Data Robotics Drobo

Comment:
I've used the Drobo as a backup device for a dozen computers for about a year now. Its performance is flawless. I received a defective disk drive (not Drobo, but a drive I bought separately FOR the Drobo), that had intermittent faults. The Drobo identified it and replicated the data from it to the other disks, and I continued to work without problems. I hot swapped the replacement into the Drobo, and the rebuild (to include the new drive in the raid) proceeded without user intervention. I've even hot-unplugged a drive just to demonstrate the Drobo's capabilities to a colleague. Don't do that at home, but for the record it all worked by the book. Drobo uses a proprietary RAID algorithm and accepts different drives and capacities without complaint. When you need to grow the RAID, just add a drive, or unplug the smallest and plug in a bigger one. The Drobo Dashboard utility tells what the final RAID size will be for any combination of drives. It can also email drive errors to you.

Comment:
Excellent device. Have been using for nearly two years and have not lost any data. Unit was not recognized by the OS on two occasions. The fix - unplug, reboot and reconnect. No data lost. The unit is supporting 4 - 4TB drives and is about half full. Love it!

Comment:
The previous review is BS. I've had a few minor hiccups with the unit not being recognized, but a simple reset (unplug the USB, unplug the power, restart the computer and reconnect the unit resolves the issue). The flexibility and redundancy offered by the unit far outweighs occasional issues. I've recently installed the new Unibrain firewire drivers and have been problem free for about a month. I sleep much better knowing that my data is residing in this thing. Only wish it had a esata port for my future computer.

Comment:
The device does not work - period. It loses data, disconnects randomly from the computer and, generally makes your life a living hell. Tech support respond time is measured in DAYS. Now trying to return the two that I purchased. I'm not going to hold my breath given the poor response from them so far.

Comment:
I'm running with 4 Seagate 1TB drives.I'm able to fit my entire life's worth of stuff on it and it's all safe. I can sleep at night now.Before I was running a stack of external enclosures and making manual clones of drives on a monthly basis. This is so much easier. I now have one box and I don't have to think about it or remember to make backups.I'll probably end up buying a second one of these in a couple months.I'd recommend one of these to everyone that has a lot of data they couldn't imagine losing forever.If you're using identical drives like I am, remember to use drives from different manufacturing batches to reduce the chance of simultaneous multiple drive failures due to defect.