A Look at ioSafe and Synology: Two Storage Solutions for Protecting Data From Any Disaster

[cppguy]

...any disaster except burglary.

Burglars typically don't take hard drives and storage devices, but laptops, game consoles, game disks and cameras.

One other thing you can do is buy a bunch of 64GB microSD cards, tape them to a piece of paper, and slide them to your wallet. You should encrypt it in case of a theft. It's safer than cloud, and in case of theft, fire or earthquake you have a second set of copies. But if you have a business, you should consider a second storage location in a different city.

 

[ChrisH3677]

OT: Save product reviews for the weekends

Hey Guys

This is off topic, but can you save product reviews for publication on weekends?

I get disappointed the MacRumors feed goes silent on the weekends.

Saving reviews would be an easy way for you to generate news - and traffic - all week.

 

[uraniumwilly]

We have a fireproof safe for documents. It's heavy. I wonder if I were to put a backup hard drive in there if it would survive.

 

[Chaos215bar2]

Have I missed something, or did you just write an entire piece on ioSafe and Synology without mentioning ioSafe's Synology-based NAS units? Sure, you could hookup a Synology NAS to an ioSafe drive. Or you buy one device that's both.

ioSafe 214 ioSafe 1515+

 

[unplugme71]

My critical stuff fits on a 32gb flash drive. Compressed and secured with highest level of encryption. I leave a current copy at work and a recent copy at my bank vault.

Pictures would suck to lose, but having them shared online I could always pull some back. The rest are music and movies that I can always find again.

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Have I missed something, or did you just write an entire piece on ioSafe and Synology without mentioning ioSafe's Synology-based NAS units? Sure, you could hookup a Synology NAS to an ioSafe drive. Or you buy one device that's both.

ioSafe 214 ioSafe 1515+

The article implied most have readily available NAS. ioSafe is a good extra device to have. Did you not read the article/watch video?

 

[malexandria]

ioSAFE is Amazeballs!

I went to a special event/demo of ioSAFE a few years ago. They put a hard drive into their thingy, set it on fire and let it burn for 10 Minutes, put it out with a FireHose and then dropped it off a diving board into a deep pool. After that they took the HD Out and I'll be GD if it didn't work perfectly when they plugged it back in. I'm a firm believer in ioSAFE.

 

[pdaviesoz]

D-Link cheap at 00.com.au

My newish 3TB Seagate died two weeks ago - total mechanical failure. I looked at all these brands, but the local D-Link offering was way WAY cheaper. I picked up a D-Link 2-bay Sharecenter for AU$79.99 (RRP AU$150). I bought two WD RED 3tb drives, and its all good, works well with Mac.

NEVER buy seagate again.......!

 

[ssw]

I have a USB-powered external dive buried in the yard..

I keep a timemachine target, connected and powered by USB, buried in the backyard, just below the frost line. It's a 2TB drive, but plan to upgrade to 5 2TB drives as a RAID 5 volume in a month or two.

The current 2TB drive has been working for almost a year. It's enclosed in a tomato can that contains moisture absorbent.

The drive is buried about 1 foot from the house foundation.

I figure it's good for fire, and good for theft. They might take my computer, but they'll never think of check outside for a buried drive.

The USB cable is about 15' long, and my computer is just a couple of feet from the outside wall.

 

[DaveP]

I'm in the same boat and this is so very true. Honestly I would say <30% have a backup with the number probably closer to 15-20% if not less.

I think there is bias in the sample. Specifically if you are asking Apple or a tech reseller for support you are probably much less likely to backup. If you have backups and know what you are doing it is pretty unlikely you contact them about an issue with a drive.

 

[vpndev]

Re: Java

It used to be required. The file browser on their web manager was Java based. It's not anymore though. The past few versions in the past year and a half or so have been a dream to work with.

Thanks for this info. I guess I need to apply updates !

 

[Tech198]

I'm shocked. ......

Apple users should be ashamed.. actually this would extend to Windows users since we're all in the same crappy boat anyway ...

Except me of course who keeps NAS, and several backups ... All encrypted. and only one way to get in via encrypted keys... I never do the fail safe's

I mean, if you are going to to encryption, u may as well not provide any backdoor right ? "just in case you loose anything" while i would say "well if u do loose them, then it will just make it stick next time even worse when all your data is gone"

I can't believe there is no mention of QNAP...... There not popular enough ??

 

[gnasher729]

When you have terabytes of data, the cloud is not a good option. I've whole DVD/Blue-ray collections that would take almost a year to upload to the cloud! LOL

Local solutions for audio and video enthusiasts is really the only way to go really.

