Storing digital media is quickly becoming more and more important in the hi-tech modern world of today. Thankfully digital storage is getting cheaper but one aspect that is often forgotten is securing such storage devices so that they will be safe from fire, water, and theft. Often times digital media has a greater actual and sentimental value than many traditional valuables. Additionally, digital media is usually much more sensitive than the typical mainstays of home safes and necessitates special care from heat and humidity. Here we’ll look at some of the basic options that are available for securing your digital data and why it's important.
Considerations to Keep in Mind
Important to take note of are the conditions necessary in your data media safe both to make sure that your items are not damaged over time or in the event of a domestic disaster. Digital media and associated items are much more delicate to the exposure of humidity and heat. For this reason, it’s important to keep a dehumidifier inside your data media safe (humidity above 80% can ruin electronics) as well as make sure that the internal temperature does not reach a critical level (125 F) during a fire. Furthermore, what about water damage? Even small amounts of precipitation can be fatal to electronics so it’s also important to make sure that your data media safes are waterproof if you think that this could be a concern. With all that said, this is why these safes exist. Regular fire or burglar safes won’t quite cut it when it comes to electronics so be informed and prepared if you wish to keep your electronics safe.
Getting the Most of the Space
Data media safes are usually much smaller than their fire/burglar counterparts. As data media safes get bigger they get much much more expensive so it’s important to be able to prioritize the space that you have available. What this means is effective digital storage techniques are going to go a long ways in getting the most out of your data media safe. A single flash drive (1 terabyte) the size of your thumb nowadays has the potential to store the same amount of data as 140 DVDs (7 gigabytes each) or 1,400 CDs (700 megabytes each). What this means is that you might be able to save some money by buying a small data media safe and upgrading your storage hardware. However, there are also a lot of other uses and other items that are well suited to data media safes. Photography and film equipment is very heat sensitive as are phones and some music equipment.
