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Drobo - The Storage Robot
this thread has 18 replies and has been viewed 2291 times
Data Robotics has released a hard drive enclosure called Drobo, which is been promoted as the “world’s first storage robot”. Drobo has the unusual ability to automatically detect and format up to four 3.5-inch SATA drives of any capacity. If there happens to be any data corruption, Drobo will spring into action and repair whatever has gone wrong. More importantly, Drobo handles a number of maintenance tasks automatically such as creating redundancy, and sensing and repairing data corruption.
- Drobo is "self-healing", so when a hard drive fails, it reconfigures data to ensure it is once again protected - all without any human intervention.
- Drobo is self-improving, just add a new drive, or upsize a smaller one, and you’ll instantly increase overall protected capacity without needing to do anything else.
- When the Drobo is attached to a PC via USB 2.0, the computer sees the Drobo as a unified drive. The Drobo also features colored LED lights that indicate the status of each bay. For instance, yellow indicates low space, while a flashing red indicates failure.
- Drobo is compatible with Windows and Mac PCs and the (empty) unit is currently priced at $699 USD.
They say in FAQ that they don't use RAID technology, just some virtualisation (not derivative of RAID).
But in forums engineers say that under 50% capacity they use mirroring and after 50% they use data stripping with parity. HA HA HA - it is raid1 and raid5
Interesting concept about using drives with different capacity - they raid5 the smallest drive size and mirror the rest - I guess.
Very good, this is the first fresh idea in storage area for many years.
They say in FAQ that they don't use RAID technology, just some virtualisation (not derivative of RAID).
But in forums engineers say that under 50% capacity they use mirroring and after 50% they use data stripping with parity. HA HA HA - it is raid1 and raid5
Interesting concept about using drives with different capacity - they raid5 the smallest drive size and mirror the rest - I guess.
Very good, this is the first fresh idea in storage area for many years.
Fresh idea??? This is a nobrainer that someone should have come up with ages ago! My storage central is the best I could come up with as far as pricing/capacity premium went but it sucks compatibility wise/functionality/data protection as requres software load on anything that needs to contact it and has RAID1 only functionality, and now my Main MCE is Vista I am not going to load the storage sentral software for fear of killing my install (I really need to image my PC ASAP)
Anywho, this is also similar to how Windows Home Server will work with storage isn't it? and Home Server will also detect and use USB attached storage and your network (possible up to GB ethernet, rather than USB2 connection, and the Drobo does have it's limitations and workarounds. See Part of their QA Facts below.
Q. How can I tell how much capacity Drobo has left?
A. Check the blue capacity meter on the front of Drobo to see % space used/remaining. You can also calculate how much usable protected space you have remaining (see pg. 4 & 12).
A bit anoying if it is hidden away I believe.
Q. Why does my computer show I have 2 Terabytes of space?
A. Drobo "tricks" your computer's operating system by formatting itself as a 2TB drive so that you can add storage in the future without needing to format it and so the added storage is immediately available.
Definetly a work around, bit of a gotchya for a Newbie.
Q. How do I download the latest version of Drobo OS?
A. Install and open Drobo Dashboard, click"Advanced Options" and go to the "Tools" tab. Click "Check for updates..."
I hate having to install software for storage...I think I will be waiting for Home Server, although this would be better than My Netgear Storage Central and many other products out there today. The Hot Add of HDD capacity is a cool feature especially when you can just replace the smallest drive on the fly.
I was one of the MANY beta testers for this. At that time, it was called the Digital Asylum... much BETTER of a name.
Anywho, there was a lot of discussion from the company about who its target market is. It was aiming for the general, everyday consumer and believed that USB2.0 was universal in all cases. In almost every instance, we beta testers shot that notion down. The only people who would want this product will be intentionally looking for it, and because they will be looking for it, they will want specific features. Unfortunately, doing without Ethernet (of the gigabit variety) just isn't going to cut it.
I'm surprised that no one here has argued about the price point. They gave us a credit for testing the units, and the price after credit was still insulting... (By the way, if anyone absolutely must get one of these things, I have a promo code y'all can use to get $100 off. PM me.)
To defend the company though, I thoroughly enjoyed the unit, or at least, enjoyed it as much as I could have enjoy a beta unit. Given the fact that it was pre-production and the parts could have been manufactured better, I like the system and what it can do. I agree that the idea isn't 100% original, but as far as I know, it is the first to implement what it does.
The company never revealed to us how the system worked, but my best guess is... say, you have 4 unequal drives (250, 300, 320, and 500 GB). There would be a RAID5 config of 250 GB across the 4 drives, a 50 GB (the difference between the 300 and 250) RAID5 across the 3 largest drives, and a RAID1 config of 20 GB (320 - 300) between the 320 and 500. That would leave 180 GB (500 - 320) unusable. The idea is that the smallest drive is the best drive to remove since the intention is upgrade. That being the case, pulling the 250 GB drive would cause the system to rebuild itself from the first RAID5 config. If you accidentally pulled a different drive, it would properly configure itself. On that note, the system does an incredible job of rebuilding ("self-healing").
** EDIT: Above, when I say "a RAID5 config of 250 GB across the 4 drives," what I mean to say is that it will total in 750 GB (250 x (4-1))...
As many of you may have guesses, putting in 4 equal sized drives is optimal and would look identical to RAID5 (minus a little bit of overhead used by the system; a VERY small amount).
The company is a great one, and the product is good as well. If it had listened to us and added the Ethernet connection and dropped the price, I would be getting several of these for use at home. Unfortunately, at that price, I can build another computer...
That foxy little black Drobo cube is now much cheaper.
Not only did Dobo's manufacturers cut their price $200, but in in an unusual move, the company is offering a rebate to anyone who already bought a Drobo above $499.
Data Robotics has released a hard drive enclosure called Drobo, which is been promoted as the “world’s first storage robot”. Drobo has the unusual ability to automatically detect and format up to four 3.5-inch SATA drives of any capacity. If there happens to be any data corruption, Drobo will spring into action and repair whatever has gone wrong. More importantly, Drobo handles a number of maintenance tasks automatically such as creating redundancy, and sensing and repairing data corruption. 
Re: Drobo - The Storage Robot
Re: Drobo - The Storage Robot
