Andy’s Tech Blog

I have been waiting for this since I first found out about the Drobo.  The Drobo is a great USB/FireWire external storage solution with user friendly RAID like redundency (See this post for more info).  The DroboShare turns a Drobo into a NAS allowing you to access the files stored on up to 2 Drobos across your network.  The DroboShare connects to your Drobos via USB.

I love the Drobo, now it is easy to get hold of in the UK from Amazon from £299. So, what does this magic black box do then you ask? Well it is a USB storage device that has 4 bays for SATA Hard Disks (bring your own – up to 4x1TB with current drives, up to 4x4TB=16TB with future disks) that protects your data across multiple disks using a RAID like system, if one disk should fail your data is still safe elsewhere. Simply replace the broken drive and you are fully protected again with no loss of data.

Where this device differs from traditional RAID is in upgrading. With typical RAID if you insert a new drive into the array typically any new capacity is ignored. With the Drobo any new capacity is available to the array almost imeadiately. An older smaller drive can be removed at any time so long as the array has sufficient capacity to cope with the loss. In is way you can start off with a few smaller drives if you already have them and grow the storage up to 4TB (in 2 pools of 2TB) when you can afford it.

The drive manages itself plus there is an administration utility to keep an eye on things but this is not required for actual use. Each drive has a status indicator light (Yellow light Drobo is 85% full, add or replace a drive. Red light, your data is not safe, add or replace a drive immediately) and there are a series of blue LEDs to indicate capacity usage.

Whether you need to keep photos and videos safe or vital company data the Drobo offers protection from hard disk failure, just make sure you also have a suitable off-site backup available as the Drobo cannot protect you if your home or office burns down.