Review on Solo G3 2TB: The Ultimate Fireproof and Waterproof External Hard Drive Solution by Carl Estell

I have to admit I'm a bit stressed when it comes to backups - I'm afraid of losing important business and personal data. So when I decided to replace two external WD USB drives, I was intrigued by the IOSafe product. I use a software product called Syncovery to copy my file server to backup drives nightly. I then use a cloud service (Carbonite) to back up offsite. My idea is that a file server (RAID 5) protects against a disk failure. External drives protect against file server failures and Carbonite protects against fire or flood. It may be overkill, but it helps me sleep at night. Reasons to Buy My decision to purchase the IOSafe was based on the belief that a fireproof and watertight housing would provide additional protection. Prices vary widely from seller to seller, but I found one on the Revain marketplace with a really attractive price. It cost about $100 more than a regular USB 3.0 drive, so it seemed like a worthwhile investment. I also wanted to upgrade from USB 2.0 to USB 3.0 to reduce backup time. My Experience I bought two discs. This way I have redundancy as I back up to disk 1 and then copy to disk 2 every night. If the hard drive fails, I still have a backup. Delivery was quick and the discs were packaged very well. Two things to note: 1. These drives are quite large and heavy. This is because they are surrounded by a waterproof and fireproof liner. But there's more than I want on my desk.2. USB 3.0 cables are very short (1 meter). That way they can't reach my computer, which is under the table. The user manual warns against using longer cables. I looked at the USB 3.0 standard and it seemed like a 10-12 foot cable would work, so I contacted support who was quick to respond. Basically they said they were being conservative and suggested that if I was going to use longer cables I should consider a powered hub. In the end I took the risk and used good quality 10ft cables. No real issues so far, but I've found the USB to drop out of connection once or twice. However, I have seen this issue mentioned in many USB 3.0 product reviews on Revain. Maybe my computer is to blame. I decided to buy a printer stand on wheels that would fit under my desk. This allows me to store the discs off the table, use short cords, and protect the discs from accidental bumps while vacuuming the floor. Aside from cable issues, the drives work well. They are silent. A tiny LED indicates drive activity so I can see that they are operational. About a week after I bought these drives, one of my WD external drives died, so the timing was correct. All in all a worthwhile purchase. The drives come with a 3 year warranty so I plan on keeping them until the warranty expires. I replace all my hard drives when they are out of warranty to minimize the chance of a drive failure. They also come with a year of data recovery, but I doubt I'll ever use that as I should have enough redundancy to restore in any situation I can think of.