I love my Synology DS1512+, I backup all my systems, I run a TeamSpeak 3 server, basic blog, file server, and VPN server to connect to my home network securely when traveling.. Extremely versatile NAS solution.

I think they should offer a "neighbour pack". Two backup servers. One goes in the neighbour's loft and backs up your data through WiFi. The other goes in your loft and backs up the neighbour's data. Even if your house burns down, your data is still safe.

 

[PsyOpWarlord]

...any disaster except burglary.

Though unless the thieves think it's a sort of safe, they are less likely to take a 15 pound external HDD with them, there prefer a higher value to weight ratio.

The Solo's can be bolted to the floor or cable locked. They have the hole for it on the back. They make and sell floor mounts for the 2Bay and 5Bay.

 

[JamesPDX]

Trust but Verify

I'm shocked. ......

Apple users should be ashamed.. actually this would extend to Windows users since we're all in the same crappy boat anyway ...

Except me of course who keeps NAS, and several backups ... All encrypted. and only one way to get in via encrypted keys... I never do the fail safe's

I mean, if you are going to to encryption, u may as well not provide any backdoor right ? "just in case you loose anything" while i would say "well if u do loose them, then it will just make it stick next time even worse when all your data is gone"

I can't believe there is no mention of QNAP...... There not popular enough ??

Totally. Trust but Verify.

I use a few different drives for CCC and Timemachine because I don't trust jack squat with my data, and I'm on a lame DSL in a digital ghetto. :8(

For data (not the system) I think it's easier to rotate (USB, FW, TB) hard drive backups on a schedule. I use Ultrastars for that. I think a fireproof safe and proper insurance might be the answer. It'd be nice to keep a couple backup drives in a safe deposit box, but I'd need $$ and faith in the bank.

I have a QNAP and it's now a glorified HTPC disk because it's a little touchy and untrustworthy with TimeMachine, and you can't just plug it in as a DAS and use Carbon Copy Cloner, although you should be able to auto-copy a drive plugged into one of the USB ports. But that's a real PITA to take a drive out of the studio and down to the basement.

If you have several TB of data, then you really need something akin to Google Fiber for something like Backblaze, Crashplan, Amazon (etc.) to work. Offsite is a luxury that would be nice to have. It comes down to trust.

 

[PsyOpWarlord]

I'm currently using an old ioSafe Solo 2TB as my Time Machine backup for my iMac (going to get the new Solo G3 for the USB3 when I get my new iMac).

My iTunes library (currently 6TB in size) is on an external 20TB Raid 5 DAS along with other stuff.

At least monthly I back both of those to a an encrypted external DAS and store that in my office on the military base I work at. That way all my data is stored off site.

It's not effective for me to use a cloud based storage as I have too much to make it feasible.

 

[winston1236]

I have an iosafe I bought a few years ago. It's a good quality drive, I've never had any problems. As for theft, the thing weighs quite a bit so nobody is going to be running off with it unless its the only thing they want to steal.

 

[uid15]

doesn't save you from Seagates

And a sea gate won't protect you from the sea...




I find the word "any" a little hard to believe; EMP proof? I think not.... or death...

 

[ericinboston]

The cost seems to be $380 for this fireproof case for a 2TB drive...

1)I will assume this is truly only for backup needs...not an every day external.

2)Nice to have a backup, but I find your eggs are still in 1 basket with this solution...if you truly have super critical files/data that needs to survive a water and/or fire accident, the real answer is to NOT have the data where that accident is going to occur. Period. I understand there is room for all sorts of niche markets...and plenty of people/businesses that will want something like this given the 7 billion people on our planet. However, why not go with a more REDUNDANT solution AND CHEAPER solution and MORE RESTORABLE solution by simply a)saving it to multiple devices/formats that are NOT on premises?

I have about 1TB of data that I really, really, really do not want to lose. I have backed it up on 2 or more external drives and each drive cost $100 tops. I have also backed as much as I can on bluray and dvd discs. Some of these devices/formats are in my house in my $80 fireproof safe and some are at my relative's house.


This solution is kinda neat...but expensive and IMO kind of not the best BACKUP solution. Regardless if you are preserving data or bananas, if you're main goal is to battle massive water and/or fire damage (you do realize when the fire dept shows up at your burning house, your house will be doused with hundreds of gallons of water....right?) then priority #1 is to get the stuff away from this danger zone IN THE FIRST PLACE.

I also disagree with their kudos to the cloud for backup purposes for 2 main reasons...1)I would say a much smaller backup size is appropriate...say 5GB (you think your ISP is going to let you upload 50-100GB of data every month?)...2)more importantly, "the cloud" is someone else's physical hardware and employees that can easily browse through your data.

