 My Digital Safe |
| Review Date: October 14, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Cyber-z, Boston, Ma |
I bought the 1 TB IoSafe because I wanted a good detachable hard drive that would last. I think it is worth the cost for what you get. The fact that they advertise it to be able to withstand fires, floods and theft seemed like a bit much to me at first, but now it feels more like my personal safe rather than just another computer component: I have downloaded and scanned all of my music and photos; albums, cassettes & CD's along with my important legal documents, tax statements, bank records etc. I placed these items into various partitions that I created. I like it so much I am thinking about purchasing another IoSafe for my DVD collection! My only real complaint would be that it is kind of noisy when it is working. Also, the blue lights in front are pleasing but, the on/off switch is in the back and would be a pain in the neck to turn off and on if you placed it on the floor; which is exactly where something this heavy normally usually goes: However, I placed mine on a glass shelf that's a part of my computer table. I then put a small carpet/rug remnant underneath so it doesn't scratch the glass and it also helps with the noise. The only compromise I am making is that I cannot bolt the safe to the floor. There is a nice hole in the rear frame to insert a bolt through if you want to do this but then you have to think about reaching down and turning it off and on all the time. Leaving it on all the time doesn't seem to great of an idea as the blue lights are bright and when it is saving things it does make some noise. In any case I didn't need to bolt it down so my solution works really great for me. The IoSafe makes you feel really secure. I am sure there are ways to add additional passwords/encryption codes etc. to further secure your data and valuables within the safe, but nothing I have is really all that valuable to anyone else but me, the peace of mine I get and the obvious thought that was put into this build makes this product quality in my book. It truly is My Digital Safe.
I thought it would be helpful to add that I never ended up getting a second IoSafe. I'm still really happy with my IoSafe but I found 1 TB to be inadequate to hold all my DVD's: I have too many of them. I'm going with a 4 TB NAS with a RAID option. The IoSafe comes in a 2 TB model, but I need even more space. I read online recently that many people who have not yet purchased an external hard drive have cited the deciding factor as their lack of speed and that in the past, many externals have been, clunky, expensive, loud and slow: The Iosafe revels in all of these qualities; it's heavy, clunky, a real pain to carry around which is why even if you don't bolt it down it's really unlikely to ever get stolen. It's been slow for me when I transfer massive amounts of video, but no slower than would be expected from USB; eSATA would have been a better option. I find it a little noisy but not unreasonable: I positioned it convenient enough to turn off & on, but not near earshot. All things said, as I look back now, I stand by my start rating. I really like this clunky, sort of loud, kinda expensive and a little slow, bombproof 1 TB external solution to backing up your computer to place that is probably safer than anyone really needs! |
Not much to pay for peace of mind!
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| Review Date: June 3, 2009 |
| Reviewer: jim95762, California |
| I've owned one of these for about 6 months. I have it connected to my iMac and it works perfectly with Time Machine. I rest easy knowing all my photos, music and important document files are safe, even if there were to be a fire in my home. This product is top notch! |
Excellent Back Up Option
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| Review Date: November 25, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Gecko Echo, Oregon, United States of America |
Very simple design and sleek looks.
However, a little bit bigger than I was expecting the casing to be.
Only practical use is backup as the Solo requires a power supply and weighs about 10 pounds.
Works seamlessly with Apple Time Machine. |
So far...so good
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| Review Date: March 26, 2010 |
| Reviewer: W. Smith, Dubuque, IA, US |
After purchasing more than 45 external drive units for our business over the last 3 years and experiencing around a 30% enclosure failure rate (not drive failures) -- we thought we'd give ioSafe a try. We have literally purchased all of the most notable brands in the past including g-tech -- which were the best of the bunch until about a year ago when we started experiencing high enclosure failure rates with those as well. The environment in which these drives live is very friendly -- all drives are cooled by EXTERNAL fans as well making heat a non-issue.
We purchased two ioSafe's -- quite frankly not for the fire or water protection (thought it's nice) but more for the integrity of the enclosure. We figured if it's physically robust, perhaps it is also robust in terms of its enclosure design and reliability.
As the title indicates, so far, so good. It's a bit large, but understandable given its purpose. That would be my only criticism at this point.
Will likely purchase again should they prove reliable after 12 months.
