ioSafe SoloPRO Fire & Water Proof External Hard Drive Review

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Our love of ioSafe‘s fire proof and water proof external hard drives is no secret. I mean how can one not love something that’s able to survive this, or this?

I’d been using ioSafe’s original product, their Solo model, since I first tested it back in August of last year (they sent me a replacement after I’d burned the original up in the car.) So when they asked if I was interested in being upgraded to one of their newer Pro models I happily accepted.

The SoloPRO is available with either eSATA/USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 connectivity and you can choose from either 1 TB, 1.5 TB or 2 TB of storage. The company sent me their eSATA/USB 2.0 model with 1 TB of storage.

Inside the box you’ll find both a eSATA cable and a USB cable. I choose to simply use the USB cable and connected it directly to my 24″ iMac. I’d been using the older ioSafe Solo as go-to point for my Time Machine back ups and I planned on simply replacing it with the newer SoloPRO.

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The SoloPro protects your data from loss in temperatures up to 1550 degrees F for up to 30 minutes. It’s also completely water proof and can survive in up to 10 feet of water for up to 72 hours.

In addition to the connectivity cables the SoloPRO also comes with a power cable and power brick.

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The housing of the hard drive has been completely overhauled. Gone is the older matte silver finish of the original silver Solo. The new SoloPRO features a black brushed metal finish that looks fierce. It almost looks as though it’s inviting danger to take a shot at it.

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Every ioSafe external hard drive comes with 1 year of the company’s disaster recovery service. On the top of the hard drive you’ll find a registration card which must be completed in order to activate this service. At both the time of purchase and at the time you register your drive you can choose to upgrade your disaster recovery service to an additional 3 or 5 year period.

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Setting up the SoloPRO was a breeze. I simply plugged in the power cable to my battery backup power strip, plugged the USB cable into the back of my iMac and flipped the power switch on the back of the SoloPRO to on. I did have to reboot my iMac in order to get the SoloPRO to mount but once I’d done so I was able to set up Time Machine to make all of its backups to the new drive.

There’s no price you can place on precious memories. I know this all to well. A few years ago I lost a large amount of digital information that was stored on a cheap external hard drive. I was willing to pay whatever the price to recover the data but in the end the information was lost forever. Now I rest easy. My ioSafe SoloPRO sits at my feet like a good guard dog. Man’s best friend? Maybe not but I’m certainly relieved knowing that my personal data is being stored and held by the most indestructible hard drive on the planet and no matter what comes its way it’ll be there to protect it.

You can learn more about the ioSafe SoloPRO by visiting the company’s website here.

MSRP: Prices start at $249

What I Like: Indestructible. Comes with disaster recovery service.

What Needs Improvement: Nothing.

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4 Comments on "ioSafe SoloPRO Fire & Water Proof External Hard Drive Review"

  1. Firefighter @lgreenberg reviews the SoloPRO http://ow.ly/3brBG Thanks to @geardiarysite

  2. Thanks to @lgreenberg for the great review http://ow.ly/3brSc Be sure to see the video from his last review http://ow.ly/3brW0 Stunning!

  3. RT @ioSafeNEWS: Firefighter @lgreenberg reviews the SoloPRO http://ow.ly/3brBG Thanks to @geardiarysite

  4. This is a great device. I have one that I won, and I don’t worry too much about needing to have an offsite backup of my stuff. I keep a few things in the cloud, but I don’t worry since I back up everything to my ioSafe.

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