What’s wrong with fireproof safes?

There is nothing really wrong with a fire retardant home safe. They are well designed to prevent paper products from reaching a temperature that will destroy or ruin them. However, they will not prevent computer data that you have backed up to CDs, DVDs, or even flash drives from being destroyed. They also won’t protect photo slides or negatives.

The problem is, we may not understand the fireproof or fireproof ratings that are assigned to safes. There are three basic classifications for fireproof safes by Underwriters Laboratories. If a safe is rated for 1 hour, it must keep internal temperatures below the specified rating for the entire hour.

UL 350 – Safe must maintain interior temperature below 350 degrees Fahrenheit. That is below normal temperature for most paper products to burn, char, or become useless.

UL 150 is the classification for tapes, cartridges, microfiche, and microfilm. In addition to keeping the interior at 150 degrees or less, the humidity must be below 85%.

UL 125 is the standard for floppy disks. In this case, the temperature cannot exceed 125 ° F and 80% humidity.

Test your own data media

If you doubt the need for a top-rated fireproof home or office safe to protect your data, you can try this simple test.

Find a couple of photo negatives or slides and a printout or two that don’t interest you. Get two old CDs or DVDs that contain some data. Put one of the CDs in a case.

Preheat your kitchen oven to 200 degrees and turn it off so the elements don’t turn on. The radiant heat could be higher and cause the plastic to melt even if the air temperature is only 200 degrees. Put both the CD in the case and the other CD on a sheet of paper and put them in your oven. Wait a few minutes and you can see how the CD curls up from the case. Obviously, the data will never be retrieved from it. Remove the other CD carefully so as not to bend it. When it cools down, you can put it on your computer and see if the data is intact. Sometimes it will be fine.

Now preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Do not set it to 350 in case your oven thermostat is not accurate. When the oven has reached the correct temperature, turn it off. Insert your photos, slides and negatives onto a sheet of paper. Put your good CD back in the oven also on a piece of paper.

You will notice that a negative will roll up and destroy almost immediately. Images will curl a bit and will most likely fade a bit. Images will eventually flatten out again, but there will be no hope for slides or negatives.

The CD will remain flat but the data will disappear. You can probably see bubbles in the plastic on the recording side of the CD.

Alternatives

Here are three alternatives if you want your data to be protected.

Get yourself a fireproof media safe. It will protect your images, slides, negatives, CDs and DVDs. As shown above, a UL 125 rated fireproof safe will protect your data from heat and moisture. While a typical household fire safe can protect data content for a few minutes, the probability that data will be safe for more than 15 minutes is extremely low.

Benefits of a fireproof media safe:

• The ability to quickly back up to a flash drive and immediately store your data every night after backing up.
• The data is available whether or not you have access to the Internet.
• You do not have to pay any monthly or annual fee as you have your safe.

Disadvantage of a fire retardant media safe:

• The biggest drawback to a fireproof safe is the initial cost. They are not cheap.

Use an online backup system. This is a very effective way to ensure that your data is safe. Well, as safe as you can hope for when you use another company to keep your data. If you don’t have a lot of data, you can find free services on the web.

Benefits of using online backup:

• Your data is saved in a completely different location.
• In many cases, your data can be encrypted for added security.

Disadvantage of:

• You may need to use special software. Software changes over time, as do encryption methods.
• You may find yourself converting or even moving your data when a business closes.
• There are annual fees when you have a large amount of data and that will cost you more over time than a fireproof safe.
• You cannot store some purchased software DVDs online. They often require the original DVD to reinstall the software.
• Uploading your nightly backup to the internet is not as fast as saving it to a flash drive.

Rent a safe at your local bank.

Benefits of a safe:

• You have maximum protection.
• It has external data protection.

Disadvantages of a safe:

• Limited access to your data. It’s not there when you need it and you can’t secure it every night.
• The deposit boxes are really small. You can store a large amount of data on a DVD, but you can’t put many slides and negatives on one.
• The costs of a safe vary widely, but will also cost more over time than a fireproof safe.

Conclution

Assess your situation. If you don’t have a lot of data, online backup may be the best option. If you have a large amount of data and have bought a lot of software packages, then your best option is a fireproof safe for the home or office. Whatever you do, don’t get carried away by a fire in your home or office and find out you’ve lost your data.