Cheers. |
Worth every penny - the best if you care about your digital files
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| Review Date: November 8, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Flaherty, |
I've had various "portable" hard drives that for the most part served as just external hard drives. If you are not really needing the portability of an external hard drive but are instead looking for a hard drive to protect your photos, documents, videos, and other digital files this is it.
It's very heavy so don't plan on moving it around a lot, but it will protect your files through water and fire. Since we live in a hurricane zone and often have lightning in our area (I've seen plenty of house fires started this way) we could not be happier with our decision to buy this external hard drive.
I've also had two other portable hard drives fail due to mishandling by my kids. Since this is heavier and more permanent, I doubt I'll have that problem again. |
Great Product! Hope I never have to test it though.
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| Review Date: April 23, 2009 |
| Reviewer: TexasAggie, College Station, Texas |
Having a couple kids, I'm a bit paranoid about losing pictures and video of them as children. (And other documents and such too.) Off-site backup makes sense, but you have to pay monthly and such... plus it can be expensive if you're talking about ~500GB.
So when I saw this product, I was blown away. (I watched a Wall Street journal review video at the 2009 CES that sealed the deal... they pretty much torch the thing and throw it in a lake.) Aside from theft or some really strange disasters, this appears to be an acceptable alternative to full off-site backup. (Of course, being a single drive in there, it could get corrupted or otherwise go bad, in which case a data recovery place can normally recover it... or I guess ioSafe says they will w/ their warranty?)
The unit appears to be very well made upon inspection. It's a heavy little dude. It looks cool, the blue lights animate when it's working.
I personally use it on a Mac with TimeMachine and it does it's thing by itself perfectly... backing up real time.
A+ so far. Hopefully I won't have to test the fire/water protection. |
laptop hard drive died, ioSafe saved the day
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| Review Date: June 3, 2009 |
| Reviewer: The Phase, California |
| I have been using the ioSafe Solo as a backup for our computers using the backup program included in Vista Home Premium. The hard drive on my wife's newish laptop died which could have been catastrophic since my wife's business data and outlook was on the laptop. Within a few hours I had her business back up on another computer with the ioSafe Solo working perfectly. Fortunately for us there was no fire or flooding; had there been I am sure the ioSafe Solo would have protected our data. |
Burn Baby Burn!
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| Review Date: June 6, 2009 |
| Reviewer: S. Cline, California |
| In my area of the country we have experienced three major fires within the last year, the most recent being in May. You can bet that I'm the happiest person alive to know that my computer information is safe and secure with my wonderful ioSafe product. Living in fire country, an ioSafe external hard drive that is both fireproof and waterproof is the only way to go! |
Great Product, Great Value, Solid as a Rock
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| Review Date: June 7, 2009 |
| Reviewer: C. Coker, |
| I learned about this product from a friend and couldn't believe it. I have thousands of photos and videos of my kids as they were growing up and all are digital. We have friends that lost all of their pictures in a house fire caused by an electrical short. This thought just scared me to death. Both of my kids are in college now and I just couldn't bear to lose these memories. I received the product in just a few days and hooked it up. It honestly took longer to submit my order than it did to get it working with my XP laptop. Backups using the windows backup utility are simple and fast. Knowing I have this extra level of protection has made a big difference in my life. |
Protection at a decent cost
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| Review Date: March 1, 2010 |
| Reviewer: N. Luna, Texas USA |
| I first saw this drive on a list of cool electronics to get someone who's fascinated with technology, that would be me. I'd always wanted to get a fireproof chest to keep some valuable things in, but I thought one of these would be great for storing digital media. I collect a lot of rare music and felt I should back those tracks up on an ioSafe in case anything should happen. Plus, I can plug this into my HDTV and listen to the tracks from the hard drive instead of using CDs. The setup for this is fairly simple and doesn't require many steps, but it is quite heavy so I'd recommend setting it on a bottom shelf of your desk. My only complaint would be the power switch being on the back of the drive, but I'm glad it runs quietly when it actually is on. Part of that might be because I keep in in a closed shelf. Another reason why I purchased this product is because I watched some test videos on YouTube and saw that it actually worked, both after a fire and after being submerged in water. It does have it's limitations, but I think you'll be in great shape if it's not subject to damage for too long. |
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