InformationWeek

The ioSafe R4 network storage unit before it's set on fire for a demonstration of the company's data protection technology.

Tobias Kruse of ioSafe shows InformationWeek's Barbara Krasnoff the R4 in a demo that was held off the Vegas strip.

The ioSafe demo, which involved a 1,700 degree burn, was held in the Screw Balls parking lot in Las Vegas.

Robb Moore, CEO of ioSafe, gets ready to upload data onto a hard drive in the R4 before it's set on fire.

The storage unit is set on fire as part of the demo to show that ioSafe technology can protect the data inside from fire and flood.

Robb Moore talks about their fire-proof technology as the R4 burns.

Robb Moore tests the temperature of the fire at 1,647 degrees a few minutes into the burn.

The R4, and a cooking tray holding an unprotected hard drive that sits on top, glows after the fire is extinguished.

The R4, and the unprotected hard drive, after the burn.

The unprotected hard drive didn't fair so well. Neither did the cooking pan it sits in -- the handles burned off.

Part of the structure of the unprotected hard drive actually melted.

Bill Alexander, director of engineering at ioSafe, hoses down the R4.

The hard drives are removed from the R4 and set in front of a fan to cool before ioSafe tries to retrieve the data off them.

Success! Bill Alexander pulls up digital images -- shot right before the demo -- that had been stored on the hard drives in the R4.