Aperture Users Network

I have to admit that when it comes to long-term storage solutions, I’ve been all over the map. I feel like I have been bouncing from one bad relationship to another. Over the years, I’ve tried CD-ROM, DVD-ROM and multiple external hard drive solutions. While each one gave me some immediate comfort knowing that there was a back up of my valuable images, keeping track of everything over time and having what I need, when I need it became a bigger problem.

I ultimately decided that hard drives were the way to go, but I needed redundancy of a RAID system. After all it’s not really a matter of if a drive will eventually fail, but when. I want to be prepared and I thought a 1TB Network Attached Storage device (NAS) would do the trick. What a disappointment. It turned out that watching files copy through the megabit ethernet connection was slower than watching paint dry and just as exciting. Worse yet, I only bought it because the manufacturer claimed to support the Mac, but they really didn’t. Connecting and configuring the box almost always required additional IT assistance.

After giving up on my NAS investment, my most recent fling with a 1TB FireWire box that lasted about 5 months. I bought this drive because it came with Mac software and could be configured for RAID 1. Configuring for RAID 1 gave me half the original capacity, but mirrored identical copies of data on the two internal drives. Then, one day, it started making strange pinging noises and one drive eventually seized up and stopped working altogether, disabling the whole box. My mistake here was buying an enclosure with no user serviceable parts, and while one of the drives had an intact copy of all my data, it still cost me $250 to recover it.

Then, just as the ink was drying on the check to the data recovery service, I happened to see an online ad for a new storage device called Drobo, and felt that my luck was about to change. (Editor’s note: We saw the same ads and the demos of the Drobo at trade shows, and asked them to become sponsors of our Aperture Road Tour, which they have become.)

The Drobo ($495) from Data Robotics Inc. (www.drobo.com) is billed as “the worlds first storage robot,” but I would characterize it as an intelligent USB hard drive enclosure. The Drobo can accept up to four 3.5 inch SATA or SATA II hard drives of any capacity and safely manages the drives and data in a redundant way such that the data is always protected and can be easily recovered even when a drive fails. The best thing however, is its simplicity, and I guess that is where the robot part comes in. It is a breeze to set up and it just works!

Unlike traditional RAID systems, Drobo does not require any special configuration tools or multiple identically matched drives. All parts you need to get at are fully accessible, you don’t even need a screwdriver. Drobo is dynamic, and so it can grow with your storage needs. This means you can finally take advantage of Moore’s Law for a change. Prices for hard drives decline as capacity increases, since you only need to add more memory when you really need it, chances are the drive you buy in 6-12 months will be twice as big as what you are currently using and cheaper.

You should start with a minimum of two drives and once you have filled all 4 drive slots, you can simply pop out one of the smaller drives and insert a larger drive. Drobo automatically recognizes the new drive, formats it and begins copying data to it. The drives are hot swappable and can be replaced at any time, even when the drives are in use.

The “Robot” constantly monitors the capacity and health status of all the drives and notifies you when you are getting low on space or need to replace a drive. The system status is communicated via LEDs on the front of the device.

Setting up the Drobo was a snap. Unlike other systems that claimed to work well with the Mac, Drobo actually does it very well (I’m sure it works just fine with Windows too). Drobo ships with an AC adapter, USB cable, software CD and user guide, but no hard drives, so you’ll need to purchase hard drives separately.




You can use any 3.5” SATA or SATA II drive. I purchased three new 500GB Seagate Barracuda Drives. Since Drobo automatically reserves space for the backup, in my case the three 500GB hard drives resulted in about 927GB of actual space available for data storage. Data Robotics has a neat on-line calculator on their website http://www.drobo.com/drobolator/ that will help you calculate the available space for any possible combination of common drives from 80GB to 1TB in size.



Drobo is really designed for enduser access. The front cover comes off without the need for tools, exposing all four of the drive bays. To add new drives you simply slide them in connector side first (they can only fit one way). When properly seated, the drives lock in place and that’s it. There are no cables to attach or jumpers to configure. If you can stick a tape in a VCR, you can load up a Drobo.



After the drives are in place, connect the Drobo to your USB port and the AC Adapter. The first time you do this, you will receive the standard Mac OS message about a disk that can not be read. You need to launch the Mac OS Disk Utility to name and initialize the Drobo. After you have done this once, Drobo will automatically configure any new drives you add or swap out later without any further intervention.




That’s it, you are now up and running and can start copying data to it. After the file transfer is complete, you can hear the disks being accessed as the “Robot” is busy performing housekeeping chores optimizing the drives exactly as you’d expect a good robot to do.



The user guide makes a point to say, “No computer software is needed (but provided anyway)”. The device was fully up and running in a matter of minutes following the steps mentioned above. Nonetheless, I installed the software to check it out.

The Drobo Dashboard is a simple utility that provides you with more detailed information than the LEDs on the front of the device do. It also has a firmware updater function that automatically checks the Data Robotics website on a regular basis for new firmware and installs it when needed. The software confirmed that there was a newer firmware for my Drobo, downloaded it from the website and updated my system. Again a very simple and easy to understand process, see the screenshots below:

One of the features that I thought was especially noteworthy was a quick video help tutorial on how to install additional drives. In a world of boring technology terminology and confusing on-line help, it was nice to see that someone took the time to just create a quick animation video to show how to do something, like add more drives.




There is one minor quirk of the system. In order for it to do it’s thing, Drobo has to trick the OS into believing that it is a 2 TB storage device, regardless of the capacity of the actual drives in the device. This means that the space remaining number at the bottom of the Finder window is incorrect. You can see the actual drive capacity from LED display on the front of the drive or using the Drobo Dashboard software.

Conclusions:

Drobo is a great example of technology done right. The product is well designed with both the novice and experienced user in mind. The Mac support is great. It offers the data protection of more complex RAID systems with the ease of use of an external plug and play hard drive. I love the fact that it is extensible and automatically configures itself for new drives.

I’d like to see faster transfer speeds in future versions. Drobo is not what I’d call a speed demon. In basic tests, I measured between 500-800 MB/min transferring RAW image files.

Ultimately, I’d also like to be able to access the Drobo and backup remotely through the network. It would be great to see the Drobo upgraded with a Gigabit network interface while mantaining the same ease of use the current product has. (Editor’s Note: The folks at Drobo have been inundated with requests for FW 400/800 access, and assure us its coming, and we hope eSATA will be included.)


To learn more about Drobo and see the “Drobo in Action” clip that got me hooked go to http://www.drobo.com/products_demo.aspx