Anyone using Drobo FS for home use?

[wish2fish]

Looking for a home data storage solution to include auto back and duplication. Seriously considering the Drobo FS and was wondering if anyone has used it and could comment on the ease of use and quality of the product. I'm not a techie so I want something that is fairly simple. We have 3 laptops and a iMac on the network so I'm looking for something compatible with all three.

http://www.drobo.com/products/drobo-fs.php

If you have an alternative solution, I'm willing to listen to that as well.

 

[Pietro]

I have the Drobo on my home PC and it works fine. There’s almost nothing to do to install it, very simple!:thumbsup:

I put in two 1T hard discs and my photos and files should be safe, hopefully...:grin:

 

[comsnark]

I think NAS systems (network attached storage) like this one are the direction things are going. Well. . I am sure many people would gladly sell you cloud storage, but I come from the school that says that if I don't HAVE the data, then I don't OWN the data.

I hear lots of systems sell the gigabit network connectivity, but many systems are processor limited. I am a bit concerned that this system is running a proprietary data architecture and you have NO IDEA what kind of hardware is under the hood. They don't tell you if this is a i3, i5, or even if it is an Atom processor running the system. That is kinda important.

I am also not a fan of propietary data architectures. It's great that your drives are redundant. What happens if the motherboard craps out? It sounds like you can't simply stick the hard drives into another brand of NAS (or PC) and have everything come out ok. I would find out the answer to that question before proceeding.

I personally have not dove into this stuff yet, although I have done some research. This is still a bit too pricey for me to pull the trigger.

 

[Pack66Dad]

I'm using an HP MediaSmart server. I have been using it for about 2 years and its very reliable. I do not like the windows home server operating system because its pretty limited. But all in all I think its a good solution.

 

[fc3]

I'm going to agree with Comsnark. I have not evaluated this system, and without doing a full technical review and hands-on evaluation, it's hard to know if it's any good. I'm now running a Linux server that handles all of my critical storage requirements. Important data, photos, etc, are stored on a RAID 5 array on the Linux machine. This give me flexibility of using either Windows, NFS, iSCSI or other network attached storage file system. Being able to do iSCSI is actually kind of useful, but I'm not taking advantage of that, yet. If the RAID or the computer fail, recovery is simple; either stick in a new disk for a failed drive in the RAID or move the drives to a new PC if the computer itself fails. You need a recovery strategy for the recovery system. What happens with the box itself fails?

Best regards,
Frank

 

[penguin]

The Drobo line of products are very cool. They are expensive; however, you get ease-of-use for paying extra. My advice is to get it without drives and then order two drives of appropriate size (I'm going to guess 1TB) elsewhere. Leave the other three bays open. When you outgrow the 1TB, then you have room to slip in two 2TB drives, let it sync, and then pull out the 1TB. When you outgrow the 2TB, then you have room to stick in two 4TB drives, let sync, and pull out the 2TB drives. Keep "tick tocking" like that and you will be good for a very long time.

 

[penguin]

fc3, I've done the exact same thing. Last year, I built a Linux machine using a coolmaster case, E5700 Core 2 Duo, 2GB of RAM and two drives for $400. It serves as the "house server" and performs way more than just file server.

I used two bays and made a software RAID mirror between two drives. I then use "rsnapshot" to backup the data to an external USB drive. I have two USB drives that I swap between house and work. So, I always have a copy outside the house too (I keep the copy at work in a locked drawer so coworkers can't get my loot).

 

[comsnark]

I tend to like "out of the box" solutions, but I am also cheap. This is why I personally have avoided the Linux type solution; but I think that solution will work well.

I would re-emphasize not getting a system that uses proprietary data mapping.

This Drobo box is probably running somesort of intel motherboard and windows home server software. There are MANY ways ANY box can go bad: you need to ensure that you can pull the drives out of the box and be able to recover the data. In Frank and Penguin's setups: they can stick the data drives in just about ANY server box and get to the data easily.

With the Drobos: it is not clear you can do that. If you swap a drive between two different Drobo boxes: will the 2nd box let you get at the data, or will it automatically wipe the drive upon insertion? Some of the cheaper competitors will do that. It is best if the box implements standard raid architecture.


I think an offsite backup for important data is essential just as Penguin does. Stashing a 1 TB USB drive in your office desk, or in a safety deposit box is a good way to go. I currently have about 500GB of personal data. I have an image in my laptop bag (available whereever I travel); and another image on a backup drive at home. Bought a home PC last year. . have not even put all the data on there just yet.

 

[Tonka Boater]

A lot of people bash cloud storage but what good is your backup if your house burns down or someone steals your computers along with your backup devices? For me, Carbonite is about as easy as it gets. My data is backed to their servers and it's accessible anytime, anywhere...even on my iPhone. The only bottleneck is my bandwidth but once the initial back completed new files get backed up immediately.

 

[wish2fish]

fc3, I've done the exact same thing. Last year, I built a Linux machine using a coolmaster case, E5700 Core 2 Duo, 2GB of RAM and two drives for $400. It serves as the "house server" and performs way more than just file server.

I used two bays and made a software RAID mirror between two drives. I then use "rsnapshot" to backup the data to an external USB drive. I have two USB drives that I swap between house and work. So, I always have a copy outside the house too (I keep the copy at work in a locked drawer so coworkers can't get my loot).

HUH! I said I wasn't a techie. I thought Raid was to get rid of roaches and ants.