New Toy !!! Part Duex !

Raymond Lin

Raymond Lin

Raymond Lin

Caporegime
Joined
20 Oct 2002
Posts
78,026
Location
Wish i was in a Ramen Shop Counter
I bought something because of my photography, again......I had waited as LONG as I can but I can wait no longer and am about the burst !

I'll give you a clue, it's black :D

Will get it Wednesday so all will be revealed !
 
Last edited:
Why i chose the Drobo

1 - it is hot swap
2 - gigabit LAN
3 - can take ANY Sata HD, any size in any combination
4 - up to 2 disk fail and STILL work
5 - easy to set up, instructions are plug in HD, plug in cable, power up.
6 - expand as you grow, just take out the smallest drive and replace eith larger one

I have never heard of other NAS system that does all the above, especially the part whe it is that simple to set up. Trust me, i know nothing about NAS, i don't even know what NAS stands for!
 
Last edited:
Rojin said:
It'll be interesting to see how quiet the Drobo is as well.
Click to expand...

Not really bothered, I got the FS version so its LAN only, not USB, meaning it will be sitting next to my Apple Time Capsule away from my iMac in a different room. All connected via Wifi N Network.

I've heard there is an app that turns it into my very own Cloud storage ! Imagine all the data in it as cloud storage!
 
drunken fool said:
I have a 2nd generation Drobo and love it. Last month a drive failed and the recovery was exactly as it says on the tin (although took a fair while). The ability to add any size disk at any time is invaluable for increasing storage with zero, and i mean zero, fuss.



You could build a PC to do the same, but why would you? Far to much extra work and maintenance not to mention the additional benefits the drobo offers. I have had the same argument with a number of people some of which have gone on to try the Drobo and not gone back.
Click to expand...

Exactly, my argument is that equipment like these should serve us, not us spending valuable time serving it.

I mean, unless you find it fun building it and spends regular time maintaining it then fair enough. I get up at 6:30 to go to work, don't get home till the evening and then i have a bunch of things to do. So i don't really have what you call spare time. My Spare time is now spent on photography, which has become a business so as the old saying goes, time is money.

Plug and play. Leave it to do it's thing. End of story.

Why on earth do i want to sit in a room with cables, mobo, HD, software, keyboards and google scripts and such to get it up and running? When my time could be spent photography a wedding, or as simple as sleeping!
 
Camelpaw said:
Sounds awesome! Which capacity did you go for and how much?

I have a 4TB WD Sharespace and it doesn't have many fancy features, but it runs RAID5 and keeps all my pron... No wait, photos all neat and tidy! Not to mention the 2.5 terabytes of other bits 'n' bobs :p
Click to expand...

I got the 5 bay Drobo FS (£500 ish) and 2 x Samsung 2TB F4 eco drives at £85 each. The whole thing came to like £670.

VERY steep for what it is at the moment, 2TB storage, but when the 3TB HDs are out, i'll get a couple and plonk it in and i am done. I don't need to connect a monitor and run some software, or shut it down and boot it up.

Unwrap drives, put it in.

Go back to do something else.
 
I heard about the WD drive problems from one user review, something about the head resting far too often killing its life cycle. Hence I got a Samsung, I have always had better luck with Samsung Spinpoint so I am sticking with them :)

Noted with adding new drives, do it just before bedtime then when i wake up it will be done :p
 
I guess when i was younger (as when i was a student), I had a lot more time to spare. And saving money was more important, which mean I upgraded my Graphic card, format windows, even did a little overclocking myself just to see.

Now days, I just can't be arsed with all that. I mean that's why we have people in different professions. We go to doctors to treat our illness, we go to Lawyers to keep us out of jail, we go to accountants to do our bills, they do what they are good at. So I pay people like the ones who make the Drobo for the Drobo. As you get older, you get less spare time (even though i have never slept this little before in my entire life), so every little bit of time saved is worth it.

The people who argue its best to make your own are normally still in university I bet, unless they really love building computers and the challenge.
 
