Well, not *quite* free, but we do have one to give away! (read to the end) – UPDATE – We have drawn a winner and we’re waiting for a reply before we post the name here. Thanks to y’all and here’s hoping my email is in your inbox! —Simon
ioSafe Solo G3 Review
I’ve been using the ioSafe G3 for a few months now, the large 3TB one… You know, large disks, lots of heat and noise right? Well, this one is silent. It doesn’t have fans in the (relative) MASSIVE case – it has a special protective jacket inside the tough outer shell that protects the drive / drives from all sorts of nasty stuff, you know – like water? (And, I guess Jelly and dog food and baby food.. the list really is endless!)
The ioSafe Solo G3 series (USB2 /3) comprises of three sizes, 1, 2 and 3TB and is priced in at 299, 349, 399 accordingly (USD people) let’s get some tech specs out of the way first, shall we?
- Will withstand a fire of 1550 degrees f, for up to half an hour.
- Is happy under 10 feet of water for 72 hours, fresh or salt – you choose. (Chips best with salt)
- Is Fanless = Silent (Unlike my 2.5yr old!)
- Has a $2.5k data recovery service included for a year after purchase.
- Has USB3 which translates to very fast data transfers (if you have a USB 3 port) *backward compatible with USB2
- Has a Kensington cable point to lock it to something solid, like a frozen parrot.. or a desk..
ioSafe make drives that are darn near bombproof – they back them with a disaster recovery policy and they do (as I’ve shown you in previous write ups) crazy stuff like drive over them, zap them with big electric thingies and drop them in swimming pools… I have a couple of ioSafe drives these days, and I’ve not had an ounce of trouble from either of the units. Here’s a photograph of the insides…
Hard drives and backing up can (and at some point in your life will) be problematic, drives are typically headed towards failure from that first spin… Sure, there are some that may spin longer than others, and if kept nicely (a mixture of environment and usage I’d guess) last a little longer – but they’re all headed towards failure at some point. The ioSafe is no different, but it has some awesome qualities to keep you from wanting to slap yourself on the way… As I mentioned, it’s almost bombproof – this thing will happily sit in a fire for a good while, take a dip to the bottom of the ocean or be zapped by a massive spark thingy and still serve up those treasured photographs of little baby John when the family want to sit around the projector and revisit them.. This new version, the Solo G3, will also do it in almost silence and not emit any heat! So, I’m essentially saying that I could put my 3TB drive in the bottom of a cupboard covered by a few boxes to hide it from view – a great ‘safe from burglars’ idea. Your laptop may get stolen, but you’ll have your backup… (This is based on the fact that a crim will simply unplug your cables and take your laptop! not follow the cable into the cupboard, move the two boxes of old shoes and then make off with the ioSafe)
The ioSafe isn’t small, it’s not exactly light (around 15lb) and it certainly isn’t something you’d want to cart around with you on a daily basis… but ioSafe do have models that you can do all of these things with… This Solo G3 is for a safe, secure backup in the home / small business.
To give you an idea of how I’ve been using the ioSafe, as I already had a vague backup plan in place prior to it arriving, you’ll see in the image below that the ioSafe G3 is bottom left, it’s sitting under my main image drive, a 4TB G-Tech, then there’s my laptop backup, a 2TB G-Tech, to the right, then a 3TB G-Safe (This one backs up my image drive) then my portable drives, the 500gb G-Tech mobile on top of the 500gb ioSafe Rugged Portable. What I’m using the 3TB ioSafe G3 for is to backup various things including my Lightroom catalogue, my laptop and portable drive on a daily basis…
The ioSafe has been running non-stop since the start of March or thereabouts (aside from when I went to take this photo and needed to use its cable for my light) it’s not made any weird noises, infact, it’s not made ANY noise… The noise you certainly don’t want to be hearing is that horrid click of death, whatever you want to call it… And, whilst that’s not always ‘the end’ it can be pretty traumatic.. The ioSafe drive comes with a data recovery service to the tune of $2.5k for when it all goes horribly wrong. So, with a drive like this, you’re going to be pretty well looked after – unless you don’t bother ever letting your backup run!
Here are some generic photography backup tips for you.
- You are only as good as your last backup.
- Once in a while it’s a nice idea to try restoring a backup – just to make sure.
- Make sure you’re not backing up to a different partition on the same disk! (Don’t laugh)
Now, to win a 1TB ioSafe G3… all you have to do is [Like the ioSafe Facebook Page] and comment below answering this question; “if your computer died, and nothing was recoverable, what would you miss the most?” entries close Friday 27th, Australian time at 10pm. Please read the short list of T’s&C’s below.. A random winner will be chosen, announced here and notified via email (So please leave your valid email in the comment section below)
- I’m sorry to say the competition is restricted to the USA only.
- No purchase required for entry.
- Only valid where allowed by law.
- Any customs, duty or crazy postage charges (outside of included delivery to the winner) are at the expense of the winner.
- Winner notified via email left in the comments below, if the winner doesn’t reply within a week, a second winner will be chosen at random.
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