DROBO - Firewire edition - DPChallenge Forums

07/08/2008 06:15:31 PM · #1

DROBO 2.0

YES! They made a Firewire version. I've been waiting so long ... as soon as I saw the announcement I ordered the 4TB version of it!

Need more info? BeyondRaid - Storage Without Limitations

Basically, DROBO is like a RAID system (mirrored or striped, it's kind of the "best of both worlds"), giving it the enhanced reliability of RAID system, but in an automated form ... without all the hassles of manually configuring a RAID system.

Why do you need DROBO (or any kind of RAID system)? Because it's only a matter of time before your hard drive fails. And when it does ... how much of your life will go with it? All of your personal / family memories? Your wedding photos? Your business and accounting information? What will you lose if your hard drive fails?

DROBO, like any RAID system, spreads the data across more than one drive, with the ability to recover and keep going if a drive files. Where DROBO shines is both in the act of recovering from a drive failure as well as expansion on an existing system.

As a comparison, let's say you were running a 1TB RAID 5 consisting of four hard drives, 250Gb each. One of them fails, what do you do? You replace it ... probably with a 250Gb drive. But 500Gb drives are cheaper today, why not replace it with a 500Gb drive instead? Because doing so doesn't really buy you anything. So let's say you do it anyway. You put that 500Gb drive in there. Then later on you replace another drive with 500Gb. Now you have two 500's and two 250's (1.5TB of storage), yet you still only have a 1TB system because your raid array was configured as a 1TB system.

With DROBO your available space has already jumped. If you replace the other two drives, DROBO will automatically use them (with each new drive, more space becomes available). With a RAID5 system, after you have replaced all four drives, the only way to actually INCREASE your storage space is to back the whole thing up, break the raid array, re-establish the raid array as a 2TB system, and finally restore the data. Total time? Probably days worth of effort. Meanwhile, DROBO did it all automatically and without any extra effort from you.

Anyway, I think it's a great idea. If you have any concerns about your data, you should check it out.

07/08/2008 06:19:54 PM · #2

Demo Video

Art Roflmao

Canon EOS-6D Mark II

07/08/2008 06:58:19 PM · #3

Congrats on your top DROBO affiliate sales status this month, David! :P (just kidding)

Originally posted by dwterry:

Demo Video

Wow! If the features alone don't convince me to buy one, Cari's bubbly presentation sure does. :)

Looks like a great alternative to RAID!

07/08/2008 07:57:36 PM · #4

Hehe... I had to pump myself up for the $1200 I spent. ;-)

No, but seriously... I think the money was well spent. I just don't have time to deal with hard drive issues any more. I don't mind paying someone (or something) else to handle it for me. So the DROBO, with it's automated handling of the RAID system, seems like the perfect solution for me.

Art Roflmao

Canon EOS-6D Mark II

07/08/2008 08:30:21 PM · #5

plus DROBO is a cool name. Could be next summer's blockbuster action movie about the future.

Prof_Fate

07/08/2008 10:32:34 PM · #6

The concept is awesome, but it may come with a gotcha or two. It's a proprietary format - you can't pull the drives out and read the data in ANYTHING else - so if your drobo dies your data is locked up. The new 2.0 will only read 1.0 drives IF you had the latest firmware on your 1.0 device. So in about 6 months i'd bet there will be no interchangeability between the two. And it costs some $500 to 600 for the box, plus drives. You can get a PCI Raid card for your PC for $100 and essentially do the same thing - with assurance that the data can be retreived.

Over the weekend I ordered a thermaltake BlacX - it's an external SATA drive dock - stick in any sata drive and use it like an internal drive, and you can hang multiple BlacX if you'd like. And the best part? They cost $30-40 depending on version (eSATA/USB or USB only). I got one coming with 2 750Gb seagates all for under $290. Plan is one drive is this week's backup, the other is next week - swap them out each week and keep the odd drive offsite - offsite backup is necessary and avised as a fire, flood, or what have you will not be an end of the business scenario.

07/08/2008 10:55:32 PM · #7

Originally posted by Prof_Fate:

can't pull the drives out and read the data in ANYTHING else - so if your drobo dies your data is locked up .. You can get a PCI Raid card for your PC for $100 and essentially do the same thing - with assurance that the data can be retreived.

Don't you have to get "the same raid card" if something goes wrong with the card? Why do we need to assume that the box itself (no moving parts) is any less reliable than a PC Raid card? I'm really not all that concerned about the box. I've lost several hard drives (3 last year, one this year). They're mechanical, they fail. I've never had a computer simply die on me (I've outgrown many over the years, but that's another story). So if I have to get a new box because version 3.0 comes out ... I might be in the market for a new one anyway, just like I'd be in the market for a new computer. In short, I'm not terribly worried.

Originally posted by Prof_Fate:

And it costs some $500 to 600 for the box, plus drives.

Yeah, it was $499 if purchased separately. I felt I got a pretty good deal at $1299, even without shopping around (bought it right off of their web site because I'm in a hurry). Think about it ... four 1T drives. They are about $200-$250 right now, meaning the drives along are about $800-$1000 of the price. So that means I paid approximately $299 to $499 for the drobo ... meaning it was right in line with the expected price even though I purchased it directly off of their site (I would have expected to more of a premium coming right off of their site, that's why I point it out).

So ... a PC Card would have cost me $100. I'd still need to house the four 1T drives some place, right? So the cost doesn't stop right at $100, but let's say it does. That means I paid a premium of $199 to $399 for the privilege of using a drobo instead of a PC Raid card. What does that buy me?

It buys me time and luxury. :-)

You take four drives in a raid array and try to upgrade them. One at a time, or all at once. Whatever process you use, it's simply going to take time. Lots of time. And time is what I have least of right now.

So for me it's worth it. For others who don't have the time, or maybe don't have the know-how to futz with a raid array, I think it's a bargain.

I'm not knocking your plan at all, it sounds like it will work well for you. I'm just suggesting this is a possible solution for others like me. :-)

robs

Canon EOS R6 Mk II

07/08/2008 10:55:53 PM · #8

Still gota backup the RAID box :-) Recovery on a RAID box can get interesting (particularly a prop one like that one) despite the theory.... I like the toaster options as a longer-term backup option but not sure they can run full time. I went for a generic RAID NAS box and installed the drives and did some setup work but it's slow due to the network - great as a long-term backup of the main drives and gives me somewhere to put all my music to share on the machines on the network :-).

07/08/2008 11:00:56 PM · #9

I have a Buffalo RAID NAS box myself right now. It's attached to my computer via Gigabit ethernet. And you're right, it's slow (I believe due to the network). I'm expecting this drobo box to be much faster.

My current box, a 1Tb system, was purchased in November. It's already full and I'm having to move data off of it. I basically use it as my "working storage". All weddings / portraits / events / etc that are "current" are stored on it. As projects are finished, they are moved off to external storage and turned off.

And while I'm not backing up the box to anything else (in case of flood/fire/etc), I do put full size images on smugmug to act as my external backup. It won't be the same thing as getting back my raw images or my PSD's, but it would do in a pinch, and that's probably the mode I'd be in after a disaster.

robs

Canon EOS R6 Mk II

07/08/2008 11:27:29 PM · #10

After you get it running can you reply with your thoughts?

Yeah I used that NAS box (mine is USRobotics) as my main box for a while and it's not a good idea (particularly with LR that I know you run also) :-0)

If you are interested in online backups, have a look at Mozy (I have no affiliation to them and it's not a refer link) if you have not seen it..... You need the "pro" version or whatever they call it to backup network drives but local drives work fine otherwise.