While most of the industry has been focusing on storage solutions that protect against computer failure, viruses and overstuffed PC drives, Maxtor and Sentry recently teamed for a product that protects consumer data when Mother Nature is having a bad day. With the introduction of SentrySafe Fire-Safe/WaterProof Hard Drive (160GB), the two companies have produced an external drive that protects against fire / flood / acts of God, etc.
The drive is essentially a OneTouch 4 Mini decked with backup, restore, and recovery software (like Maxtor SafetyDrill) and a tank-like shell that’s rated for 30 minutes of fire protection up to 1,500°F. While you’ll pay a bit more for the drive (available in 80 and 160GB) the news footage from Southern California a few weeks back and the disaster that was hurricane Katrina certainly shine a spotlight on the need for these kinds of back-up/storage products on the market. SentrySafe also makes a series of storage safes promising the same level of protection against the elements for items like CDs, DVDs, Thumbdrives, etc.
