On a scale from 1to10, the Drobo FS is a freakin’ 10.
You may have noticed (or probably not) that I have an obsession with data, with data backup, and with storage. We ran an entire month of posts all focused on data backup. Anyone who’s lost data before tends to have this kind of an obsession.
I’ve used external HDDs, and set up RAID systems in my PC, but I’ve never found a perfect solution. Maybe perfection doesn’t really exist in data backup. But the Drobo FS is pretty freaking awesome.
I’ll backup a second. I use multiple external HDD’s for various purposes. I have one for Time Machine, one that’s plugged into my Xbox 360 for watching local media, and one that’s plugged into my Pogoplug for easy backup and easy sharing of media. It all works well, but it also all requires a lot of manual management and work. The drive that’s plugged into my Pogoplug has been clicking and that’s ominous – usually means an impending mechanical failure. I live in dread.
As I mentioned, I did have a RAID 1 set up on my PC, but the RAID broke when I upgraded to Windows 7, and I haven’t wanted to go through the hassle of fixing, re-formatting, or updating my motherboard BIOS. If all of that sounds incomprehensible, you’re not alone.
I’ve had my eye on a Drobo for a long time. For the uninitiated, Drobo is a type of external storage solution for consumers, semi-pros, and commercial data backup. The name comes from Data Robot. I’ve hemmed and hawed for a long time, because these are not cheap devices. Costco finally got a good deal for the Drobo FS (my preferred model) with 3 1TB HDD’s for $799. It’s a good price, and includes the Costco guarantee, so I decided to pull the trigger. I’m only bummed I waited this long. Couple of benefits to the Drobo FS:
- Holds up to 5 internal Sata Drives (super easy, just plug them in, no cables or plugs)
- Drives are hot-swappable (if you run out of capacity and want to put in larger drives, or if a drive goes bad, you can just yank out the bad / smallest drive and plug in a new one)
- Data is striped across multiple drives (if a drive goes bad, you don’t lose any data. It’s backed up across the other drives)
- It’s future-proof (you never need to run out of capacity. When you fill up your drives, you simply buy bigger ones and replace the smaller ones. The investment doesn’t go bad or get filled up.)
- Networked solution (you can move the data onto Drobo via your local network. Also possible to stream to various devices. More on this in a later post.)
- Can be used for Time Machine (in Drobo you can set up multiple locations that you can label and designate for a specific purpose – these are called “shares”. You can create a share specifically for Time Machine if you like, or to hold all your movies, or just to hold all the data on a given machine, etc.)
What I like most about Drobo is that it’s available on my network, and that it offers a redundant solution for storage. If a drive goes bad (and all mechanical devices, including HDDs, will eventually go bad) you can pull it out and replace it. When you run out of space, you can go to Fry’s and upgrade capacity with whatever the new price point drives are available.
I sleep a little better knowing that I have a storage robot minding my data, keeping it safe and redundantly backed up. It was spendy, but I’m glad I made the investment. The loss of family photos, or just the countless hours I’ve spent ripping my movie collection would be catastrophic. This is good insurance.
