How to protect your technology from Solar Radiation/CMEs

I have an Omega Hard Drive that has some very vital information on it and with the rise of solar flares I want to take some precautionary steps to protecting my electronics.

What I have:
go.iomega.com...

If there are any good websites listing ways in which I can protect my stuff or you know how then I would greatly appreciate the help!

reply to post by IEtherianSoul9


Hmm, I would like to know also.

lead lined box to store all vital back up drives... you can buy sheets at most hardware store 1/16 inch thickness... don't know if that's thick enough for total protection though.

You would have to enclose the whole system in a Faraday cage, but you also need power so you also have to shield this with some sort of power spike protector. Any large EMP blast would most probably fry even protected systems.

you can subscribe to a service such as box.net where you files sync to a cloud.
you can access your files anywhere. that's how i access my files from work and at home when i need to work from home.

also here in about a month, bitcasa will launch. UNLIMITED storage for only $10/month.
both services have redundant back ups and disaster recovery in place. that way, if you hard drive gets cooked, there's a safe copy elsewhere.

as another way to protect your files like i do with my portfolio, (i'm a UI designer) buy a drive and put a copy of your files on it and send it to a friend or family member to keep. unplugged in a box is safe. only when the unit is plugged in is it not safe. -- from what i read recently.

hope this helps.

You could print out your data and store it in a lead lined safe buried above sea level(200-300m), 6-8ft under the top soil. Im just mess'n pal, nowhere is truely safe if the CME is large enough.

Originally posted by CaDreamer
lead lined box to store all vital back up drives... you can buy sheets at most hardware store 1/16 inch thickness... don't know if that's thick enough for total protection though.

Why lead? Why that thickness? Should it be grounded or isolated? I love it when people (who by what they say) obviously know absolutely nothing about electronics and energy propagation blurt out advice as though it was fact and don't even provide sources or an explanation.

Please stop producing BS.

reply to post by IEtherianSoul9


Step 1. Disconnect from power.

And even that is unnecessary, unless you live in high latitude North America, because its only long distance power lines that will be affected and blow transformers.

Originally posted by andy06shake
You would have to enclose the whole system in a Faraday cage, but you also need power so you also have to shield this with some sort of power spike protector. Any large EMP blast would most probably fry even protected systems.

edit on 25-9-2011 by andy06shake because: (no reason given)

If it's protected from such things then why would it be fried? If it does fry then I guess it wasn't protected. What amount of protection protects against a non "large EMP blast"? What size is a "large EMP blast"? Is a CME capable of producing a "large EMP blast"? How do you know that a protected device will not survive a "large EMP blast"? Can you source the research please?

I wonder if a static free bag would block a cme.

Even if the system is protected, all power services would be destroyed or inoperable.
In theory a Faraday cage should/could offer 100% protection of electronics enclosed in the cage. Also the cage needs to be grounded. Chicken Wire for the cage would be fine. You would need a power source of some kind(generator) also contained in the cage to power your equipment though. The Sun could in theory through out a CME large enough that it would engulf the planet, think tossing a peach in to a fire.

Originally posted by 8ILlBILl8
I wonder if a static free bag would block a cme.

We wonder that too. Perhaps you could contribute further by doing the research and returning to this thread with your findings.

Click here for more information.

reply to post by IEtherianSoul9


A faraday cage requires only that the object be surrounded by a conductor en.wikipedia.org...

There are also faraday bags that shield RF faraday-bags.com...

reply to post by 8ILlBILl8


Spontaneous name calling? Nice!

I'm contributing to this thread by encouraging factual posting, critical thinking and discouraging people from posting what was on the last CSI episode as scientific fact.

Deny ignorance?

I'm also contributing by providing this link.
EMP protection manuals

image.gsfc.nasa.gov...

Will my computer crash because of a solar storm?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Probably not, but there are several ways that this could happen.

Severe solar storms can, and do, affect the power grid. They can trigger actual black outs like the one that happened in Quebec in March 1989, and they can cause temporary instabilities in the power levels. These are not the 'spikey' kinds of events that most computer power supplies can protect against, but long-term surges and sags lasting several minutes or hours. If transformers get over heated from the induced DC currents produced by geomagnetic storms, then you could end up with localized problems in the grid that supplies your neighborhood. In Canada they have lots of problems with geomagnetic storm currents that get induced into their power grid and local brownouts are rather common during strong auroral displays. In the United States, though, we rarely have these events in our electrical system.

Another channel is in direct radiation damage to specific memory locations. Solar storms enhance the radiation levels in space near the earth, and these particles when the enter the atmosphere produce 'air showers' of secondary particles...usually neutrons...which can penetrate down to 35,000 feet and even ground level. If you were flying in a commercial jet over, say, the polar route, you would get about one chest X-ray of additional radiation dosage from these neutrons. They also penetrate into avionics and computer circuitry and cane cause temporary 'glitches' as data bits get switched from 'ones' to 'zeros' or the reverse. Although some critical avionics systems have multiple back-ups to protect from these glitches, no one has ever studied how lap-top computers are affected. At ground level, there is substantially less risk from such glitches, but the risk factor isn't zero to 50 decimal places either. I, personally, would not worry about this kind of problem.

Finally, many computers are connected to remote systems via satellite data channels. Satellites do get affected by solar storms, and during a 'big one' you can expect your link to become less reliable and even shut-down completely if the satellite is temporarily disabled. This could cause your computer to 'crash' depending on what it was doing.

I would rate the satellite data link problem as a higher likelihood than the other two possibilities, but for most people not really that big of a risk factor unless you were doing something that demanded 100 percent reliability in a, say, life-critical situation.

Static free bags should be sufficient ,since they enclose the sensitive electronics
in the way that a faraday cage does which allowes the electromagnetic waves to pass them by.

Compact discs ,dvd's and other etched discs are not affected by such waves of interference.

Most if not all of the computer terminals still work in Fallout 3, so i think we should be fine, boom boom!!

Originally posted by andy06shake
Most if not all of the computer terminals still work in Fallout 3, so i think we should be fine, boom boom!!

LOL I love your way of thinking, If only it was that easy though, about the only real way to protect you info is to back it up on a SSD then disconect it from power & store it in a lead lined safe. (Great toppic OP )