ioSafe Solo Reviews

More and more business owners, professional photographers and music producers are finding the ioSafe Solo external hard drive to be a top performer for data backup and storage.

This ioSafe review was posted today by an independent graphic designer and music producer.

NETGEAR's RangeMax Wireless Router and ioSafe Solo Hard Drive

Adding USB external storage to your existing network is simple offers many benefits to all users of the network.

The NETGEAR RangeMax Dual Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router delivers great wireless performance for home and small business networking operations. With separate Wireless-N access points for media/gaming and data (photos, video, etc), and concurrent Dual Band N, you get reliable connections for HD media streaming, gaming, and the best Internet bandwidth. Featuring four gigabit Ethernet ports enabling maximum wired speeds, this high performance router is an ideal solution for the connected home with multiple computers and network enabled gadgets running multiple applications at the same time.

The ioSafe Solo fireproof waterproof USB external hard drive can be combined with the NETGEAR's RangeMax Dual Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router (WNDR3700) to create a safe place on any home network for all users to store data.

Apple Time Machine Backup to ioSafe Solo

Every Mac user can thank Apple for developing the Time Machine backup software. Generally speaking, setting up backup software can be quite complex when it comes to the PC world. However, Time Machine has made data backup and recovery simple and elegant.

There are several hard drive manufacturers that bundle their external drives (USB and Firewire connectivity) with Windows-based backup software and/or have built in "one-touch" or "push button backup" solutions. This type of backup process still requires some experience and knowledge for setup so that a scheduled backup process work as required (incremental, full, or file-change backup). On the other hand, Apple Time Machine, makes set-up and configuration smooth as silk. The process is nearly automatic (even my mom can set it up). When a new hard drive is connected, Apple Time Machine brings up a prompt asking whether or not the drive will be used for data backups. Keep in mind that if your external hard drive is formatted for Windows (FAT32 or NTFS), you will have to reformat the disk before Time Machine will be able to use it for backup.

Time Machine will keeps daily backups for the last month, and maintains as many weekly backups as will fit on the chosen backup drive. All that said, the ioSafe Solo works flawlessly with Apple Time Machine backup software. You'll be able to setup automated backups into a fireproof and waterproof rugged hard drive for little more than the cost of any regular hard drive.

How to Make a USB External Hard Drive into NAS

Have you ever wondered how you can use your external hard drive as Network Attached Storage (NAS)? The process really isn't that complex and with a few pieces and parts you can easily backup to a 'brand new' NAS device (or pseudo-NAS device:)

One of the easiest ways of connecting USB hard drives, external drives or a thumb drive to the network is with Belkin's N+ Wireless ADSL2+ Modem-Router. With this simple plug and play device you can store and share media content, photos, digital music and video files from the USB hard drive to every computer on the network. The N+ router is based on the draft 802.11n 2.0 technology which provides the wireless range to easily cover a large home or office

Another easy way to make your USB hard drive into a NAS is with the LinkSys Dual-N Band Wireless Router. This award winning USB to NAS router has been touted by PC Advisor as a Best Buy and by Laptop Magazine as Editors Choice. This Cisco/LinkSys router is made for for speed and optimized for media. Music, movies, gaming: whatever you’re into, Dual-N Band Wireless Router delivers double the bandwidth and media-optimized performance so you can enjoy it more smoothly, with less lag, all around your home. Easy to use and setup, this router also includes a Mac computer setup wizard.

When you take a look at a USB desktop drive versus the NAS storage there are pros and cons to each type of storage. However with the addition of network wireless router you can easily make the conversion and not hurt your wallet too much.

ioSafe Unveils the ioSafe Solo - World's First 1.5TB External Hard Drive That Protects Against Data Loss From the Risks of Fires and Floods

Hard Drive Comparison

Compared to Western Digital My Book and Seagate, Lacie or Buffalo External Hard Drives, the ioSafe Solo Sets a New Benchmark in Improving Data Protection.

Starting at $149, the Affordable ioSafe Solo Improves Risks for Disk Backup Disaster Recovery Solutions.

AUBURN, Calif., Jan. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- ioSafe Inc., the technology solution vendor in disaster-proof hardware technologies and devices, introduced the ioSafe Solo, the world's first 1.5TB external hard drive with integrated ioSafe disaster protection technologies. Optimized to be a low cost external hard drive backup solution and improve the risks associated with data loss, the ioSafe Solo was introduced last week at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The fireproof and waterproof device capabilities were tested and compared versus unprotected hard drives and gathered extensive glowing reviews from attendees. During the demonstration, the pros and cons of disaster proof external hard drives versus non-disaster protected hard drives such as the Seagate FreeAgent or Western Digital My Book were compared.

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Finally an affordable hard drive with fireproof and waterproof protection will be available to the average consumer. Let's look at the pros and cons here...

PROS

When I run out of storage I am going to go to Best Buy or Fry's to buy a new hard drive. When I take a look at the choices available to me I can go for the red anodized drive, the desktop drive with blinking lights or choose the fireproof/flood proof hard drive. Common sense tells me that for the few extra dollars, the ioSafe Solo USB drive is worth the money. After all, it does have a 7200 RPM Seagate or WD drive inside so I know it is going to be reliable from the manufacturer.

CONS

It's not a portable, but ioSafe isn't selling me a portable drive, they are selling me insurance and peace of mind in a desktop storage device. Maybe they will start building a portable rugged version in the future?!?!?

When I step back and take a close look at hard drive storage another factor enters the equation and that is fire insurance. Each and every month I kindly pay my premium to State Farm to ensure that I get back my furniture and personal belongings. However, my insurance policy will never be able to recover my data from a fire. The question to ask now is how much would you pay to get back your digital family photo album. It's priceless, the cost of the Solo is $149.

Compare ioSafe Solo to other Hard Drive Brands

ioSafe has just released their new desktop storage device, the ioSafe Solo - it's a USB 2.0 disk drive that is both fireproof and waterproof. With 500Gb starting at $149.99 it's time to take a comparison of other hard drive manufacturers and see which one offers the best value for the buck.

Storage Capacity
Yesterday I stopped by Fry's electronics and went straight to the hard drives section to see what the big box store was pushing at 500GB and the price range. A standard hard drive (5400 rpm) cost between $119 and $179...the only bells and whistles I could find were pretty lights, cool packaging materials and the occassional 'push button' backup feature (definitely a plus).

The ioSafe Solo at the 500GB range is a 7200 rpm drive and gives me fire and flood protection. Will the fire happen? It's possible. Flood? much more likely in our neck of the woods. Will my primary computer drive crash? Eventually, yes, so I better be backing up my data, digital photos , videos and music.

What about RAID?
Well, the Solo doesn't offer you RAID to protect you from disk failure, but ioSafe already solved that with their internal hard drive called the Pilot and Squadron series...these are 3.5" internal hard drives that you can put inside ANY storage array or server to get your RAID. The price is comparable and if you're the DIY type, then build your next RAID Array with fireproof/waterproof disk drives...why wouldn't you?

What's the Point of all this?
Simply put, it's this...if I am in need of an external hard drive and I go out looking for one, it's a no brainer to spend the extra $10 bucks for fireproof and waterproof (plus the added $1,000 no questions asked one-time data recovery service). No brainer.