ioSafe's Solo SSD ditches platters, isn't worried about buildings collapsing on it

Remember when ioSafe unveiled its original Solo right around this time last year? Man, that thing's looking mighty sluggish now. This year, the company is introducing the Solo SSD, which is hailed as the planet's first solid state external drive built to protect data from a building collapsing on it. Yeah, a building collapsing on it. It'll be available with capacities as large as 256GB and will get connected via eSATA or USB, and if you care to know, the ruggedness is due to the firm's own proprietary ArmorPlate steel outer casing. As for specifics, said tech helps the drive survive 5,000 pound crush forces, 20 foot drops onto rubble and blazing infernos to boot. It'll be available next month in the US for $499 (64GB), $749 (128GB) or $1,250 (256GB), with the full details / press release hosted up after the break. As soon as we catch some benchmarks on this thing, we'll be sure to pass 'em along.

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ioSafe® Introduces the ioSafe Solo SSD - World's First Disaster Proof Solid
State External Hard Drive

The ioSafe® Solo SSD is the world's first solid state external hard drive built to protect data from
building collapse, fires and floods. With capacities up to 256 GB and an eSATA/USB interface,
the rugged ioSafe Solo SSD provides unprecedented physically security for any data that may be
vulnerable to natural disaster.

AUBURN, Calif., January 5, 2010 -- ioSafe today announced the availability of the new ioSafe
Solo SSD - a solid state, highly ruggedized model of the award-winning ioSafe Solo desktop
external hard drive. Combining ioSafe's new proprietary ArmorPlate, a military grade steel outer
casing with SSD technology, the new ioSafe Solo SSD adds unprecedented shock, drop and
crush protection to the existing fire and water protection.

The ioSafe Solo SSD combined with ArmorPlate helps to protect data in a two story building
collapse, 5000 lb. crush forces, 20' drop into rubble and up to a 1000g shock. In addition the
original HydroSafe™, FloSafe™ and DataCast™ work to keep the drive cool during normal
operation and protect the data from fires up to 1550°F for 1/2 hour and complete water
submersion of 30' for 30 days in fresh or salt water. Like all ioSafe products, the ioSafe Solo
SSD comes with ioSafe's Data Recovery Service, a "no questions asked" policy to help
customers recover from any data disaster including accidental deletion, virus or physical disaster.
"The new ioSafe Solo SSD is the world's most rugged and versatile desktop external hard drive.
In addition to the USB interface, the new eSATA connection allows for fast data transfers and
full compatibility with almost any Microsoft, MS Server, Linux or Mac operating system. The
ioSafe Solo SSD can be used alone or in conjunction with any offsite or online backup strategy
to add real time, zero data loss, synchronous disaster protection to any data that sits vulnerable,"
said ioSafe CEO, Robb Moore. "Businesses, especially small businesses, struggle with disaster
recovery and regulatory compliance such as HIPAA, PCI or Sarbanes Oxley, can use ioSafe
hardware to add simple, inexpensive and secure protection. The ioSafe Solo is one of the easiest,
fastest and least expensive ways to protect your data."

Pricing and availability
Prices are $499 for 64 GB, $749 for 128 GB and $1250 for 256 GB. The ioSafe Solo SSD will
be shipping in February 2010 and available through the ioSafe website, www.hddfiresafe.com ,
Ingram Micro and international distributors.

About ioSafe
Like an aircraft black box for data, ioSafe provides rugged, fireproof, waterproof hardware and
disaster recovery services as a cost-effective way for corporations and consumers alike to protect
their irreplaceable data. ioSafe is a privately held company with headquarters in Auburn, Calif.
For more information, please visit www.iosafe.com .
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[vlad the inhaler Posted Jan 5th 2010 12:49AM]

thats certainly a lot of protection for something that doesnt offer hardware encryption as well.

[joebob Posted Jan 5th 2010 12:55AM]

@vlad the inhaler
You put a building on top of the drive. There is all the hardware protection you need.

