. Made of two interlocking steel “U” halves, it’s designed to resist crushing, puncture, slashing and shearing damage to the internal components. A quick note to all who like tinkering with your gadgets: The Solo has a few tamper stickers that will show ioSafe if you’ve been messing around in the enclosure. I suggest that you NOT open the Solo unless you want to miss out on the $1000 protection guarantee that ioSafe offers for data recovery. Just inside the shell is ioSafe’s proprietary DataCase endothermic insulation: a ceramic that traps water molecules within an emulsion that ablates during high temperature events, also known as a fire. This allows the hard drive itself to remain below 200 degrees even as the shell is reaching almost 1600. Opening the DataCase reveals flow channels cast into the ceramic. These allow air to circulate through the unit during normal operation, keeping the drive and supporting electronics cool. However, in a fire these flow channels are automatically sealed by a series of poly tubes that melt under high temperatures. As the tubes melt, the flow channels are closed off, keeping out fire, smoke and water. The final barrier of protection is ioSafe’s HydroSafe vapor barrier. Essentially an airtight/watertight bag, the HydroSafe barrier vacuum seals the hard drive, allowing the drive to survive moisture, high-pressure steam, smoke and immersion while still allowing the drive to be cooled by air coming through the flow channels. We got a first-hand chance to see the Solo in action at CES 2009. The ioSafe crew had rented a house near the strip where they brought members of the press to see the Solo in its element. They first loaded some digital pictures onto a working Solo, then threw the entire unit into a pool. Then then placed the Solo into a burn box. Rob Moore, ioSafe CEO, placed a standard hard drive in a tray above the Solo to demonstrate what would happen to an unprotected hard drive in a similar disaster. They then turned on the burner and though the Solo sizzled and scorched, the drive in the tray above the Solo was turned into slag. Needless to say, nobody will be recovering any data from the unprotected drive in the near future. |
After 20 minutes in the fire box at temperatures approaching 1500 degrees, they hosed the Solo down, exposing it to the sort of extreme thermal variances that would be present at a disaster site. Removing a few screws, Rob Moore, the CEO of ioSafe, opened the Solo and we were amazed to see that very little of the ablative DataCase ceramic had been cooked away.
Though the shell was scorched and the SATA to USB interface was toast, the hard drive was cool enough to touch and completely dry within its HydroSafe bag. After cutting the drive out of the enclosure, Rob Moore plugged it into a USB-SATA interface, revealing that the drive was still in perfect working order and that the data we had placed on the drive before the demonstration was still accessible.
As far as testing goes, this demonstration was pretty conclusive as to the efficacy of ioSafe’s approach to disaster-proof storage. Though enough time underwater or in a fire will eventually breach the defenses of the Solo, ioSafe has designed the drive to survive what would be considered the “average” home or small office fire.
Coming in 500GB, 1TB and 1.5TB storage capacities, ioSafe warranties the Solo for 3 years. It is priced at $149, $199 and $299 respectively.
