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Silicon Power launches waterproof Armor A70 external hard drive

by Parm Mann on 1 April 2010, 15:25

Tags: Armor A70, Silicon Power

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qaxqs

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If you value your data more than most users, take a look at Silicon Power's latest range of military-grade external hard drives; the Armor A70.

The 139.45mm x 85.7mm x 18.1mm drive, pictured above, will be available in 250GB, 320GB, 500GB and 640GB capacities, and offers significantly more protection than your average hard drive.

Hoping to satisfy the needs of would-be road warriors, the Armor A70 is compliant with military standards IEC529 IPX7 and MIL-STD-810F 516.5, which to you and me means it's both drop resistant and water proof. In terms of the latter, Silicon Power reckons it'll continue working after being submerged a metre under water for 30 minutes.

It's also dust and pressure-proof, and features a useful slot for the bundled USB cable. Speaking of USB, the Armor A70 supports version 2.0 or 1.1 ports, and provides transfer speeds of up to 480Mbps.

It'll be available in "mysterious red" or black finishes, and comes bundled with Silicon Power's SP Widget software as well as a 60-day trial of Norton Internet Security.

No word on pricing or availability, but it'll be backed by a two-year warranty and supports all common operating systems - including Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.



HEXUS Forums :: 5 Comments

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so the drive is weatherproof… but the cable is tacked onto the side and it's connectors exposed to the elements…
HDDs have to be able to change pressure with the surrounding air and due to platter movement. How did they get around that? Completely evacuated/vacuum HDD?
@RedFlames: It doesn't matter if a USB connector gets wet - just dry it before plugging it into anything and the connectors are gold-plated so won't oxidise.

@borandi: HDDs need air pressure to work because the head floats on a cushion of air produced by the spinning platter so it will be pressurised and sealed.
Its nice to see something that fills a hole in the market. I think that high capacity USB sticks are more convenient and cheaper though.
pricey4907
Its nice to see something that fills a hole in the market. I think that high capacity USB sticks are more convenient and cheaper though.

Wow - I'd like to know where you can buy a 250GB flash drive for less than £150!! :confused:

The £150 was because that's how much I saw a “Sentry” fire/water-proof drive for last time I looked (http://www.sentrysafes.co.uk/sotn/dprod.php?products_id=509). Well, that's if you don't count the <£50 that BigPockets were doing one for at the beginning of the year. :)

One point I'm wondering about is exactly where you'd use these kinds of drives? After all, if they're supposed to be for final-resort type data recovery, wouldn't you be better off with a normal drive given to a relative or in another office (i.e. off site backup)?