Media/ Data safe within a safe

Casual Shooter · Aug 31, 2010

Hi all,

I recently purchased a safe. I would like to add a media type safe within the safe to protect things like DVD's and other media in the event of a fire.

Given that the safe's interior will not get over 350-400 degrees (hopefully), I wondered about the need to buy an actual "media" safe. The literature on things like small Sentry fire safes show it to keep the internal temp below 150 degrees in a fire. But in a 350 degree safe, the media safe would be overkill (not necessarily a bad thing).

Anyone have experience in this area?

rtpzwms · Aug 31, 2010

Take a copy of the media you want to save. NOT the real stuff but a copy. put it in the oven and set it to 350 and let it go until you smell something. I'll bet you'll know what to do then. Since you did not tell us what the media is there is really no way to answer the question. But at the temps you're stating you can test it in the kitchen oven so why not test it?

I would try it and time the test. Then if needed buy the media safe and retry the test to the same time point. If the time exceeds the expected time to put out your house should it catch fire then you should be good.

a1abdj · Aug 31, 2010

There are two types of inserts made for media. One is designed to be free standing (full 150 degree rating on its own), and the other is designed to be placed inside of another safe that already has a document rating (UL listed).

Sounds like you need to look at the second type, which is good because they have a larger interior volume, and are less expensive. Schwab makes a decent unit which they call their "media cooler", and sells for $250 +/-:

http://www.schwabcorp.com/File_Cabinets/schwab_media_cooler.htm

mbogo · Aug 31, 2010

Consider online storage. Google's gmail offers 7.5GB free storage (you e-mail yourself the files and leave them on-line).

mbogo

Casual Shooter · Aug 31, 2010

Take a copy of the media you want to save. NOT the real stuff but a copy. put it in the oven and set it to 350 and let it go until you smell something. I'll bet you'll know what to do then. Since you did not tell us what the media is there is really no way to answer the question. But at the temps you're stating you can test it in the kitchen oven so why not test it?

I don't think you understood the question- or I didn't explain myself clearly.

I'm wondering if I need to put a "Media" safe inside my current safe or if some other container would suffice. A media safe is rated to keep it's contents to 150 degrees or less in a 1500 degree fire. Inside my safe will never exceed 400 degrees so perhaps another type of enclosure would work when placed inside my current safe saving me from buying a "media" specific safe.

And I will be putting mostly DVD's inside whatever I choose.

Casual Shooter · Aug 31, 2010

Sounds like you need to look at the second type, which is good because they have a larger interior volume, and are less expensive. Schwab makes a decent unit which they call their "media cooler", and sells for $250 +/-:

http://www.schwabcorp.com/File_Cabin...dia_cooler.htm

Thanks Frank. I'll check into that.

Casual Shooter · Aug 31, 2010

Consider online storage. Google's gmail offers 7.5GB free storage (you e-mail yourself the files and leave them on-line).

Thanks for the suggestion, but this will be for media- like DVD's. Storing family movies burned to DVD in the cloud wouldn't be easily done.

I'm not concerned with paper since my safe will protect them sufficiently... although I will probably put them in whatever liner I choose.

mbogo · Sep 1, 2010

Casual Shooter said:
Thanks for the suggestion, but this will be for media- like DVD's. Storing family movies burned to DVD in the cloud wouldn't be easily done.

I'm not concerned with paper since my safe will protect them sufficiently... although I will probably put them in whatever liner I choose.

Actually, it is quite easy. The DVDs contain files (MPEG, AVI, WMV, etc.) that can be added as attachments to e-mail.
Insert the DVD into your optical drive, and open 'My computer' (on Windows). Right-click the icon for the optical drive and select 'explore'. Drill down to the folder containing the video files, so you can see which ones you want to send.
Your e-mail client has some mechanism for sending attachments. Attach one video file to an e-mail and send it to your GMAIL address. If that test works, send the rest to yourself (up to 7.5GB total).

mbogo

Casual Shooter · Sep 1, 2010

I understand the idea behind emailing attachments to myself and leaving them on the server, but I have over 7.5gb's of information. Therefore I would be over the storage limits of the email provider.

4thPointOfContact · Sep 1, 2010

I'll call Google when they get Terabytes of storage. Until then, it's multiple copies all stored in off-site places.

inherentical · Sep 1, 2010

I use Amazon's Simple Storage Service for the same purpose. 7.5GB would cost you approximately $1.13 per month to store. It's $0.15/month per GB for the first 50TB for 99.999999999% durability, and $0.10/month for 99.99% durability. I spring the extra nickel per GB. Of course, I store my digital photos on a Synology Diskstation with a RAID 5 array, daily backup to a local USB drive, and weekly backup to Amazon's S3 service.

In addition to keeping hard copies of the media in a fireproof safe.

Hey, I work in IT. What did you expect?

hso · Sep 1, 2010

Sorry, but if it isn't firearms related it's not appropriate for THR.

Media/ Data safe within a safe

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