Safe Data Storage & Planning

Data backup is a primary concern for small businesses across the country. Creating and maintaining a solid plan for backup of records, databases, Quickbooks and more is an often overlooked step that can lead to catastrophe.

In this blog we link to an Indiana Contractor that has taken the time to educate their clients on both the importance of backing up data and documents and how easy it is to implement a safe plan.

Read more about Artisan Electric

ReadyNAS Duo and ioSafe Solo Workaround

For those of you using the ReadyNAS Duo as your backup server there have been some issues with the ReadyNAS recognizing the ioSafe Solo.

A clever workaround is as follows:

Reboot the DUO with the ioSafe hard drive plugged into the back USB port. Disable the DUO's power timer (this timer shuts down the device at night and powers back on in the AM) and the Solo will work as a backup drive to of your Netgear home media server or business server.

Mac Users and Elegant External Hard Drives

Every distinguished Mac user needs an elegant external hard drive to match the aesthetic and functionality of their computing needs... Most graphic designers, artists and video/music producers do a great job of ensuring their data is backed up to the best of their ability and this loyal Apple computer connoisseur sets the record straight on using the ioSafe Solo as an external hard drive for mac.


Read the complete hard drive review here: http://tonedefsystems.com/forum/weblog_entry.php?e=137

PogoPlug + ioSafe = Cloud Computing without the Drizzle

Let's face it, cloud computing has it's advantages (off site, remote accessibility, etc) but even Google can mess it up sometimes...thus proving that a combination of on site and off site are best. As technology changes, prices drop for the consumer and in today's computer world you can buy a fireproof hard drive for the same price as a regular hard drive - it makes cents$$, there is a lot of value there. The only downside is that you are relying on a mechanical drive (susceptible to failure).

Along comes the Pogoplug!!
The Pogoplug connects your external hard drive to the Internet, easily allowing you to share and access your files wherever you may be. This includes smart phones! Simply connect the Pogoplug to network and attach an external drive. Simple. Done.

By combining the Pogoplug and ioSafe external hard drives you can get on site data protection from fire and flood and the benefits of mobile file access and sharing.

Two great products (both got big thumbs up at CES this year) combined can help solve your data backup strategy in a very cost effective manner.

Solo Drive and Reformatting

The ioSafe Solo hard drive comes out of the box with NTFS formatting. For the Mac world, users might want to reformat. If the external hard drive is formatted FAT32, both Macs and PCs can read the drive, however there is a limitation to the max file size - limited to 3 GBs

Apple Airport Extreme and ioSafe Solo

Several users have reported mixed results with combining the Apple Airport Extreme with the ioSafe Solo hard drive.

According to the ioSafe website, "Currently compatibility is the Apple Airport Extreme is not supported. Several users have reported mixed results with combining the Apple Airport Extreme with the ioSafe Solo. We are working on resolving the issue but cannot guarantee compatibility at this time. Try updating the Airport Extreme firmware to 7.4.1 as this has worked with some users to enable compatibility."

ioSafe Solo and a Windows Home Media Server

The ioSafe Solo external USB hard drives offer great value per gigabyte when compared to regular brands of disk drives. Fire and flood protection are a vital element to any backup, storage and recovery plan, now for little more than the cost of a regular external backup device you can get priceless fire and flood insurance for your digital family photo albums and business data

The following is an excerpt from Home Server Hacks and Microsoft MVP Donavon West

Creating a WHS disaster recovery plan

How can you effectively use the ioSafe Solo as part of your Windows Home Server disaster recovery plan? As far as I see it there are two approaches that you can take:
Plan A

With this approach, you build a system comprised of a standard SATA system drive and use two or more ioSafe USB drives for data storage. With data duplication turned on, you will have all of your files (minus re-creatable system files) stored on disaster proof drives. If you ever experienced a fire, the WHS would be destroyed (you can rebuild that), but all of your data will be secure.

Once the ioSafe drives are back (you need to send the charred remains back to ioSafe to be recovered), simply plug them in, rebuild the system drive using the system recovery DVD and you are back in business my man!

