ioSafe 3.5 Series Frequently Asked Questions

• What is the ioSafe 3.5 Series hard drive?

  The ioSafe 3.5 Series of products are industry standard 3.5" hard drives that unlike any other hard drives are designed to protect the data from natural disaster - primarily fires and floods. The 3.5 Series has two product lines, the Pilot and Squadron. The Pilot product line delivers higher capacity while the Squadron line focuses on higher performance. Both product lines have several capacities available to choose for your specific needs.

• How are ioSafe 3.5 Series hard drives made disaster proof?

  ioSafe uses multiple technologies to protect the 3.5 Series from a disaster. The process begins with ioSafe using an industry standard, highly reliable 2.5" hard drive available from manufacturers like Seagate and Samsung. ioSafe carefully follows the hard drive industry and leverages the best in performance, capacity and features coming from the 2.5" drive manufacturers.

  Beginning with a standard 2.5" hard drive, ioSafe first creates a waterproof barrier for the disk using its patented HydroSafe technology. HydroSafe is designed to protect data loss from fresh or salt water damage, including full immersion. HydroSafe technology provides a waterproof barrier around the hard drive while still allowing the heat dissipation required during normal operation.

  Secondly, a layer of proprietary insulation is added to protect the hard drive's data from extreme heat and make the disk fireproof. DataCast is ioSafe's fire resistant endothermic insulation technology. The DataCast formulation forms a chemical bond with water molecules that, at temperature above 160°F, releases water vapor to limit the internal temperature. This enables the ioSafe 3.5 Series hard drive to protect data from heat damage while the unit is engulfed in flames.

  In order to allow heat dissipation during normal operations, ioSafe incorporates its patented FloSafe cooling vent technology to the HyrdoSafe and DataCast processes. FloSafe provides cooling air flow through the hard drive enclosure during normal operating conditions. If destructive heat levels are sensed, such as in a fire, the FloSafe vents automatically close and protect the data from the extreme heat. No electricity is required for the vents to sense extreme heat or close during a disaster.

  The last step in the manufacturing process is to place the ioSafe 3.5 Series hard drive with all the prior technologies into an industry standard size 3.5. enclosure. While the enclosure allows the ioSafe 3.5 Series hard drive to be installed anywhere a standard drive fits, ioSafe's enclosure also includes a patent-pending technology called MirrorGuard. MirrorGuard provides a reflective heat shield to deflect over 98 percent of the radiant heat from a fire and adds to the protection of the data stored on the drive.

  The process of taking a standard 2.5" hard drive and transforming it into a disaster proof 3.5. hard drive is part of the 3.5 Series product offering. By using a standard 2.5" hard drive, the end user has the option of quickly recovering the data onsite.

  As an additional recovery strategy, ioSafe provides a Disaster Recovery Service with experts ready to assist - another important feature and unprecedented in the industry. The ioSafe 3.5 Series hard drives combined with the Disaster Recovery Service make for an unbeatable combination of backup, data protection and disaster recovery. ioSafe is committed to delivering the best disaster recovery plan available with the least amount of operational change for the lowest price!

• Do the ioSafe 3.5 Series hard drives require software?

  No. The ioSafe 3.5 Series hard drives, like most hard drives, don't require any additional software to operate. The drives should operate exactly like any other standard drive. Backup software from any manufacturer can be used at your discretion.

• Where are the ioSafe 3.5 Series hard drives used?

  The ioSafe 3.5 Series hard drives are used like any other industry standard 3.5. disk connected with a SATA interface. Integrated into a PC, Server, NAS or external USB storage device, the ioSafe 3.5 Series connects like any other hard drive, only it is built to survive disasters! Operating systems that already support industry standard SATA interfaces include Windows, Macintosh, Unix and Linux to name a few.

• How are the ioSafe 3.5 Series hard drives used?

  Hard drives today are used in two ways, either primary storage or secondary storage. In primary storage, applications read and write information to the hard drive. Secondary storage is used to make a copy or backup of primary storage. The ioSafe 3.5 Series can be used for both primary and secondary storage. Using the ioSafe 3.5 Series for primary storage doesn't mean that you can stop backing up to a second target. We highly recommend that a copy or backup of the data must still be made to protect the data from logical corruption or accidental deletion.

• Can the ioSafe 3.5 Series hard drive be used with backup software?

  An excellent use of the ioSafe 3.5 Series hard drive is with a backup solution. Many backup solutions can be configured to backup to disk and tape. By selecting the ioSafe 3.5 Series hard drive as the location for backup, information from primary storage is protected from logical corruption, accidental deletion and natural disasters without the need to take copies of data off-site and exposing the data to security breaches.

• How does using the ioSafe Series hard drive compare to tape backup or CD/DVD backup?

  If you're using tapes or CDs for backup or disaster recovery, the ioSafe 3.5 Series is a strong candidate for tape/CD replacement. It can be used in conjunction with tape backup too to fill gaps in your disaster recovery and backup strategy. Tapes that are consumed in the fire, broken or wet will offer you little help in getting your server back. Security breeches from transporting tapes can also result from human error or disgruntled employees. Tapes located in far away offsite facilities may take many hours to get back to the disaster location.

• How does using the ioSafe Series hard drive compare to online backup?

  Online backup can work well if you're only trying to get a small amount of data off the premises. Recovering a single file from an online backup is much more practical than attempting to recovery terabytes of data. 1 TB may take more than a week to download from even a fast internet connection. The time between backups and the recovery time for the off-site data can be dramatically improved with the ioSafe 3.5 Series and without the recurring monthly fees. You can also incorporate ioSafe technology with any online strategy for multiple layers of backup and disaster protection.

• How do you handle recovery of data subject to compliance such as HIPAA, SOX, FERPA, GLBA or NIST 800.34?
  If data subject to regulatory compliance is software encrypted on ioSafe devices, there is no security risk in ioSafe recovering the software encrypted volume and returning the volume back to the customer intact as long as ioSafe in not given the encryption keys to the volume. ioSafe should not need the software encryption keys to recover the encrypted volume of data. If the volume is not encrypted and/or ioSafe cannot recover the encrypted volume with our internal recovery tools, we can contract with our forensic recovery partner, DriveSavers, if a SAS 70 Type II certification is required during regulatory compliance data recovery. The data drives can be sent directly to DriveSavers if security reasons require it. http://www.drivesaversdatarecovery.com/certification/certified-secure-data-recovery/