New Toy !!! Part Duex !

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:
Raymond Lin said:
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.
Click to expand...

about my only criticism is that the Qnap TS-419 pro will enable 2 disks to fail (using RAID 5 + hot swap 4th disk) and do all of what the drobo will do for £100 less.

But then again the drobo does look more stylish :p (The Qnap is not exaclty a looker)

http://www.qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=127
 
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
 
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.
 
from qnaps website:

Online RAID Capacity Expansion
The storage capacity of a RAID configuration can be expanded by replacing the hard drives with larger ones. All the data will be kept and seamlessly moved to the newly installed hard drives. There is no need to turn off the server during the process.
Click to expand...

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 :)
 
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.
 
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...

With the Qnap though it is traditional RAID so you have to replace all the disks in the array for the larger size? This is where the Drobo has added value.
 
Its still RAID, use the capacity calculator.

http://www.drobo.com/calculator/drobo-s/index.php

Put into that 5 x 1tb disks. Then "upgrade" one of the disks to 2tb.

the actual available data is still 3.6tb, the same as it was with 5 x 1tb disks. Its no different to conventional RAID then as it leaves 1tb of that 2tb disk unused.

It just hides it all away from you to make it user friendly (which is a good thing )
 
It is different. You need at least pair of the larger drive size, it then dynamically increases with no input from the user. Your into rebuilding arrays or replacing all disks with traditional RAID. I've got two 2TB drives and three 1TB drives (6.36TB actual total) I could just stick into the Drobo and get 4.53TB actual space. Not too shabby, although it does plummet if you want 2 disk redundancy :)
 
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:
Just found a neat trick, you can set it up so it (yes, the Drobo itself) sends you emails about its status, from ALL of it, to important to critical. So you can see how it is doing (if any drives failed) while you are away from it and ask someone at home or office just to replace the drive with the red lights !

It can't be easier !
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom