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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- Drobo works great, simple setup
Bought this product along with an additional Western Digital drive as the backup solution for my iMac. The unit is well made, good looking, easy to setup and quiet. Highly reccommend.

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- Worth the Peace of Mind
Two common complaints about the Drobo are speed and noise. They are legitimate complaints: The Drobo is slow compared to an internal drive, and it is noisy for someone who is used to an iMac or some other practically silent computer.

That said, however, the peace of mind knowing that your data is protected even in the event of a drive failure makes up for these minor inconveniences. I started with two 1TB drives and shortly thereafter added a third 1TB drive, and the process is idiot-proof. Insert the drive and you magically have more space available.

Despite the Drobo being slower than an internal drive, I have no problem running it against my iTunes and iPhoto libraries, even with HD video. That said, I wouldn't suggest authoring video content over the Drobo. Use their included backup software to handle backup of your video, then do your work on a faster drive.

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- DROBO Drags
To be fair to the product lets start with positives - its easy to use-install and available utility makes it a breeze to get going. but thats where trouble begins. The tech support confirmed that OS-X had issues with USB and the drive keeps going offline (now fixed with Snow leopard). The main problem i have is the speed. After drobo is attached (USB or FIREWIRE Alike)the computer felt like a drag. my 24 inch imac with lots of memory works like a breeze when drobo is removed. keeping a back up of data is ok but to keep data for day to day use is a real pain due to slow access

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- Consider carefully. Definitely room for improvement.
I have a Drobo v2 and it was filled with four 750gb drives. It was near capacity so I purchased two 2tb drives. I've put the first one in and originally still had access to the drives/data. After about 6-7 hours of it processing (giving completion of estimates anywhere from 57 to 138 hours!!!), I've now lost any access to the data.

When I tried to explorer to the drive it caused explorer to lock up and it was over an hour before I could even use my computer again. Then Drobo dashboard said it couldn't find a Drobo. I re-launched Drobo Dashboard and it took 10-15 minutes before it appeared again. Now the progress indicator doesn't show anything, though the data migration seems to still be going.

So I have no idea how much longer this will go on and I still have another 2tb drive to add.

Very, very disappointed with how long the migration process takes, the usability (or really, lack thereof), and the danger of losing the data during this extended period of time.

I'm a personal user in a home setting with personal data. If I were using this and having these issues in a business setting I'd get rid of this solution immediately. It's disingenuous of Drobo to advertise how accessible and easy it is when the process takes this long and access to the data is flaky at best.

UPDATE: 2/19/10

The first re-layout took 106+ hours (completed sometime during the night). Access to the data wasn't there for about 100 hours of that which was very frustrating. Tech support review the diagnostic log and found that bad blocks on the drive in bay 2 seemed to be causing the issues during re-layout.

I've since replaced it and one other drive (also with 2tb WD green drives) and both of those re-layouts took about 45-48 hours. Not great but much better. More importantly the Drobo maintained connectivity & access to data was constant during the last two. Much more in line with what I expected.

So while I can't blame the entire situation on the Drobo, there still is some fault with it. I wish it would have alerted me to replace the flaky drive first. I also still think the re-layouts take a really long time.

The Drobo is probably still the most desirable solution in its product category. I would maintain the caveats, though, to business users.

One other issue, and again this one isn't really the Drobo itself, but Windows support of firewire is extremely poor. Most of the drivers are written exclusively with video editing in mind. I bought a Firewire 800 card and was extremely disappointed in the speeds. After research it turned out to be the driver issue. Most reports indicated that firewire on a PC is flaky/risky. So I use USB 2.0 exclusively as it had the equivalent speeds without concerns of data corruption. Macs are completely different and firewire is absolutely the best way to go for connection on a Mac.

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- Best add on drive and fast!!!
I had a Buffalo NAS box before and had problems with the kernel crashing multiple times and eventually gave up. Swapped the drives from the Buffalo to the Drobo and it has been running flawlessly. Having Firewire 800 doesn't hurt either. Software is easy to use and makes sense to a user..what a concept!

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