Home > Consumer Reviews > ioSafe Solo 500 GB Fireproof and Waterproof External Hard Drive with 1 Year Data Recovery Service SL0500GBUSB20 (Silver)

I've owned one of these for about 6 months. I have it connected to my iMac and it works perfectly with Time Machine. I rest easy knowing all my photos, music and important document files are safe, even if there were to be a fire in my home. This product is top notch!

Purchased this external drive based on reviews and its ability to withstand extreme temperatures and flood. It was a great price for the size of storage. I received the hard drive much sooner than I was told I would. No problems just plug it in and save!!! It is well worth it!!!! I would buy another but I don't think I can reach its capacity.

I bought the 1 TB ioSafe because I wanted a good detachable harddrive that would last. I think it is worth the cost for what you get. The fact that they advertise it to be able to withstand fires, floods and theft seemed like a bit much to me at first, but now it feels more like my personal safe rather than just another computer componant: I have downloaded and scanned all of my music and photos; albums, cassettes, CD's etc. Pictures to include my entire family photo album, and all my important legal documents, tax statements, bank records etc. I placed these items into various partitions that I created. I like it so much I am thinking about purchasing another ioSafe for my DVD collection! My only real complaint would be that it is kind of noisy when it is working. Also, the blue lights in front are pleasing but, the on/off switch is in the back and would be a pain in the neck to turn off and on if you placed it on the floor; which is exactly where something this heavy normally usually goes: However, I placed mine on a glass shelf that's a part of my computer table. I then put a small carpet/rug remnant underneath so it doesn't scratch the glass and it also helps with the noise. The only compromise I am making is that I cannot bolt the safe to the floor. There is a nice hole in the rear frame to insert a bolt through if you want to do this but then you have to think about reaching down and turning it off and on all the time. Leaving it on all the time doesn't seem to great of an idea as the blue lights are bright and when it is saving things it does make some noise. In any case I didn't need to bolt it down so my solution works really great for me. The ioSafe makes you feel really secure. I am sure there are ways to add additional passwords/encryption codes etc. to further secure your data and valuables within the safe, but nothing I have is really all that valuable to anyone else but me, the peace of mine I get and the obvious thought that was put into this build makes this product quality in my book. It truly is My Digital Safe.

I was looking for an external hard drive but a friend told me about the ioSafe. It's a fireproof/waterproof external hard drive!!!! I've been waiting for something like this for a long time.

It's about as big as a two slice toaster and is deceptively heavy. After doing more research, I found a video online about it at the Wall Street Journal:

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/01/09/ces-drowning-and-broiling-your-hard-drive/

It seems the insulation is what makes it heavy (about 15 lbs). Makes sense.

Apparently, they've come up with a way to add ventilation, fireproof insulation and waterproof protection for regular hard drives. Very clever.

The ioSafe also comes with what they call a Disaster Recovery Service. Apparently it's a no-questions asked policy (i'm sure they'll have to ask you some questions though). If I have a fire, flood, hard drive failure, whatever - They'll help me get my data back by spending up to [...] of their money!!!

This is one of those things I wish I'd thought of. I love my ioSafe and put all my pictures and tax data on it. I just plugged the USB connection into my laptop and dragged/dropped the data as a backup.

I use Microsoft's SyncToy (freeware) to synchronize my laptop to my ioSafe whenever my computer is idle. It's awesome.

I also checked out the Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 500 GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive WDH1U5000N and the Iomega Prestige 500 GB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive 34270 but both of those are just regular hard drives. They're a lot cheaper though if you don't need the extra protection for your data, you'll save about [...]. For me with my luck and my tendency to succumb to Murphy's Law in all cases, I'm sticking with my ioSafe.

Fireproof and Waterproof. This was the only one I could find on the market. I'm using it as a secondary backup system for a our primary accounting server. I just plugged it in and gained immediate access to the drive. I just setup a backup job configuration from our Backup Exec program and scheduled to backup daily. Easy and hassle free. You get a 500 Gb Hard Drive encased in metal and fireproof foam for about $150. This is a great deal. Keep in mind it's roughly 18 lbs, so this isn't a hard drive you will carry around for use with a laptop. If you live in hurricane central, then this would be a great hard drive to protect your data. I plan on buying one for my home also.