ioSafe, the Californian HDD manufacturer, have added a 2TB unit to their Solo range of USB external HDDs. The Solo range are designed to be waterproof and fireproof, so even if your house burns down you know that your precious zeroes and ones are safe …. assuming you’ve backed them up recently. The 2TB big boy is available for $375 over at Amazon and here’s the technical data about the 1TB Solo HDD, we can only assume the 2TB will be similar in most aspects

* Fireproof up to 1550°F for 1/2 hour per ASTM E119
* Waterproof up to 10′ depth, 72 hours
* USB 2.0 Interface for PCs or Macs
* Warranty: 3 years warranty
* Interface: USB 2.0
* Rotational Speed: 7200
* 5 x 11 x 7.1 inches
* 15 pounds

We’d love to test the first of those stats but the flame-thrower is in for servicing at the moment, so we’ll assume ioSafe aren’t trying to pull the wool over our eyes and the Solo can withstand 1550°F. What we can do is tell you that a house fire reaches temperatures of 1400°F but probably not for a full 30 minutes so the ioSafe Solo should be OK.

So if you’re up for some fire and water proof data storage check out the ioSafe Solo at Amazon in the following capacities and prices.

* ioSafe Solo 500 GB - $142
* ioSafe Solo 1 TB - $216
* ioSafe Solo 1.5 TB - $300
* ioSafe Solo 2TB - $375

Featured tags: extenal hdd iosafe

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Western Digital have revamped their My Book range and added three new editions, the Essential, Home and Office. Each edition sports units ranging in capacity from 320 GB up to 1 TB and is aimed at specific users. The Essential Edition is a no nonsense plain jane storage range providing USB 2.0 connectivity. The Home Edition is aimed at the home user who is looking at something a bit more fancy with triple connectivity options of USB 2.0, FireWire 400 and eSATA plus automatic backup functionality. Whilst the Office Edition despite only sporting USB 2.0 connectivity not only provides the auto backup functionality but allows secure shared file access to the unit across a network. The Home and Office Editions also sport a capacity gauge for those of you who like that sort of thing ;)

All the drives are housed in similar sized boxes at 166 x 137 x 54mm and weigh 1.15 kg regardless of unit capacity with USB 2.0 connectivity providing the usual 480 Mbps. The Home Edition FireWire 400 gives users 400 Mbps with the eSATA connection pumping out 3Gbps.

The units are priced as follows - Essential Edition from US$130 (320 GB) to US$350 (1 TB), Home Edition from US$170 (320 GB) to US$380 (1 TB) and Office Edition from US$170 (320 GB) to US$380 (1 TB).

So there’s nothing new in terms of numbers but ther are a few extra bells and whistles that may just tempt you to take the plunge.

Source: PRNewsWire

Featured tags: extenal hdd hdd western digital

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I admit that I wasn’t overly impressed with the design of the last LaCie hard drive my eyes wandered over but LaCie may just have won me over with the Little Disk. Designed by a gentlemen called Sam Hecht, the Little Disk looks quite attractive with its extendable USB cable and flip off lid and who would know what lies inside the little black box when its not in use. Unfortunately any kudos built up as a man of mystery with his ‘little black box’ would soon be blown away when people realise it contains a series of zeros and ones. However for a while there you were ‘the dude with the mystery black box’.

Anyway lets crank out the numbers on this puppy

* All models sport USB 2.0 connectivity at 480 Mbps with a couple of FireWire 400 ports at 400 Mbps on larger models
* Spinning speed is 5,400 rpm for all apart from an oh so slow 3,600 for the 30 and 60 GB models
* Most models measure up at 81 x 129 x 18 mm but the dinky 30/60 GB models square up at a mere 64 x 80 x 18 mm
* Again the larger units weigh in at 195g but the smaller ones are 126g
* Capacity starts at the 30 GB mark and goes up to 250 GB on the biggest model

Prices start at US$100 for the 30 GB up to $230 for the 250 GB although there is a 250 GB without FireWire for $180. So nothing to write home about but its sleekness and elegance - attributes fairly uncommon in the external HDD world - make the Little Disk stand out in the crowd.

Source: LaCie

Featured tags: extenal hdd hdd lacie little disk

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