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Here is an interesting review of the new Drobo by Raoul Pop. He also wrote one on the original version and had a few problems. I'm still going to get one as soon as I can.
http://www.raoulpop....neration-drobo/
Macworld Buying Guides: External desktop hard drives
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#30
pstys 
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Posted 31 March 2009 - 02:03 PM
Thx ChrisLJ, useful review. Still, reliability will depend on what you populate the Drobo with. If I pay extra for "enterprise" or "server-grade" drives, can I be sure I am getting something better, or just paying more and being fooled?
#32
dougoftheabaci
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Posted 31 March 2009 - 02:23 PM
I agree and as long as you mirror your drives (something I'm going to be doing in my next upgrade) you tend to be pretty safe.
Honestly, I'm rather surprised to see people complaining so much about Seagate. Apparently their 1.5TB drives had some firmware issues of late but those are all fixed, at least that's what I'd heard. And before that I'd never heard a bad thing about Seagate. Ever.
And myself I have no problem with Western Digital drives (usually) but rather their cases and so forth with their abysmal Mac compatibility.
Honestly, I'm rather surprised to see people complaining so much about Seagate. Apparently their 1.5TB drives had some firmware issues of late but those are all fixed, at least that's what I'd heard. And before that I'd never heard a bad thing about Seagate. Ever.
And myself I have no problem with Western Digital drives (usually) but rather their cases and so forth with their abysmal Mac compatibility.
#34
Droid
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Posted 31 March 2009 - 03:14 PM
ChrisLJ said:
Yes, it seems like the firmware problem was the main issue I've heard of Seagate having.
Maybe once we get holographic storage this will all be a thing of the past.
Maybe once we get holographic storage this will all be a thing of the past.
Until someone turns the lights off :^)
It has been many years since I saw a failed Hitachi Deathstar.
#37
dougoftheabaci
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Posted 31 March 2009 - 08:55 PM
Do you (or anyone else for that matter) know of a Drobo alternative? I'm looking to upgrade to 4TB (2TB redundant) and if possible I'd like to do my own solution.
The one thing I liked about the Drobo was that you could put in whatever drives you wanted. I don't mind having to keep everything in equal pairs but the less I'd have to do to maintain it the better.
The one thing I liked about the Drobo was that you could put in whatever drives you wanted. I don't mind having to keep everything in equal pairs but the less I'd have to do to maintain it the better.
#38
pstys
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Posted 31 March 2009 - 09:19 PM
Was the Drobo populated with Western Digital drives? ;-)
Like I said, HD reliability seems to be a serious issue, and cuts across makes. I'd like to see a systematic in-depth review by MacWorld about the state of the art, and where the poor user should turn to get reliable storage.
p.
Like I said, HD reliability seems to be a serious issue, and cuts across makes. I'd like to see a systematic in-depth review by MacWorld about the state of the art, and where the poor user should turn to get reliable storage.
p.
#40
ChrisLJ
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Posted 01 April 2009 - 01:59 PM
I had thought about getting a Guardian Maximus from Other World Computing and installing my own drives. It creates a two drive mirrored array. If one fails you put in a new one and it copies to it. The thing that changed my mind is that you have to replace it with an identical drive. I believe it has to be the same make and model.
Then I thought of a Western Digital My Book Mirror Edition, but when I saw the Drobo on sale I thought I'd go for it instead. After reading all the comments here and checking reviews on NewEgg, I don't know what to do. Bummer.
Then I thought of a Western Digital My Book Mirror Edition, but when I saw the Drobo on sale I thought I'd go for it instead. After reading all the comments here and checking reviews on NewEgg, I don't know what to do. Bummer.
#41
dougoftheabaci
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Posted 01 April 2009 - 02:15 PM
I keep finding myself in a similar situation.
I know some readers have requested information on which brands are safe and reliable but, to be honest, you can find that information elsewhere on the net very easily. Also, that's the kind of thing that you can ask around about or read reviews on sites like NewEgg and Amazon.
What isn't so easy, however, is finding an idiots guide to storage. Just reading this topic it becomes clear that while there are some people who know what they're doing there are far more people like me who have no clue beyond the normal, "That drive has a lot of space" and maybe a basic understanding of the difference between RAID0 and RAID1.
Would anyone else be really interested in a how-to guide for storage that covered the various options in terms of single and multi-bay options, RAID, NAS and filesystems as well and methods for management and so forth?
If nothing else it might save Macworld from repeated questions on that very topic.
I know some readers have requested information on which brands are safe and reliable but, to be honest, you can find that information elsewhere on the net very easily. Also, that's the kind of thing that you can ask around about or read reviews on sites like NewEgg and Amazon.
What isn't so easy, however, is finding an idiots guide to storage. Just reading this topic it becomes clear that while there are some people who know what they're doing there are far more people like me who have no clue beyond the normal, "That drive has a lot of space" and maybe a basic understanding of the difference between RAID0 and RAID1.
Would anyone else be really interested in a how-to guide for storage that covered the various options in terms of single and multi-bay options, RAID, NAS and filesystems as well and methods for management and so forth?
If nothing else it might save Macworld from repeated questions on that very topic.
