ioSafe Rugged Portable HDD Review
An adventure photographer needs a durable hard drive. That is just a fact. So when I was approached by ioSafe to test out there 1TB Aluminum Rugged Portable drive I jumped on the opportunity. I have been using a Lacie Rugged drive for years now but was intrigued by the features of the ioSafe drive such as waterproof (up to 10 feet for 3 days in fresh water or salt water) crushproof (up to 2500lbs) and the data recovery service that gives you up to $5000USD towards Data Recovery should the drive fail. Now that is standing behind your product.
The ioSafe Rugged Portable Hard Drive 1TB
I must admit I was a little concerned about the drive speed being only 5400rpm because we were going to use this drive for both Video and Photos. Being on the road full time has us using our portable HDD just like we would use my external ones at home. A test for sure.
Let’s get Started
The first surprise to me was the weight. At a little over 1lb it is a bit heavier that I would have expected. But then again this thing is made out of one piece of aluminum is pretty much bomb proof!
I love the sleekness and look of the drive and it really instills confidence that my data will be protected from the toughness of the outer case. It says it can withstand a drop of up to 10ft. So the first thing I did was drop it off the back deck onto the patio….No not really but I am sure it would survive!
Getting started with the drive is as easy as plugging it in. With the 2 interfaces you have your choice of FW800 and USB 2.0
As a Mac user I am looking forward to the release of the Thunderbolt Drive which they tested at this years CES 2012 where the zapped it with a Tesla Coil!. At the moment the iosafe product line does offer up USB 3.0 connectivity for PC users but only has the option of USB 2.0 and Firewire for Mac users.
Comes with 2 FW800 ports and a USB 2.0 port
As I transferred over my Lightroom library, the first thing I noticed was how fast it was. After using a 7200 RPM drive for the last couple of years I expected to notice quite a difference. I noticed only a little. Files transferred quickly and thumbnail processing was quite quick. But how would it manage within the program, editing images etc…Surprisingly well.
Though not as fast as my desktop External HDD, or the 7200 RPM drive I have used in the past, it was perfect for on the road. As I shoot in RAW it handled the large file sizes well. Loading and sorting images was relatively quick with only a small lag time that would be expected with any external device.
But we still had to put it to the ultimate speed test….editing video.
Time for some Video Editing
To let you know we shoot almost everything at full HD quality and edit with FCPX so as you can imaging I was not expecting the world from this little workhorse.
Uploading video can take forever at full resolution. But to loading our videos only took a few minutes. Not too shabby for a drive as portable as this. The real test though was to come in the rendering of titles, effects etc within FCPX. Now I am sure most people using this drive will not be editing video with it. That is usually kept for the desktop at home but for us there really is no other option. We are on the road full time and it is just not feasible to bring that with us.
So how did it perform??
Quite well for a drive speed of only 5400RPM. Of course there were some lagging issues and some time spent waiting for it to process files but for a drive I thought would be useless for video it performed above my expectations.
Features of the ioSafe Drive
So would I recommend this drive? Of course. If you are traveling a lot, visiting some harsh environments or just looking for some real piece of mind for your data this drive fills all of those requirements. With a price point starting at $249 USD it would be a great addition to any file storage management system.
Pros:
-It is one tough drive
-Incredible warranty and Data Recovery offer
-Sleek design
-Price point
Cons:
-Weight
-Drive speed- Would like the option of 7200RPM especially for video.
;
IoSafe offer a range of portable products to suit your needs. From the $249 aluminum 500GB all the way up to the $1999 600gb SSD with a Titanium enclosure.
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1GB? I assume you mean 1TB.
Thanks Gary, yes, I totally meant 1 TB thanks for pointing that out.
“and the data recovery service that gives you up to $5000USD towards Data Recovery should the drive fail. Now that is standing behind your product.” but you have to pay extra for the DRS yes?
Hey T-roy,
Actually the DRS is included when you buy the drive. With the less expensive one, which is the one I reviewed, you receive $2500USD/TB towards data recovery when you buy the drive at no extra cost and with no deductible for the first attempt. The $5000 is for the SSD drives. A big reason to go with this drive alone!
Pretty impressive that it’s both waterproof and crushproof. Will have to consider this drive when I’m shopping for one right before our trip starts this fall!
Hi Vicky it is a good choice for travel. WE keep all our photos and videos stored on portable hard drives so having a durable drive is extremely important to us.
I definitely needs one of these in my life!
Hello, do you think a con would be the price, given you could get a 1TB portable drive for approx $100USD?
Also, would you think it is worth waiting for a thunderbolt version?
Thanks!
Hi Jarratt, Yes you can get other hard drives for cheaper, but for travel this hard drive is durable and can stand up to the elements. We’ve had hard drives fail, fall and be crushed during our travels so this gives anyone with a lot of photos or data storage peace of mind. The fact that it comes with $2500 worth of data recovery is worth it alone. The ioSafe is comparable in price to other hard drives of this quality and I wouldn’t buy a cheap hard drive for my data. My photos and videos are very important to me. Good point though, yes you can buy cheaper if that is all you need.
I think it is worth it to wait as the thunderbolt is coming out in the 3rd quarter of this year.
Thanks for your honest opinion. It is something that I will consider because I agree with you, protecting our data is extremely important when travelling. I would hate to lose all of the photos (especially) that I am storing on my external HDD.
Before leaving early this year, I purchased an iomega eGo external HDD which is supposedly above average in terms of ruggedness, for about $110USD. I am already concerned by it’s build quality, it frequently ejects itself etc and I’m worried it will fail before the year is out. I can see the value in spending the extra to buy quality from the start (but didn’t at the time).
I have the current model Macbook Air with Thunderbolt and will definitely wait until this comes out… it might be on my xmas list this year!
Thanks again.
This looks awesome! I love that it’s not one of those drives that you have to be extra careful with. I’m always babying my back up drives. Great review.
So true Christy. It’s nice not to be having to worry about our backup of photos for a change.