This is a review of the ioSafe Solo Pro by Paul D Smart.
IoSafe Solo 1 TB Fireproof and Waterproof External Hard Drive
As a photographer who has just purchased his first MacBook Pro, I wanted to find a drive I could use in conjunction with Apple’s Time Machine. (for those who don’t know, Time Machine, is the backup software that comes as part of the Apple Operating System).
I’ve looked at a number of solutions and one of those solutions is the 1TB IoSafe SoloPRO External Hard Drive.
The tagline for IoSafe is disaster proof hardware. A bold promise and the IoSafe SoloPRO External hard drive certainly looks like it could fit the bill.
When the drive arrived, I must admit that I was impressed by the build quality. The standard SATAII Hard Drive is enclosed in a waterproof packaging, which in turn is enclosed in fireproof material, all kept in a well put together steel case. The drive is VERY heavy, which lends to the aforementioned tagline nicely. The drive can be bolted to pretty much any solid surface using pre-drilled holes at the reverse of the unit. There is also a Kensington ™ Lock Hole so it can be strapped to anything you see fit.
I came up with a slight hic-up when I plugged the drive into my MacBook Pro. It was not recognized. I then plugged it into my pc. Nothing. Another PC and still nothing. My heart sank!
We contacted IoSafe, whos technical support team responded very quickly.
They asked a plethora of questions to aid in not just sorting the problem but also diagnosing the cause of the “dead drive”.
IoSafe arranged for the drive to be returned and a new drive to be sent out immediately via UPS.
The drive arrived quickly and was well packaged. I connected the USB 3.0 cable to the USB2.0 port of my MacBook Pro and within a few seconds the drive appeared on my desktop. The drive is shipped formatted for Windows, so when plugging in for the first time you are required to re-format the drive for use with the Mac. (If you’re a windows user, you’ll be good to go right out of the box).
The great thing about this drive (other than the water and fire proofing), is that it’s just an external hard drive. This means you can use your own choice of backup solution and software. Everything from dragging the files you want to keep onto the drive to using specialist backup software. There are no drivers to install or required software, so nothing to slow your machine down.
The case contains the drive, water and fire proofing, some snazzy blue lights that flicker showing the hard drives activity and fan! The fan is part of the FloSafe active cooling system. In short the fan allows cooling and the vents are designed to restrict airflow when the drive gets just too hot to handle! The fan is also rather quiet. If the drive is going to be left on constantly you can rest assured the fan will not get on your nerves.
IoSafe provides a three year warranty on the drive and one year of Data Recovery Service with a value of $2500. That’s a pretty high level of self confidence! If you do need to take them up on the warranty, IoSafe will take it on themselves to ship out a replacement drive and arrange collection of the defective unit all at their own cost.
The drive I have here, has just spent several hours in the company of IT Support Agency, The Digital Jedi (www.thedigitaljedi.co.uk), who have ran diagnostics on the hard drive over USB2.0 and USB3.0 who reported that drives read/write speed on USB2 were over 27mb per second with speeds of approx. 40mb per second over USB3. It was also reported that the drive was in very good health.
In conclusion, if you’re looking for a drive to keep on a desk (and not in your laptop bag), this is the ideal drive for you. Your data is not only safe and well protected against all the elements, it’s guaranteed thanks to the Data Recovery Service given by IoSafe.
The only downside from my point of view is the size. An obvious side effect from such strong protection but certainly not something that can be carried around with the owner.
You can read the full technical spec here, on the ioSafe website.
Get a price on the IoSafe Solo 1 TB Fireproof and Waterproof External Hard Drive at Amazon.
This review by Paul D Smart Please visit Paul’s website!
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IoSafe SoloPRO External Drive
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