If these units were more like $250 instead of $380, I would likely buy 1 to be apart of my larger backup solution...but they're just too pricey to make me switch backup processes.

 

[Romey-Rome]

Which gun range is that?

Also, how do you go to a gun range to show off a data-protection device and not shoot it? May as well have demoed it in your fireplace.

 

[numlock]

I think they should offer a "neighbour pack". Two backup servers. One goes in the neighbour's loft and backs up your data through WiFi. The other goes in your loft and backs up the neighbour's data. Even if your house burns down, your data is still safe.

i know there is a built in synology to synology over the internet solution but isnt any rsync capable nas enough?

 

[Ed A.]

...any disaster except burglary.

I have a 100lb German Shepherd dog for that.

 

[whitecraine]

Costco sells the ioSafe too for cheap!

Costco often sells the ioSafe G3 at $100 off retail ($250).

http://www.costco.com/ioSafe-SOLO-G3-3TB-Disaster-Proof-Hard-Drive.product.100131848.html

They also used to have a discount code for upgrading their disaster recovery service, but I guess they stopped doing that. Still an amazing deal though! I used to work in a small business and we bought several of these over the years. Great stuff!

It's also theft proof in 3 ways "Kensington Lock Slot + Bolt down capable + Padlock-able
A Kensington lock slot is compatible with all Kensington Locks. The built in anti-theft tab allows you to easily secure the ioSafe Solo to any surface and keeps your data protected in the event of a break in. Securing the drive also prevents the drive from moving during a disaster."

 

[adib]

NAS is pretty much useless for Time Machine

Due to the way Apple implement Time Machine (remote disk image) and the inherent unreliable nature of wireless networks, NASs are pretty much useless for backups. Time Machine keeps prompting me to rebuild my backups every few months or so because of some disk image corruption.

I've raised this with Apple and yet they still haven't fixed this through at least three major OS X releases.

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A pair of Connected Data's File Transporter should fit your "neighbor pack" needs.

I think they should offer a "neighbour pack". Two backup servers. One goes in the neighbour's loft and backs up your data through WiFi. The other goes in your loft and backs up the neighbour's data. Even if your house burns down, your data is still safe.

 

[till213]

My backup solution:

- Physical 2 TB harddrive connected to my iMac: Time Machine backup
- 8 TB (Raid 5) Synology NAS: Time Machine backup (alternates with harddrive above)
- Physical 4 TB harddrive connected to NAS: nightly backup (Synology Time Backup, historised like Apple Time Machine) of NAS data (photos, videos)
- Yearly backup to yet another external harddrive of everything, including the Time Machine backups. External harddrive is then stored at my workplace ("physically somewhere else").

Worst case scenario: my house burns down or gets flooded. In this case I would loose 1 year of data max. - and it needs a bit of discipline.

A Cloud based backup solution would be great, but with the massive amount of data that would cost me quite a bit! But I'll keep an eye on that (and the Synology NAS supports several such "Cloud based" backup providers "out of the box" (pun intended)).

 

[till213]

Due to the way Apple implement Time Machine (remote disk image) and the inherent unreliable nature of wireless networks, ....

I do share this bad experience. However with OS X 10.9.5 it seems to be stable since months now, I never had to rebuild the backup of my iMac "from scratch" ever since. All I do is pay attention as of when to shutdown the computer: never shut down your computer while backup is running! Manually interrupt the backup process and wait until the icon indicates that the backup is not running anymore! That seems to do the trick.

Our MacBook Pro also does a Time Machine backup on the same NAS, and my wife never pays attention when to shut it down. Funnily I never ever had to rebuild the Time Machine backup of that MacBook Pro (running the same OS X 10.9.5)!

My assumption is that backups tend to break more easily when large data is to be moved around - which is more likely the case on my iMac (video preview data etc. - sometimes up to 8 GB to incrementally backup in one go) than on the MacBook Pro (just a few hundreds MB to backup). Probably the backup on the NAS gets corrupted when it is interrupted during the backup of a large file (which is more likely when you do video editing).


I do have every then and when a "Backup is in use" message then and when, however (when I still forget to wait for the Backup to finish before shutting down). The trick is then to reboot the NAS and up to now Time Machine Backups continue as before.

Whether all data is intact is another question: I seem to have access to randomly selected files and their history, and I am fine as long as Apple Time Machine thinks the backup data is correct. All my really important data is on the NAS itself anyway, and that data is backup-ed on another physical harddrive, using Synology Time Backup.

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I have a 100lb German Shepherd dog for that.

But what if the Shepherd swallows the backup drive?