Got Storage? - My Drobo!

Rameses · 5 Dec 2008 at 19:56

My Little Drobo

Lovely bit of kit, super easy to install and get going. Not loud either, was a little concerned but its fine.

Also bought 4x 1TB Spinpoint Drives too for maximum storage, which is around 2.75TB of protected space.

Cool yes?

:cool:

Kemik · 6 Dec 2008 at 00:12

Worth the money over a QNap TS-209 II Pro?

I've been considering both. If the QNap had the ability to allow me to backup via USB instead of ethernet or via my router and four drives, I'd buy it straight away

The TS-409 or 509 is way too expensive too.

Tomsk · 6 Dec 2008 at 23:54

Another Mancunian with a Drobo

Mine is filled with 4 x 1TB WD Green drives.

A few initial teething problems with mine, but it seems to have settled down now. Check out the forums over at drobospace (owners only - serial number needed). I have two 1.5TB drives waiting to go in when Drobo give the all clear.

Ol!ver · 26 Dec 2008 at 10:58

Contemplating doing away with my desktop machine and using the MacBook exclusively. Obviously that means I'll need some external storage, but I've already got 3 internal drives. Drobo seems to be the best solution really, but at £400 it aint cheap. Does it work OK with Time Machine then ? I assume I can use it with Time Machine and still stick my iTunes library on there ?

Tomsk · 26 Dec 2008 at 12:43

(I don't have a mac)
Over at the Drobo forums, a lot of people are using a Drobo with TM. However it seems the Drobo isn't able to run TM and stream at the same time. The streaming will break up. They say schedule the TM at times when you're not streaming.

monkeyharris · 26 Dec 2008 at 14:25

Tomsk said:
Another Mancunian with a Drobo

Mine is filled with 4 x 1TB WD Green drives.

A few initial teething problems with mine, but it seems to have settled down now. Check out the forums over at drobospace (owners only - serial number needed). I have two 1.5TB drives waiting to go in when Drobo give the all clear.

I appreciate it is hard to quantify, but with the Drobo filled with 4 drives and the internal fan running, is the Drobo particularly noisy? I'v got my PC nice and quiet and dont want this making a lot of noise. Maybe I could put it under the desk?

Sweeney · 26 Dec 2008 at 15:00

Been contemplating one of these, i know its relative but what transfer speeds are you getting with it? (usb or fwire 400/800?)

Tomsk · 27 Dec 2008 at 01:13

monkeyharris said:
I appreciate it is hard to quantify, but with the Drobo filled with 4 drives and the internal fan running, is the Drobo particularly noisy? I'v got my PC nice and quiet and dont want this making a lot of noise. Maybe I could put it under the desk?

Most of the time it's fairly quiet, but occasionally when the unit is not doing anything, the fan does spin up to speed. I can't say how often this happens as it doen't bother me that much.

Sweeney said:
Been contemplating one of these, i know its relative but what transfer speeds are you getting with it? (usb or fwire 400/800?)

I get ~20Mbytes/sec over USB - this is about the same as my other USB drives (Maxtor 750GB and Lacie 500GB). Other users have reported as much as 35Mbytes/sec over USB which is also as fast as it gets over FW800. The Droboshare (network interface) runs at ~12Mbytes/sec.

ANDARIAL · 28 Dec 2008 at 13:52

Tomsk said:
Most of the time it's fairly quiet, but occasionally when the unit is not doing anything, the fan does spin up to speed. I can't say how often this happens as it doen't bother me that much.

I get ~20Mbytes/sec over USB - this is about the same as my other USB drives (Maxtor 750GB and Lacie 500GB). Other users have reported as much as 35Mbytes/sec over USB which is also as fast as it gets over FW800. The Droboshare (network interface) runs at ~12Mbytes/sec.

What is it with gigabit interfaces on nas or drobo units?
they barely manage 10 and are advertisd as gigabit :confused:

Tomsk · 28 Dec 2008 at 14:09

ANDARIAL said:
What is it with gigabit interfaces on nas or drobo units?
they barely manage 10 and are advertisd as gigabit

Any SOHO type NAS system will be slow even with a gigabit interface. The reason is the controllers used in them have about as much power as a PDA.

More on the noise issue. My drobo is 'on' 24/7 as it's connected to my server PC. My drobo never powers down into standby mode, which I suspect would be noiseless.

ANDARIAL · 28 Dec 2008 at 14:20

I am looking to replace my dlink dns 323 as it only has 2 sata drive capacity.This looks good even with the poor(well no better than my dlink)transfer speeds over ethernet(which is my main transfer method)
Why is the one model over £360? is it because it has firewire 800?
compared to the other this one
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...=72&name=Data Robotics Drobo Storage Robot v2
edit:
is this cheaper version
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...d=14&subcat=72&name=Data Robotics Drobo Share
just for the gigabit networking add on :confused:

but the photo shows the `box` too? :confused:

Tomsk · 28 Dec 2008 at 15:32

Both your links point to the same product (Droboshare)

The Drobo, with USB and FW800 contains the HDs.

The Droboshare connects two Drobo units (via USB) to a LAN via a Gigabit rated interface. However it will only transfer at ~ 12Mbytes/sec, just 10% of the potential speed through a gigabit LAN.

You need both to connect directly to a LAN.

ANDARIAL · 28 Dec 2008 at 15:49

Whoops! Think i fixed my links now,so the piccies on the site are wrong then?i.e. the cheapest one clearly shows the `box` and the flat sharing device(bit misleading that

)