That brings me to my paranoia. I have 140Gb of one-of-a-kind, irreplaceable data that could all be gone in the blink of an eye. Hard drives die. So, once a month I copy the entire photo and video collection to a USB drive that I have connected to a different computer. Then it occurred to me that a fire or flood could still take out both drives, so I began also copying the data to another USB drive which I then store inside of a fireproof safe where I keep important documents like birth certificates and such.
All of that may sound extreme, but I want some assurances that decades of family memories can survive a hard drive crash, or a fire, or a flood. Imagine my excitement then to find out that one USB drive manufacturer has taken my paranoia into consideration and built a disaster proof USB drive. The ioSafe Solo drive comes in 500Gb, 1.0Tb, and 1.5Tb sizes and is encased in a fireproof and waterproof enclosure. With the ioSafe drive I can eliminate a few steps from my routine and still have some peace of mind that my data is relatively safe. In the coming weeks I will be evaluating the device and will post a full review later.
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Check out the Threx-Datasafe from http://www.secumem.eu. Compared to the tiny iosafe is this fort knox. Sorry, but i think the iosafe is a toy.
I looked at the Threx-Datasafe site as much as I could. Most of it appears to be in German. I can’t tell how much the Threx-Datasafe costs, and I haven’t yet evaluated the ioSafe drive. But, they look like they could be aimed at different markets. The ioSafe is priced at a point where consumers and small/medium businesses can afford it. I’ll see if I can do an evaluation/review of the Threx-Datasafe as well.
I’m not a hardware guy but wouldn’t a better backup “drive” be along the lines of a USB RAM stick? Then one wouldn’t have to worry about hard drive failure. Seems logical to me for backup purposes. Unless their “Data Recovery Service” is where they make their money…
USB flash drives do not have the moving components and potential mechanical failures of a hard drive, but they are not impervious to data loss either. I think the bigger issue in this case though is that they don’t make a 1.5 Terabyte USB flash drive that I am aware of. I think the biggest I have seen is 32Gb and that won’t even hold my music collection- never mind my pictures and videos.
I am very interested in your review of the ioSafe. I am looking forward to it. For the small biz owner and regular home user it seems to be the best option from a hardened device standpoint. Nobody I know takes their external HDD with them when they leave the house. Thus it is not protected from fire, flood or theft. Which opens up the next question. What is the best way to encrypt the drive AND bolt it to the floor so the average crook would either leave it be OR could do nothing with it if he obtained it.
Now, you need to get a friend or relative who is equally concerned about their data, each of you buy two (2) of these drives, back up your material on a regular basis and ship your backup the drive to your other, geographically distant partner. Upon receipt, the partner would send your “old” backup for you to use. Yes, there are custody gaps in this model, but any way you slice it, its going to be expensive if you demand seamless protection. Three drives would be better, but… (extrapolate from here)
I would suggest you do this every three (3) months; that way you have only a small gap of docs/photos if total disaster occurs.
Oh and BTW, since YOU brought up film, it would be nice if you at least acknowledged the archival properties of film, a value that that digital is totally absent to digital aside from some extraordinary, expensive effort like outlined above. The old hoary argument about digital files being loss less and impervious to change, thus superior to analog media, is bunk and should be put to bed by people who should know better.