Recommend me a safe

[Renault78law]

As a spinoff of my home security thread, does anyone have a recommendation for a safe? Something the size of a bankers box would be sufficient. Just for important documents and jewelry and other miscellaneous personal stuff (but not for guns). Looking for the best value here, it doesn't have to be the top of the line super impenetrable/crackproof. I imagine it's going to be heavy, so if you know if a B&M chain carries it, please list that as well.

 

[globetrotter]

Originally Posted by Renault78law

As a spinoff of my home security thread, does anyone have a recommendation for a safe? Something the size of a bankers box would be sufficient. Just for important documents and jewelry and other miscellaneous personal stuff (but not for guns). Looking for the best value here, it doesn't have to be the top of the line super impenetrable/crackproof. I imagine it's going to be heavy, so if you know if a B&M chain carries it, please list that as well.

I can't recomend a specific safe, but I can say this - you aren't really worried about safecrackers with explosives etc. you are looking to keep people from smashing it with a large hammer, or carrying it off so that they can try to break it later. I would highly recomend getting one that is big enough to fit a 2-3 20 pound weight plates into, while leaving room for your stuff. the added weight, plus the weight of the safe, should make it heavy enough so that people won't want to try to get it out to their car.

 

[Renault78law]

Yes, that's my understanding as well. When my apartment got broken into, the thieves didn't even take my TV. Well, it was a ****** TV, but also probably too unwieldy to carry out.

I also assumed a safe would be secured somehow to the floor or wall.

 

[HomerJ]

I would keep most important documents in a bank safe deposit box.

 

[EL72]

Originally Posted by Renault78law

Yes, that's my understanding as well. When my apartment got broken into, the thieves didn't even take my TV. Well, it was a ****** TV, but also probably too unwieldy to carry out.

I also assumed a safe would be secured somehow to the floor or wall.

I think GT's solution is better. Unless you're pouring concrete, securing the safe to your floor or walls is pretty useless as it can easily be pried free.

 

[Renault78law]

Gold bullion will have to suffice.
Anyone have any recs or what? Should I just go to home depot or something?

 

[Mark from Plano]

I have an Amsec. I'm guessing it's about 2'x2'x1.5' or so. I comes equipped to be secured into the slab. I have mine in a closet bolted into the slab. Had the safe company come out and install it.

 

[AlanC]

It depends on how secure you want to go. We've had a Sentry safe for several years, for basic security but also for fire protection. Take a look here for some options. Ours could be carried off if someone really wanted to; it looks like this:

http://www.sentrysafe.com/images/pro...ils/DS3310.jpg

We've moved a fair bit so it's something we can also take with us. Check Home Depot or Lowe's, although we ordered ours.

 

[GQgeek]

FWIW, we had a safe broken in to when we had our hotel. Unless you're going to spend on a serious safe, make sure it's well-hidden. Those home depot types are pretty crappy imo. If you can carry it, it is useless.

 

[BrettChaotix]

My only input is just that if you intend on storing any types of tape-media or hard drives with personal or financial backups is that you need a UL125 rated safe. A "standard" safe would destroy the media in a fire, even if it didn't burn.

 

[visionology]

That is good info regarding the tape media. I do design work and have been thinking about protecting my CDs and backup tapes in case of accident.

Has anyone heard of a safe that essentially protects an external HD. So I could keep the HD in the safe in the office and have the data copied right to it. I know there would possibly be an airflow issue and maybe issue with the cording but I thought there might be some solution for it.

 

[BrettChaotix]

You won't be able to close a safe if the cords are running out of it so that's not an option.

Sentry makes an external hard drive with a fire/water proof case. It's not cheap and your are limited to their relatively small hard drive sizes (which made them useless for us) but they do offer a data recovery service that goes along with it.

UL125 rated safes are EXPENSIVE so another option may be to buy a "standard" safe and get a small UL125 rated lock-box and store it inside. Fireking also makes a device called a "turtle" it's a special UL125 rated container than fits inside of a lateral filing cabinet.

 

[GQgeek]

Originally Posted by BrettChaotix

You won't be able to close a safe if the cords are running out of it so that's not an option.

Sentry makes an external hard drive with a fire/water proof case. It's not cheap and your are limited to their relatively small hard drive sizes (which made them useless for us) but they do offer a data recovery service that goes along with it.

UL125 rated safes are EXPENSIVE so another option may be to buy a "standard" safe and get a small UL125 rated lock-box and store it inside. Fireking also makes a device called a "turtle" it's a special UL125 rated container than fits inside of a lateral filing cabinet.

Or, you could just back-up offsite.... Even if you don't use an online service, standard practice for backups is to keep them separated from whatever you're backing up. You can use a safety deposit at the bank, or if you backup files at home, bring the backup to the office. I have my backups transfered automatically to my office.

 

[visionology]

Originally Posted by BrettChaotix

You won't be able to close a safe if the cords are running out of it so that's not an option.

Sentry makes an external hard drive with a fire/water proof case. It's not cheap and your are limited to their relatively small hard drive sizes (which made them useless for us) but they do offer a data recovery service that goes along with it.

UL125 rated safes are EXPENSIVE so another option may be to buy a "standard" safe and get a small UL125 rated lock-box and store it inside. Fireking also makes a device called a "turtle" it's a special UL125 rated container than fits inside of a lateral filing cabinet.

I went to the Sentry site and most say they have between 1/2hr to 2hr cd and media protection for fires. Is this the UL protection you are talking about? The smaller ones seem to be reasonably priced in the $100-200 range.

 

[BrettChaotix]

Originally Posted by GQgeek

Or, you could just back-up offsite.... Even if you don't use an online service, standard practice for backups is to keep them separated from whatever you're backing up. You can use a safety deposit at the bank, or if you backup files at home, bring the backup to the office. I have my backups transfered automatically to my office.

Sure, offsite is best but it shouldn't be your ONLY form of backup either....

Amazon's JungleDisk service allows for offsite storage at a rate of 18 cents a gig. I upload an 18GB database backup to them every night but I zip it down to under 2GB first. I've also used eSilo before and they offer their own compression and incremental/differential upload methods. A graphic designer's data, even compressed, is still going to be significantly larger and the limitation of offsite of course is the reliability and speed of your Internet connection. Retrieving 20GB of backups after a data loss will take HOURS over a cable modem... can you afford to wait?

At my current company we keep 24 hours worth of data backed up to alternate DRS servers and have a 3-month tape rotation for the databases. The databases are also what I upload to JungleDisk. The email and file servers are backed up to external drives and stored in fireproof safes.

I also do permanent month-end, quarter-end and year-end backups of most services and store them off site on tape and DVD. This is mostly for financial and legal reasons but they have come in handy more than once.