It looked awesome, it was fast as heck (two hard drives in a RAID + FireWire 800) and it was endorsed by Apple. While it was technically a RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks), the redundant part was misleading. It was a RAID 0 meaning:
…distributes data across several disks in a way that gives improved speed and full capacity, but all data on all disks will be lost if any one disk fails.
Not “save your ass” style RAID 1:
…using two (possibly more) disks that each store the same data so that data is not lost as long as one disk survives. Total capacity of the array is just the capacity of a single disk. The failure of one drive, in the event of a hardware or software malfunction, does not increase the chance of a failure nor decrease the reliability of the remaining drives…
In other words:
What Happened
Yep, it failed on me. Luckily I was able to let it sit for a few days, then run Disk Utility on it so it would at least mount. In the meantime I bought me a Drobo and got that set up. When it mounted, I quickly transferred as much data as I could. I got about 90% of it before it died again.
So now I’m a happy dude with my shiny new Drobo. One of my big concerns was that I wanted to use Time Machine for automatic backups, but Time Machine automatically just fills up a drive to capacity with backups. I wasn’t about to let my gigantic Drobo be completely filled with Time Machine backups. Drobo Apps has a perfect solution.
I wish I had some money now to buy…
And for me its more expencive… I live in Brasil.
I almost bought the same drive since it would be similar to my MacBook Pro. I ended up getting a WD Mybook Studio.
How fast did your Time Machine fill up your other drive? Ive been using my 500GB Mybook along with backing up my wife's iPhoto for months now with around 20% used.
I have a ton of data, and lots of huge files I work on regularly. The first backup alone is like 400GB and it goes fast from there. If I only had 750GB free, it'd be full in a matter of weeks. The way I have it set up now, I'm giving Time Machine 1TB and the rest is for me =)
Hi Chris, how satisfied are you with your drobo? I am still thinking about buying one..
Isn't it very loud if you have a couple of drives in there? Did you get the firewire version?
Hi Chris, just what I've been looking for (Drobo)!
Added to the shopping list!
Thanks
But why does it have two FW ports? Can you attach it to two computers at once or is this meant like some kind of dual channel interface?
The only thing that bugs me about the drobo is the relatively high price. Here in Germany it's about 500 Dollars + at least two SATA drives..
But why does it have two FW ports? Can you attach it to two computers at once or is this meant like some kind of dual channel interface?
The only thing that bugs me about the drobo is the relatively high price. Here in Germany it's about 500 Dollars + at least two SATA drives..
I wondered myself about the two ports. I can't remember the link right now, but I did google something at one point and read it was for daisy chaining firewire devices. I have not tested this though. That could be pretty darn handy if you could use that extra port to connect another FireWire 800 device.
Yep, firewire. It is very very quiet. Much quieter even with 3 drives in it that my old GRAID was with 2 drives. I'm really digging it so far. I feel much safer.
It's pretty common that firewire devices of whatever kind have two ports to be able to chain them. That way you don't need hubs like usb has them. Comes in handy for endusers – only one plug on your desk for all the drives ;-).
i daisychain 2 fw 800 drives at home. the only thing you have to remember is the chain is as fast as your slowest drive, so even if you hook a usb 2 drive to the end, it slows down your whole chain. they put that on there for the fw 800 because most laptops have at least 4 usb2s but only one fw800.