Data Robotics Drobo Home NAS Server

We are always on the hunt for bigger and better ways to store our data. Some say we have a problem, we say that we just like hard drives. We are always on the lookout for something new and different, something that we can bring home and add to our collection of storage servers.

Well we came across the Drobo from Data Robotics and we were intrigued. We love that they call the Drobo a storage robot. Anything with robot in the name peaks our attention. We started reading about the device and it got even more interesting.

Instead of subscribing to a standard RAID model( 0,1,5 ) they have some special, secret, hidden technology underneath it all that makes having multiple disks as simple as possible. With 4 SATA bays you can have up to 4TB at your fingertips or just use one of the bays and add a drive later if you run out of space. If one of the drives fails you can easily just pull it out and put another one in without effecting you data and that is something that not all NAS solutions offer.

So the things we like about it is the simplicity of just plugging drives in and forgetting about dealing with server configs and pairing and all the other headaches that go with setting up a NAS. This is great for anyone that just wants a lot of storage, wants it to be backed up and wants easy access to it.

What we don't like about it is that it is USB only. There is no network connection on the box, so you are limited to USB2 speeds. That is fine if you are just moving small files over, but chances are that if you spent about $500 on this puppy, you have big files and lots of them. Reports indicate that transfer speeds are very slow so if you need fast access to your data this may not be for you.

To us this device seems best suited for longer term data backup. You wouldn't want to keep your music or movie repository on this since the access times are so slow. But if you are just backing up important files or even backing up your music and movie collection this might be a great device. In the world of storage sometimes the less thought that you need the better.

at Amazon

August 17, 2007

Data Robotics Drobo Home NAS Server