I just got a new Drobo. Well, I should say it's not really a new Drobo, it's the old Drobo, first generation, the USB Drobo. They've just released a new model that is FireWire 400 and 800 compatible as well as USB. There was a $150 price drop on the USB version. That made it very appealing to me. So I decided to give it a try.
Drobo comes from Data Robotics. They call it “the world’s first storage robot!” When I opened the Drobo, I was extremely impressed. The packaging had an Apple design style to it. The inside of the box was actually all black. Even the Drobo itself came with a black bag wrapped around it. Very easy instructions were found inside the box. The instruction manual is straightforward as well.
I did have a small problem setting up the Drobo. But I had a very easy time contacting their product support department. They were very helpful and I actually learned a few other interesting things about the Drobo and its future expansion. I was informed that there are two-terabyte drives on the horizon and four-terabyte drives way out there. And since the Drobo has four bays, I believe you could potentially put four two-terabyte drives inside the Drobo and end up with an eight-terabyte mirrored RAID drive. Resulting in something like four-terabytes of storage space.
So why would I want a Drobo or why would you want a Drobo? Well, if you're like me and you want to save every single Photoshop, Indesign and Illustrator file that you've ever created and you've got some massive ones, and you happen to do videos and video tutorials, then you end up eating up a lot of drive space. I've got a lot of loose drives sitting around my office due to upgrades to my Mac Pro. All of the bays inside of my Mac Pro full. I'm always looking for more drive space. I can't get enough.
I haven't decided exactly how I'm going to use my Drobo, but it can be used as your Time Machine back up. That's an interesting option because the Drobo, actually, is a mirrored RAID, which means that all of your data, if you have enough drives in place is mirrored (or more simply put backed up. By the way, the Drobo control panel informs you if you do or don't have enough drives or drive space installed to mirror your data.
So if you use your Drobo as your Time Machine back up, you actually end up with two backups of your data, the one that the Time Machine's doing and then the mirror the Drobo is making for you. That would be extremely secure if you want to go that route.
I always need the storage space and am a bit freaky about keeping backups. I just need to work through how I want to organize my data management with a Drobo in the picture. I like to keep most of my working files, on internal live drives. I have RAIDs on my Mac Pro for this purpose. I then use external drives to back up those RAIDs. But with the Drobo having that "all you can eat" potential four-terabytes, and it's mirrored, I may be tempted to use the Drobo as my main work data drive.Are you a hard drive space hound like me and you just can't get enough? Do you have every file that you've ever made or every Photoshop experiment taking up drive space? Answer yes to any or all of those? You're going to want to look at a Drobo.
If anyone out there has experience with a Drobo in a graphics intensive environment or any great information on how they're using a Drobo, what they're using them for, please make a comment here. Anyone have any thoughts on the USB first generation vs. the FireWire second generation? If you’ve had a negative experience with a Drobo I’d like to know that too.
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I'm sorry, but Drobo does
I'm sorry, but Drobo does NOT mirror the content!
They use a different type of technology to "some how" duplicate the data on the fly. There is major difference between their system and mirroring the data.
The MAIN point being that you can NOT take out any of the Drobo's drives and read it's data in another system. The data is spread across all the drives. IMO, Drobo is NOT meant to be used as a working drive. It serves fine as a back up.
Drobo's main issue is it's own hardware failure (besides the drives). For example, if you lose power during a disk writing process, ALL your data may get corrupted and lost!!!
The technology behind the Microsoft Home Server (HP's Media Smart Home Server) is much better, and it's much cheaper.
Sam, Thanks of the comments.
Sam,
Thanks of the comments. I'm sure I used the term mirror too loosely. I was not aware of all the info you provided. Power failure is bad for all hardware based on my experience. The ideal solution would be a backup of my data in the cloud but all the options I've experimented with don't play nice with large Photoshop files.
As for Microsoft Home Server, do you have any experience with in where there's a Mac on the network? If so I'd like to know how that works.
Drobo has two drawbacks for
Drobo has two drawbacks for me...
- their *technology* is not known and that means not proved as reliable. its a blind black box. You buy it *AS IS* said in their marketing statements, and we know what marketing means...
- I'm moving from Buffalo Terastations 'cause their lack of speed... Drobo's are even slower, much slower. I'm pointing into daisy chain eSata drives (using RAID 1) that offer a known reliable technology and are MUCH cheaper, check OWC website, and MUCH faster...
good luck...
You say, "I'm pointing into
You say, "I'm pointing into daisy chain eSata drives..." Is this an external set up? Sounds interesting. My Mac Pro does not have an eSata external port. I checked the Apple site. Doesn't look like the current Mac Pros have an eSata either. The last time I looked for an eSata card that was offically supported for the Mac I could find one. It might be time to look again.
FYI, Apple sells eSata PCI
FYI, Apple sells eSata PCI Express cards on the Apple Store website for the Mac Pro.
MikeM, thanks for the heads
MikeM, thanks for the heads up on the eSata card.
Drobo, from what I read is
Drobo, from what I read is battery backed up, so loss of power will not effect it (atleast a short loss of power)
I should receive mine (2nd version) tomorrow. I am not sure how I will use it, but likely it will be a backup drive (or second drive of sorts) that will share the photos for others to view (read-only?)
I haven't thought much beyond that, trying to work it out now!
Bruce, Can you tell me where
Bruce, Can you tell me where you heard or read about the battery backup?
It is on Drobos website -
It is on Drobos website - click on the Technology tab of the Drobo Products page... (about second paragraph down)
http://drobo.com/Products/drobo.html
Google finds mention of it all of the web as well.
It doesnt say how long it will hold Drobo.. so if it is rebuilding drives (I hear can take many many hours) then a UPS may still be required.
Hope this helps
Bruce
Thanks Bruce. I’ll review.
Thanks Bruce. I’ll review.
Ref; the original post.
Ref; the original post. Drobo is not RAID (as I think has been covered) but if you run RAID in your MacPro you will not be able to use Time Machine at the same time (they are not compatible for some reason).
Apple told me "why would you want to use Time Machine if you have RAID - that's what RAID 5 is for - a backup" and now my RAID system has failed twice - so I am trying to use Drobo as a external destination for all my critical files before I have the RAID card and any faulty drives replaced.
If anyone has any experience of using the Drobo to get their mail.app archived off I would appreciate hearing about it.
I'm sorry I can not answer
I'm sorry I can not answer your question about mail.app. You comment is very helpful. Do you know if it's only RAID 5 that is not time machine compatible? I use a striped RAID for speed to help with the video tutorials here at Camp Photoshop.