Data Backup Digest

At first it might sound a bit silly that you would need a waterproof or fire proof hard drive, but the more you think about it the more sense it makes. Your hard drive stores all of your data and chances are you don’t want to lose it. If a standard hard drive comes into contact with water or fire then the likelihood is that the drive is going to get damaged and your data will become inaccessible.
There are a variety of ways that your drive could get damaged to the elements. If a natural disaster occurs, like a flood, then your drive will be submerged in water. Something less extreme, like spilling a drink, could too render the drive broken. Of course, it isn’t just water that is troublesome for your drive. Fire is an issue too and it could easily burn your drive. There’s no point just having a fire proof drive, however, since it might be necessary to put out the fire with water. As such, having a drive that is water and fire proof becomes a very real concern for a lot of businesses.
There are a number of different companies that offer solutions. One of these is ioSafe, a company that sells hard drive capsules. These are capable of protecting the drive from 10-30 feet of water for 30 days, whether that is from fire sprinklers, direct hose spray or flood submersion. During a fire, the entire inner cavity will close to protect the drive from the extreme temperatures. The kits for USB desktop storage start at $149.99. If you need a NAS or RAID solution then you can contact the company for a quote.
Some companies also produce actual hard drives that are waterproof. One such company is Silicon Power. They offer a range of military grade external hard drives. Measured at 139.45mm x 85.7mm x 18.1 mm, the Armor A70 drives are available in 250 GB, 320 GB, 500 GB and 640 GB capacities. These drives are waterproof and can, according to Silicon Power, be submerged in a metre of water for 30 minutes.
A-DATA also sells an external drive that too can withstand a metre of water for half an hour. It is available in the same storage capacities as the Armor. It also has military standard drop protection. This drive, and the Armor, is more suited to situations of accidental water spillage. If you are looking for flood protection then they likely wouldn’t provide optimal coverage due to the limit of water tolerance and the time that you’ll need to react in.
Of course, it should hopefully go without saying that all of this needs to be implemented with a backup solution. Although the company’s claims about their level of protection should be legit, you can never just rely on a single method to protect your data. Employ a fireproof and waterproof solution if that’s a big concern, but also pair it with remote data backup – it’s better to be safe than sorry.