Events January 29, 2012

ioSafe Shocks Us Again at CES 2012

Gear Diary ioSafe Shocks Us Again at CES 2012 photo

ioSafe is known for keeping your data SAFE. How safe? Well, first we took the initiative to burn and water-soak a drive, and the data was still recoverable. Then, starting with CES 2010, ioSafe decided to show everyone that their drives are capable of withstanding burning, soaking, dropping, and crushing. In 2011, we upped the ante again and took shots (yes, using a gun) at an ioSafe drive, and the data saved on the ioSafe drive came out unscathed. Well, we wondered what they would do next and, at CES 2012, we found out.

Honestly, what we saw shocked us …

Gear Diary ioSafe Shocks Us Again at CES 2012 photo

First, ioSafe talked about the newest release in their Solo line, the ioSafe Solo G3. The Solo G3 is a fireproof and waterproof external hard drive with prices starting at $299. Fireproof up to 1550 degrees Fahrenheit (for 30 minutes) and waterproof in fresh or salt water (up to 10 feet under water) for three days, this fanless USB 3.0-based external hard drive is available in capacities up to 3TB and includes ioSafe’s data recovery service.

Then, ioSafe talked a bit about their ioSafe Rugged Portable external drive. This drive purportedly is:

Crush protection up to 5,000 pounds
Drop protection up to 20 feet
Immersion protection up to 30 feet for 3 days
USB 2.0, USB 3.0, and Firewire 800

Gear Diary ioSafe Shocks Us Again at CES 2012 photo

Well, we’ve seen them crush, drop, burn, and immerse their drives before, so what could they do to show just how rugged the ioSafe Rugged Portable is? How about shoot a million volts of electricity through it? (Yes, 1,000,000 volts!)

ioSafe took one of their high-end ioSafe Rugged Portable SSD drive, which is a very fast drive, and put it through a pretty intense torture test. In order to prove that this was not a pre-staged drive, they had several people at the demo throw out random phrases which were typed into a computer and saved along with other data that was copied from a computer. ioSafe covered the ports on the back of the drive with a protective shield, but otherwise didn’t modify the drive in any way. Then, with the help of Dr. MegaVolt, ioSafe showed us a 950,000-volt Tesla Coil and just how powerful it is. It… was… powerful! I was 10 feet outside the main cage but could feel and smell the ozone burning in the air as Dr. MegaVolt showed us the power and beauty of the Tesla Coil at close to a million volts arced its way from it.

Then they put the ioSafe Rugged Portable SSD to the test.

Gear Diary ioSafe Shocks Us Again at CES 2012 photo

I expected them to quickly shock the drive and be done with it. That would have been impressive enough, but this was ioSafe; a quick jolt was not going to do it. Confident in the ruggedness of their drive, ioSafe had Dr. MegaVolt hold the drive next to the Tesla Coil while arcs of electricity pulsed through it for 15, 20 seconds or more. (Don’t ask me to be specific as I was mesmerized by the arc of electricity going through that poor drive). I honestly expected thought that would be it but they were just getting started.

Dr. MegaVolt held up the drive and shocked it again.

And again.

I truly felt for the poor drive.

Sure, the risk of someone being hit by lightning is fairly rare, so this test was far more intense than anything any of our drives should ever encounter. But it was a heck of a show. Here, take a look…

So how did the drive hold up? Perfectly.

ioSafe was able to plug the drive right back into a computer, and all of the data showed up — including the text file we saw them create on the fly!