Earthquake/Fire/Flood safe for LTO tapes?

[Scott Pultz]

I'm looking for a secure place to store LTO tapes. In particular I want to protect against earthquake. Unfortunately earthquake means fire and/or flooding due to broken pipes. I have found fire safe options out there but nothing that is also water tight. Beyond putting each tape in a zip-lock bag and hoping it doesn't leak, are there other good options? Putting the tapes inside of a Teraturtle and then into the safe really takes up a lot of extra space.

A safe deposit box at a bank might also be fine but that is less convenient.

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

?
http://www.amazon.com/s/keywords=fire+and+waterproof+safe

I would be inclined to believe that any safe that is fireproof is also air tight. Otherwise the hot air would burn everything inside.

I'm not convinced though that a Fireproof safe would actually protect LTO tapes. Fireproof generally just means it won't get up to the combustion point of paper. But LTO magnetic tape will be ruined well below 451 degrees. Make sure your safe has UL 125 (# Hour) rating. Most safes are only rated for UL 350 fire rating which is for paper not fragile tape.

Ultimately it's probably going to be much cheaper to just keep an offsite backup of everything than a media rated fire safe. It's unlikely both locations will be affected by fire/water at the exact same time.