Last edited:
Yes, it can be used as a FTP server (though that is NOT why i bought it)

No, i dont do folding home, i tried that when i was at uni for a day, i don't care about finding Aliens anymore. And I realise I don't want to pay for electric bill for someone else.

It can be use as a media server (see apps)

I did not get the Drobo to back up my OS, I have a Apple Time Capsule for that. Hence my OS and Data are backed up in DIFFERENT physical drives.

How's that for efficiency, and i don't know how acting as a media server or looking for Aliens going to help me as a photographer...

Your turn? :p

p.s. I think you got mixed up what efficiency is.

I want a BACK UP box that is EASY to use, ZERO FUSS, so i can go do something else. That is efficiency.

I don't want a FTP server, i don't want a media server, i don't want to do Folding home (WTF ? Get that crap out of my house!).

Take a day off, sit on my ass, putting motherboards together, putting cables together, building the damn thing, testing the damn thing. That is NOT efficient.

The same day i could have gone out and shoot a wedding and make myself a nice little sum of money, which is a few times more than what i would have saved building my own NAS.

THAT is efficiency.
 
Last edited:
MrLOL said:
the Qnap does everything except 4, which is a nifty trick. No idea where it keeps 1tb of data if both your hard drives fail however. Presume it must have a 3rd one in there or something ?
Click to expand...

I think to have the ability with 2 failing drives you need to have all 5 bays occupied ? I am not 100% sure but it is listed as one of the features.
 
MrLOL said:
that makes sense then.

Still a nifty piece of kit. Although the qnap does the same, they will probably cost a similar ammount and do a similar ammount. So comes down to personal preference :)

which one did you get by the way ?
Click to expand...

I got the Drobo FS (the latest one).

The first one is plain Drobo (USB 2.0), then there was Drobo S (Firewire 800 & USB 2.0). The plain one has 4 Bays, Drobo S has 5 bays. These 2 can be use on a LAN with the Droboshare (separate piece of hardware) or through something like the Apple Extreme/Time Capsule.

The Drobo FS is Gigabit LAN only, not USB or Firewire, but it has 5 Bays, and it is faster than the previous versions..allegedly. It can be use on LAN without the droboshare, and actually they are phasing that out since it wasn't the most stable of hardware from user reviews, plus it was slow.
 
Last edited:
MrLOL said:
you only need 4 disks to do a RAID 6 array which can withstand the failure of 2 disks :)

The qnap and the drobo are pretty much out on there own here. I think the only thing that comes close is the synology disk station.

Downside is with only 4 bays you cant get as many disks in, but then i guess it depends on how much tb of movies you've got :P
Click to expand...

I got it for my weddings, each time I finish one you are looking at around 70G of RAWs. 10 weddings a year is 700GB, therefore I need a box that can grow dynamically as I need more storage. Grow not only in terms of needing more drives, but also replace and expand old drives with ease, without having to copy them across.

This can do that, and that is the main attraction to it. The dynamic expansion.
 
MrLOL said:
from qnaps website:



So the Qnap can do that too. Not that it matters because the drobo is obviously going to be great for your needs, but its not the only one :)
Click to expand...

To be honest, i didn't know about the Qnap until you mentioned it, and I have asked what other options besides the drobo there are before. People always seem to come back with NAS solution that involves self maintenance - FreeNAS, Ready NAS, WHS, or at worst, building my own server.

So the Drobo to me, until today, has no peers.
 
Up and running !!!

I got home just after 7, and by 7:19, the drives were in, power on, CD installed, and after familiar myself with the Client program, did firmware update, client software update, set admin password etc (did the same on my MBP as well). I have set it up to back up my USB Drive that I use to host my Wedding photos. It is backing up via Wifi N network currently.




In between I managed to get changed, got dinner too :p

How's that for efficiency? :D
 
Last edited:
drunken fool said:
exactly what it's supposed to do :D

Now, tell the truth, have you sat and watched the light display?!?!
Click to expand...

lol, no, they are VERY bright ! I think i might dim them :p


ooh, just clicked the BLINK LIGHTS button lol, its like a traffic lights dance :p
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom