Our Verdict
ioSafehas achieved a reputation for raise tough - as - nail operose drives . intend to survive conditions that received hard drives cannot — namely fires and deluge — an ioSafe drive such as theSoloPromay be idealistic when you ’re distressed about the bad thing imaginable fall out to your menage .
accord to ioSafe ’s Website , the SoloPro is fireproof up to 1550 degree Fahrenheit for up to 30 hour . While that may not sound like a very long time , what ioSafe is saying is that at ever the most intensive fire , it can keep work . retentive exposure to lighter temperatures , presumptively , would n’t touch the drive — though we have not confirm this .
likewise , ioSafe claims the thrust can keep ticktock in up to 10 foot of water for 72 hours . That ’s a retentive meter to maintain the integrity of a drive in a inundation situation . The secret , as we expose in our review of the Solo ( ) , is an airtight seal that wrap around the crusade itself . This seal of approval is incase in a heat repellent band of block that are heavy , stout , and “ sweat ” when presented with heat .
How we tested. We ran all tests with the drive connected to a Mac Pro dual quad core 2.66GHz Xeon 5400 with Mac OS X 10.6.5 installed and 3GB of RAM. We tested the drive with each available port. We copied a folder containing 2GB of data from our Mac’s hard drive to the external hard drive to test the drive’s write speed, then copied it back from the external hard drive to test the write speed. We then duplicated the same process with .ZIP file containing 2GB of data. We also used the drive as a scratch disk when running our low-memory Adobe Photoshop CS3 Suite test. This test is a set of tasks performed on a file of RAW images, with Photoshop’s memory set to 25 percent. AJA System Tests are run at a video frame size of 1920×1080 pixels, with a file size of 2GB.—Macworld Lab testing by McKinley Noble
Our test only simulated light fire damage with a flamethrower and being dunked into a natural spring . But the system , we imagine , could sustain true for harsh conditions as well . Just do n’t expect the twist ’s devotee or ports to survive the endeavor .
Behind all of this , ioSafe has a pretty astral Data Recovery Service . For the first year , if you ever ask to recuperate from your drive after fire , flood , or whatever , you transport it to ioSafe and they ’ll recover it for you . you could apply this service once , no questions ask . It ’ll also hide up to $ 2500 for forensic convalescence and a successor unit preloaded with recovered data . That ’s a heck of a arrangement , especially pair off with a three - year warranty . The company also offers 3- and 5 - year Data Recovery Service plan , at an additional cost .
Last metre we had an ioSafe thrust in our bridge player , we excruciate the Solo simulation with a full regime of flame and pee tests , and while we found the drive enough sturdy , we were concerned by the lack of fastness and small hard drive capacity . ioSafe has taken care of the capacity by now offering a 1 TB model .
But the SoloPro is still an USB - only desktop thrust , so do n’t carry it to set any speed records . That said , the drive turn in astonishingly sturdy resultant role with its Read 2 GB Folder , Write 2 GB Folder , Read LargeFile.zip , and Write LargeFile.zip psychometric test — all best in class , in fact . With a Read 2 GB Folder sexual conquest of 31.3MBps , the ioSafe Pro is on equation with CalDigit AV Drive ( ) , our top performer , when that drive was tested with its USB connectedness . Even the SoloPro ’s low - memory Photoshop score , at 31.3MBps , is serious . The SoloPro ’s AJA read scotch ( 38.4MBps ) is the best we ’ve ever test for a USB background private road .
The SoloPro also come outfit with eSATA , and you could prefer for USB 3.0 — so in addition to being secure and quick for a USB drive , ioSafe has ensured the drive can address the motivation of even public presentation - focus substance abuser .
At $ 250 , the SoloPro has competitive pricing . While $ .25 per gigabyte may seem a bit pricey compared to other desktop drives , the amount of security the SoloPro provide should order it in disputation with other driving with similar capacities and connexion types .
Benchmarks
Higher score are better , except for down - retentivity Photoshop ( lower Photoshop scores are better ) .
How we tested . We die hard all tests with the driving force connected to a Mac Pro twofold quad effect 2.66GHz Xeon 5400 with Mac OS X 10.6.5 installed and 3 GB of RAM . We tested the drive with each useable port . We copied a folder check 2 GB of information from our Mac ’s hard drive to the external heavy driveway to test the effort ’s write speed , then re-create it back from the external hard drive to test the write speed . We then duplicated the same process with .ZIP file contain 2 GB of data . We also used the thrust as a scraping phonograph recording when running our low - memory Adobe Photoshop CS3 Suite test . This test is a set of labor performed on a file of RAW images , with Photoshop ’s memory set to 25 percentage . AJA System Tests are hightail it at a telecasting skeletal frame size of it of 1920×1080 pixels , with a file size of 2GB.—Macworld Lab testing by McKinley Noble
Macworld’s buying advice
Desktop drives either provide security one of two ways — by maintaining the wholeness of your data through redundancy ( RAID , cloud , or offsite backups ) or by see to it that nothing physically could happen to your effort . The former is nifty for most users , but is mostly useless in guinea pig of rude disaster . While the industry moves towards more offsite backups , a sturdy , secure ride in mansion can still serve a intention . If your net connection is ever sever or you encounter domesticated chance like ardour and inundation , the SoloPro is a honest course of defense .