Plan A is more costly (requiring multiply ioSafe drives) but provides complete protection for all of your data. Note that because you entire system (minus the system drive) is running on USB connected drives, the data throughput speed will not be as snappy as on internal SATA systems.
Plan B

The other less costly approach is to build up a standard system utilizing standard drives, like the one you probably have right now. Power Pack 1 introduced a feature that will let you backup certain high value shares to an external hard drive. Plan B would make that external hard drive a fireproof/waterproof ioSafe Solo drive.

READ MORE...

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Click here for the full story of ioSafe hard drives vs. Online Backup

File Serving with the ioSafe Solo - USB to FTP

Excerpt taken from
Serving your External Hard Drive

I just wanted to add a short tutorial for those of you who think that having your files accessible no matter where you are is an interesting alternative to carrying around that scratched and battered jump drive. Actually, mine has crapped out more than a few times and can have problems being mounted on older computers and PCs. Yeah, I'm a Mac guy...

So, my ioSafe Solo rugged hard drive is what I use as backup for all of my important home files, designs, posters, photos, music, etc. All the stuff that pays the bills. So, it must remain on and connected to my LAN (local area network) anyway. I figured I'd just open the LAN up to the world and serve my stuff wherever I need to work; meaning essentially I can transfer files from my backup drive to whatever office(s) or domicile(s) I will be located during the course of a day and vice versa. Intriguing, eh?

Read more...

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.

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.

Storing Hard Drives in a Fire Safe

Comparing Fire Safe Storage Devices
When it comes to protecting your business data, digital video or photography images you'll want the best storage system available. Protecting your backup media (CD's DVD's) and portable hard drives from fire means you'll need a fireproof safe with the correct fire rating of UL 125. This UL Class 125 standard means that your media will maintain integrity in a fire up to 1700 degrees F for 1, 2, or 3 hours. The higher the fire rating, the more expensive the fire safe.

Using Hard Drives in a Fireproof Safe
Computer electronics create heat, hard drives create heat...your computer has fans, your laptop has fans...heat is the number one enemy of hard drives and a leading cause of hard drive failure. Fireproof hard drives with air flow cooling have been engineered to protect your data from fire disaster and also remain reliable during normal daily operation. Storing hard drives that you intend to use for daily backup inside a traditional closed door fire safe will suffice for very small amounts of data, photos or video. These types of fireproof safes are not designed for small, medium and large businesses that rely on computer data to maintain operations. Daily computer system and hard drive reliability are the mainstays of moving your business forward at all times during the year and even more so in a challenging economy.

It's been said that today's businesses are only as good as their data, this means having a strong backup and recovery plan.

not be your best option.

http://www.hddfiresafe.com/hard_drive/storing-disk-drives-in-fire-safes.htm

DVR Hard Drives

Data Storage and Recovery of Digital Video
Today's DVR surveillance devices offer a wide range of features and methods for backup and archiving digital video. From compressed MPEG-4 video stored on hard drives to DVD writers/burners. Many of today's systems also have USB ports to connect external hard drives for data backup.

What would happen if your DVR was lost in a fire disaster?
Recovering data after a fire disaster is no easy task and this valuable digital video could be required by your insurance company to verify inventory, etc. Today there are options to ensure data integrity by using fireproof dvr hard drives or fireproof external USB storage devices. For little more than the cost of a standard hard drive you can ensure complete security and recovery of your data, mitigating any security risks that arise.

By hardening your existing DVR or CCTV systems you'll rest easy that your loss prevention measures stand up to the test.

Home Media Servers

Looking to get the most out of your Home Media Server?
Try Home Server Hacks.com to learn how to get the most out of your existing media server, build your own for less than $400 and get the latest tips and tricks from the DIY crowd.

ioSafe Chooses Fujitsu Hard Drives

ioSafe offers a fireproof waterproof hard drives and has selected Fujitsu to be the official drive to power their patented technology. The Fujitsu 2.5-inch SATA Hard Disk Drives Prove the Most Resilient and Reliable in Extreme Conditions and ioSafe will integrate Fujitsu for disaster protected external and internal hard drives.

Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc., is a leading supplier of computer products including hard disk drives, peripherals and biometric security solution. Fujitsu's mobile HDDs, with up to 320GB(1) capacity, are available in the ioSafe 3.5 series, offering the industry a high performance and expanded capacity drive with a disaster-protected guarantee. The ioSafe 3.5 series certifies fire protection to 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes (per the ASTM E119 standard) and water protection from fresh or salt water damage for full immersion at depths up to five feet for 24 hours. ioSafe adds a patented ruggedized casing to the Fujitsu 2.5-inch drive, which can then be deployed and used exactly like any other industry-standard 3.5-inch SATA HDD, but with the added capability of disaster protection.

Media Servers

Easy to use, easy on the budget
For a complete system that can be used as a file server or home media server check out the bundled ioSafe internal hard drives with the Drobo or ReadyNAS network attached storage systems.

NAS Fire Safe Systems

NAS Drives vs. USB Hard Disk Drives

What are the differences between USB drives and Network storage drives? Which is the best hard drive for you?

On the most elemental level, the USB drive simply plugs into a USB 2.0 port on your computer, laptop or server and allows you to back up data directly to the device. This is often called a direct attached storage device. On the other hand a NAS system or drive plugs into your computer or router and can be seen as additional storage by all computers on the network, thus the name Network attached storage.

When it comes to data transfer speeds there are some significant differences between each type of drive and system. USB 2.0 systems average about a 60 - 80 mb/s data transfer rate. This depends on the true connection speed and whether you are in a read mode, write mode or a read/write mode. NAS drives can transfer data up to 1 GB minute. Most of these drives have a 10/100/1000 Mb Ethernet interface allowing for rapid transfer of data across the network. These speeds will of course slow down if you are using a wireless connection.

If you or your business has already invested into a file server then it may be best to attach a USB drive or system directly to the server. Using the fireproof USB from ioSafe will quickly give you extra redundancy and fire and waterproof protection. Another option would be to purchase fire resistant internal hard drives and simply install them inside your existing server or USB storage array.

Another option that offers the most data redundancy and protection would be to bundle a DROBO NAS system or Netgear ReadyNAS. These complete systems start at price points that are very attractive and offer the most bang for the buck when it comes to the small business budget.

For businesses that are looking for common sense answers to seemingly difficult storage questions, let the experts offer you some advice...ask questions, ask for options!

Storage Server for Business

Business data backup and storage consists of several key components including storage capacity, budget, security and integrity of data, reliability of the storage device and digital asset growth.

In today's work office environment a storage server offers many benefits that can help you achieve your goals for smooth IT operations as well as a productive shared network environment. There are several options for putting together your network storage server to ensure low costs, a beneficial return on investment (ROI) as well as reliability and high availability of your vital digital data.

For the large enterprise one must first do a backup strategy cost analysis to compare removable tape backup media versus disk based systems. Key factors here include the risk for human error (the number one cause of data loss) and mitigating these risks by automating the backup process. Other important factors are data compliance issues (HIPAA, SOX, etc) and WAN congestion for off site backup. The ability to archive and the scalability of data must also be considered. If you are archiving hundreds of terabytes as part of your requirements, a boat load of DLT or LTO tapes is hard to beat. Even though disk-based archival costs are dropping rapidly, tape based options still represent probably your best archiving value.

An off site plan such as electronic vaulting online is considered by many to represent the worst solution for long-term archiving, especially if you're paying third-party monthly fees based on the amount of data stored. Online data backup strategies are very limited in archive and scalability due to high-speed connectivity costs and the cost per GB charged by third-party data centers. These costs continue to climb with each passing year.

Every company will face its own unique challenges to backup, store and protect its digital data assets. Make sure you take convenience, reliability, data transfer and backup speeds and the security of your data all into consideration.