Data Robotics DR04DD10 Drobo 4-Bays USB 2.0 and FireWire 800 Fully Automated SATA Robotic Storage Array

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Binding: Electronics
Brand: Data Robotics
EAN: 0094922903457
Format: CD
Label: Data Robotics
Dimension: 6.3 x 10.7 x 6.3 inches
Manufacturer: Data Robotics
Model: DR04DD10
Publisher: Data Robotics
Studio: Data Robotics
Warranty: 1 year warranty

Features and Descriptions

• FireWire 800 (FireWire 400 compatible)
• Enhanced USB 2.0 performance
• Redundant data protection
• Hot expandable up to 16TB
• Mix n match drive capacities

The safe, expandable Drobo storage solution protects your data against a hard drive crash, yet can expand dynamically at any time in just seconds. With nothing to configure or manage, Drobo is now the ideal solution for primary storage as well as backup.

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Ratings & Comments(Average:)

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- DO NOT TRUST DROBO! I GOT BURNED!
My Drobo held my entire iTunes library... audio and video... that I have been collecting and organizing diligently for the past 6.5 years.

Now my ENTIRE COLLECTION is gone, because the Drobo crapped the bed. My drive is no longer mounting on the desktop (mac), and I have tried to recover my files via disk warrior to no avail. Drobo adknowledges the issue in its FAQ, but they make it out to be the user's fault.

Thanks a lot for deleting my $3-4k library, Drobo. Thanks a lot.

Save yourself some money and some pain and go with another solution. I will never trust the drobo again.

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- Easy to setup and use
I have used other Raid products before but nothing matches this for ease of use. Just slide a raw disk into the slot and you're off. No configuring or head-scratching. It just works.

No disk has failed yet so I can't address that, but I have replaced two of the 1TB drives with 1.5TB drives and it went flawlessly. It did take 24 hours as each drive was installed, but it was automatic and effortless.

If I could afford it, I would buy another. I didn't give it a 5-star rating only because of the overhead required for the data protection and that is really wrong of me.

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- Recommended w/ one minor concern
I've been very happy with my Drobo and it's worked exactly as advertised. Some reviews have complained about the fan noise, but this type of noise is expected and honestly not that bad (my Drobo is not sitting next to my computer, but rather on a shelf under my desk).

My only concern is how the AC plugs into the Drobo; the connector needs to be beefed-up a bit. It's okay as it is, but for a home backup device of this caliber your only worry, besides fire, is a power event. The plug can be pulled out too easily. Worse is that it doesn't have to be plugged in all the way for Drobo to draw power. The latter caused my Drobo to continually reboot (after I moved it) until I realized the plug wasn't in all the way.

To be fair, even after my mistake the Drobo has been operating flawlessly. If they'd beef up the power connection, I'd give it 5 stars.

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- Drobo FW800 Read/Write Performance Not as Advertised
DRI's website indicates that the Drobo 2 will provide read speeds of 40+MB/s when connected via FW800. This is simply not the case.

I purchased this product about three weeks ago and set it up w/ 3 x 1TB drives (WD Greens). I am using the Drobo to store video/photos/iTunes media and have it connected to my latest generation MacMini. After successfully setting-up and loading the Drobo 2 with all my media (~ 900GBs worth), I opened iMovie and attempted to scrub through some video stored on the Drobo. I found that the video playback was erratic and couldn't playback smoothly, something that I had never encountered before with other external hard drives.

So I downloaded several disk IO performance measurement tools which indicated that the Drobo was providing < 20MB/s read speeds. I initially thought it must be an issue with my configuration. However, after reading all of the FAQs and accessing DRI's private tech forum site (you can't access it until you actually buy a Drobo), I discovered that a large number of Drobo customers have experienced the exact same disappointing performance issues and that DRI currently has no solution to the performance problem.

Basically, DRI says that you can get 40+MB/s read speeds via FW800 bus, but a large number of Drobo customers, including myself, are getting roughly half that performance (~20MB/s).

So in short, if all you need is a very convenient mass storage device that allows easy addition of hard drives, then Drobo will serve you well. However, if you plan to stream video or large photos from the Drobo, then you are in for a big disappointment and I would recommend looking for a different solution.