[Billy Posted Jan 5th 2010 1:49AM]

@vlad the inhaler
Somehow I just think that it's a hard drive enclosed in a sealed plastic enclosed in protective coating, enclosed in fireproof and waterproof aluminium housing... :(

[Wwhat Posted Jan 5th 2010 4:49AM]

Can't be aluminium, that doesn't handle fire well.
And would rapidly transfer heat to the inside but that's another story.

Not to mention the line: "firm's own proprietary ArmorPlate steel outer casing"

[HelloSteveJobs Posted Jan 5th 2010 12:55AM]

i'm waiting Google Phone.

Where is it ?

Someone said they will launch it TODAY!!!!

[Murkurie Posted Jan 5th 2010 1:11AM]

@HelloSteveJobs
maybe because it's only 10pm here in CA, where google is.

[RioRyan Posted Jan 5th 2010 1:11AM]

buy about 20 of these and you won't have to worry about off-site backups anymore...

[Tachion Posted Jan 5th 2010 1:11AM]

I can't see why you would buy this over their (much) cheaper non-SSD hard-drives.

If your data needs -this- much protection (versus only the waterproof/fireproof-ness that their cheaper models offer), wouldn't it just make more sense to pay for a service that does off-site backups?

[Wwhat Posted Jan 5th 2010 4:52AM]

Then you'd have to trust on that off-site, and trust the route to it, which I can understand some organizations/setups might not (*cough*CIA operatives*cough*) due to privacy.. towards human rights or constitutional improprieties (*cough*AT&T*cough*) probes for instance.

[taitherin Posted Jan 5th 2010 1:19AM]

i think the solo ssd is a pretty cool guy, eh kills boot time and doesn't afraid of buildings

[Cheesy142 Posted Jan 5th 2010 1:41AM]

How much would it cost me for one o' them in the 2 terabyte model? Lol

[Jaylittles531 Posted Jan 5th 2010 2:00AM]

Ya know I can buy an external hard drive, throw a SSD in it and buy a fire proof safe for about oh say $800 cheaper.

[jafoman Posted Jan 5th 2010 2:06AM]

Guess it won't blend then? :P

[jafoman Posted Jan 5th 2010 2:11AM]

Check this out... Go to https://iosafe.com/solo-ssd-256 and read this text... "With capacities from 64GB to 256TB, the ioSafe Solo can safely help protect precious or critical business data in a synchronous, real time mode."

Oh really? 256TB... I'm sold for $1249.00!!!!!!!!!

[theshooter Posted Jan 5th 2010 2:31AM]

This is exactly what I need for my adult movie collection!

[edmondg1 Posted Jan 6th 2010 2:07PM]

Yea, I really don't understand the point of having an SSD in here. (It's supposed to be for back-up, right??) Put in a 1TB (or 2TB) non-SSD drive in and sell it at say $150 --$250 and you would have a really compelling proposition here. (And the suggestion for including encryption is also right on but you can do that with some back-up utilities or even WinZip, no? )

[imtigger2 Posted Jan 10th 2010 4:42PM]

From the main page, with one correction:

I have two of their 1.5TB USB drives and I LOVE em. Quiet.. and they have this killer blue to purple glow as my backups hum along happily. One at the office and one at home and at home. I'm not hearing the fan and especially not the drive (units are under the desk/bottom shelf). It was a non-config easy setup of course. Formatted NTFS so my WinXP SP3 kicked in to gear without a thought. The speed isn't the Firewire speeds I'm used to (don't start with USB2.0 vs Firewire technical specs... Firewire's pipeline rocks for me), but with my backups running overnight or "low" during the day... top speed doesn't really matter to me. If I can just make it through my first imaging session of 6 computers. Zzzzzzzzzzz.... past that, should be nice and smooth.

Lights out here looks pretty cool as well. The lights match my blue Griffin knob (he he, he said "knob") and Razer mouse... and as all of you know, that's more important than the tech or survivability of these drives... am I right!? Come-on! High Five!! Yea!!... who's with.... hello? ... hello?? anyone? :-/

Regardless... I do recommend these drives. But then again, who the hell am I?