3 Months with Drobo
At the beginning of January I decided to ditch the endless array of external hard drives and move to a central NAS type system for all my storage needs.
After weeks of deliberation and a bit of saving I jumped for the Data Robotics Drobo storage robot. The device could not be easier to use and offers scalable storage that I could expand when I needed (or could afford to).
Although not a NAS by default the additional droboshare device could be added later so instead of attaching it directly to my computer it could be connected to the router offering LAN access.
I posted an article entitled “Two weeks with Drobo” and thanks to a number of sites linking to it directly it has become one of the most popular posts of 2009 so far and thus appears in the top articles list on the sidebar. Even Data Robotics commented on the post !
In the article I had one key negative, no ethernet as default :
- “The latest model offers firewire 800 and if you can afford the droboshare it creates the perfect home NAS and media server. Secure storage at the slight cost of a silent work environment is definitely a plus, if only it came with ethernet !”
Instead Drobo users had to purchase the droboshare device (£200). In my mind though the Droboshare lifts the device from a secure data dump to a fully blown storage server. Droboshare is not simple a network adaptor for Drobo but a full software managed device that opens the door to a range of Droboapps. (Visit the DroboApps site) including the firefly iTunes media server.
So if the Droboshare is so great why don’t I have one ? well the answer is simple, I couldn’t afford and extra £200. Empathise if you may but if you don’t already own a Drobo the good news is, it is now possible to order the Drobo Data Robot and get the Droboshare device as part of the price. Yes, you can now buy both devices for the £400 price tag. One Eagle eyed DigMo! spotted the pre-release info via Amazon, get it while you can.
My only negative about the Drobo now is - I wish I had of waited 3 months! am I sore about it ? Yes I most certainly am. Naturally I welcome the step by Data Robotics, as you can see from the original post my only negative was it didn’t come with ethernet capabilities.
In many ways I should be happy that my hopes had come true in this absolutely brilliant package but the reality is I will buy a Droboshare and thus my setup will have cost a massive £600 whereas three months on it only costs £400.
A £200 loss in two months is a particularly bleak thought, combining the two products in a deal like this reduces the value of my current Drobo but at the same times leaves me in the situation where I still have to shell out an additional £200 to get the Droboshare.
Ignore my personal situation, gain from this fantastic deal. I have no hesitation in recommending the Drobo and now it comes with the Droboshare it is perfect for the home or small office LAN !!!
Don’t feel too bad. The deal’s not available in the US, just Britain, so we have to just sit here with you and watch others enjoy the savings.
But, I was under the impression these things were pretty slow, even at 800FW, and thus not well suited for large Photoshop and video files (except as archives). Have you found it to be otherwise?
I don’t live edit to the Drobo I have to say. It is used as an archive for work files and I stream video from it via iTunes.
As one of those people who pre-ordered the deal and plugged it all together on Friday afternoon, I’m still in two minds and experimenting with the DroboShare. Needing to provide extra storage for a Mac and backup for a couple of PCs, the DS seemed essential.
But it slows down the primary connectivity with the Mac and eliminates its use as a Time Machine destination (which only supports LAN backups with Apple’s Time Capsule or Airport Extreme). The Drobo Dashboard software also only seems to start up without crashing on whatever user account on the Mac it’s been installed under … so doesn’t run and auto-mount for the others, leaving you with smb://DroboShare/volume commands to manually mount.
To some extent, connecting onto the Drobo to the Mac directly and SMB sharing as necessary seems like a good option.
Guess it comes down to whether the primary machine will always be switched on and how many computers need access to the content on the Drobo.
I’ll let you know how I get on!
I have been considering a Drobo purchase since they added the firewire – now a great deal with the NAS!
I found an offer for the Drobo Share on it’s own at Overclockers for £91.99 inc Vat http://tinyurl.com/droboshare 10+ in stock at time of writing
After a month of usage I’ve found the Drobo (and Drobo share) to be excellent.
It’s such a relief not to have to mess about storing stuff on different partitions/disks. Now everything just goes to the drobo.
I partitioned the Drobo using NTFS and I read and write to it using both windows 7 and Mac os x 10.5 no problem at all.
When I was moving the device I accidentally hit the button that keeps the disks in place and the disk dislodged causing the system to assume it had had a disk failure. The whole thing worked seemlessly, allowing me to read/write during the process. When it had finished recovering I popped the disk back in and the Drobo saw it immediately and I carried on. Nice.
If you find backup is a pain and want a ‘fire and forget’ solution get this device. Pricey maybe but imo worth every penny I spent.