Indestructible Data: ioSafe at CES 2010

Indestructible Data: ioSafe at CES 2010

From CSI to Elvis, Vegas has a habit of doing things in a bold and over the top way, and so it was this at ioSafe’s demo for its new SSD-based Solo SSD NAS box external hard disk. The first ioSafe Solo NAS external hard disk was based around a hard disk, and offered protection against fire, flood and crushing damage – the SSD version takes this indestructibility at step further.

The SSD-based ioSafe is now shock-proof and can handle 20ft (6 metre) drops, thanks to the nature of the solid-state storage device. The Solo SSD is also covered for up to 30 days’ submersion in silty, salty or otherwise dirty water up to a depth of 30ft (9 metres) while the hard disk-based Solo was only covered for submersion in fresh water up to a depth of 10ft and for only three days. The other new addition is an eSATA port, which adds extra speed, if not extra security.

To show off the new protection that the Solo SSD offers, ioSafe staged a DemoLition where it would roast, soak, drop and crush a Solo SSD before salvaging the remains and pulling off some data from the disk inside. Some photos were taken of the attendees to prove there was no pre-arranged shenanigans, and these were transferred to the ioSafe SSD. It was then placed in an a flame-proof chamber, along with a standard hard disk, and roasted.


The Solo SSD was roasted for a good five minutes, and the pyrometer says 1,511 - we're not sure if it's 1,511°F (822°C), 1,511°C or 1,511 candles' worth of heat, but whatever it was, it was hot. We couldn't stand much closer than this without our arm-hair and eyebrows starting to singe! Notice how the standard hard disk has actually caught fire toward the end of out photo story. After the roasting, the soaking...