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- Drobo does what it's supposed to
Like most people who run across Drobo, I was introduced to this little gem when I asked a friend/colleague "I'm looking at having a home NAS -- what do you recommend?"

Unfortunately, out of the box, Drobo by itself is not a NAS (Data Robotics! What were you thinking??) However, everything else about the Drobo sounded like a dream come true.

I've only had my Drobo for two weeks, so only time will tell with how it performs for me long term. However, so far, I can tell you that I LOVE IT! and it works exactly as advertised. It literally took me longer to unpack Drobo and the drives than it did to get it set up. I plugged it in, and my PC (Windows XP SP3) recognized it right away. The Drobo Dashboard software is not technically required to manage the Drobo, but it certainly helps by giving you a graphical representation of your hard drives and the space you are using.

I bought two 1TB drives (WD Caviar Green) and it took about two minutes to format them NTFS and they were instantly available (for just shy of 1TB of available, usable space). Just for fun, I pulled out one of my old SATA I drives (120GB) out of storage and popped it into Drobo. It instantly recognized it and in about a minute, the light turned green. I pulled up the Dashboard software and it was already available and my usable space bumped up to just a bit over 1TB! AMAZINGLY easy. There is zero configuration required of this device. Just look at the lights and let it do its thing!

The only thing that really bugs is that it doesn't come with built-in networking. I know this has been mentioned a thousand times in reviews but it's just mind boggling why they wouldn't include it. I almost dropped the extra[...] for the DroboShare, but the reviews on that are far less than stellar. Apparently speed and stability of the network connection leaves much to be desired on the DroboShare (note: this is what I've read -- I've never used it before, so I don't have any first-hand knowledge of how well it actually works). I've shared my Drobo using standard Windows sharing and it works perfectly like that. I already leave my PC running almost 24x7 anyway, so this will have to do for now. I am using mine via USB 2.0, as I don't have FireWire 800 (not many PCs do).

Pros:
-BRAIN-DEAD easy to set up and maintain. Simply pop in a new drive, and Drobo does the rest.
-RAID stands for Redundant Array of INEXPENSIVE Disks. Drobo really takes that to a whole new level!! Instead of having to worry about having drives of the same size, you can grab any old SATA or SATA II drive and Drobo will use it. I bought two 1TB drives for redundancy. It'll be a while before I reach that, but I know that when the day comes that I need more space, I'll just pop in whatever is cheapest (who knows -- it's likely that by then, there may be 4TB drives out at the price we pay for 1TB today).
-VERY QUIET! The WD Caviar Green are themselves very quiet running, and the Drobo itself seems to rarely use its fan, but even when it's on, and all of the drives are running, it's still barely a whisper.
-Attractive -- the unit itself is very sleek looking, and I actually look forward to the day I use up more space so I can see some of those blue lights light up :-)

Cons:
-No built in networking. What is up with that? I wouldn't be AS concerned about this if the reviews for the DroboShare were better, but why would I want to spend an extra $200 to NAS my Drobo if it's not going to be fast or reliable?

Other than the networking thing, I can't think of any other Cons. With the ability to use any SATA or SATA II drive that you want, how can you beat this? I'm not even listing the price as a Con. Yes, it's a little expensive, but for what you're getting, this thing is phenomenal.

Only time will tell. We'll see how Drobo reacts when I have an actual hard drive failure (notice I said WHEN -- all hard drives fail. It's just a matter of when). Which leads me to another point -- I am very confident in Drobo's abilities to recover from a hard drive failure. However, it cannot protect you from data corruption. No RAID (or "pseudo-RAID") can. If you get a virus, or if your kids or wife delete your precious files, you will still lose your data. I am still searching for a good backup solution for my Drobo (no, Data Robotics -- I'm not going to buy another Drobo :-) --- yet!).

I've done some minor performance testing: I've simultaneously copied large files to Drobo, streamed some music, AND streamed some video and it ran flawlessly. That's about the most I've tested it on performance, but it seems just as reliable as any other USB 2.0 drive would be.

I predict a long, happy relationship with my Drobo. :-)

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