CNET Editor's rating: 8.8 out of 10
Reviewed by
Felisa Yang
Review date: 06/19/07
Release date: 06/05/07
The good: Protects your data without your interference; can take a 3.5-inch SATA drive of any capacity and from any vendor; hot swappable; your data is available while Drobo is formatting a new drive (even if one drive fails); runs quietly; dashboard lets you track the condition of your Drobo.
The bad: Drobo itself is an USB-only device, and networking capability adds $200 to the bill; we would like to see Drobo bundled with a good backup application.
The bottom line: Drobo takes the pain and confusion out of data protection and lets you tailor and expand the drive according to your needs. This so-called storage robot works exactly as promised and is the most innovative storage device we've seen in a long time. We want one.
Editors' note: Please see our full review of DroboShare for information on adding networking capability to the USB-only Drobo.
Drobo will let you sleep at night. Drobo will make your headache go away. Drobo will put a smile on your face. Drobo is not a drug. Drobo can affect you in the aforementioned ways, however, if you worry about keeping your troves of digital data safe. Drobo is an external storage device that is dead simple to set up and use while offering excellent protection and unbelievably flexible expansion. Specifically, it's a USB drive enclosure with four empty bays that can house any combination of SATA hard drives. It can salvage and rebuild your data in case of drive failure, and you can add larger drives to it as your storage needs grow. Data Robotics calls Drobo a "storage robot" because it automates all those tasks and decisions that RAID arrays require you to make in order to protect your data. An empty Drobo will set you back about $500, but e-tailers will probably offer bundles that include hard disk drives (currently, Drobo is available only in its baseline, driveless configuration). Drobo is the essence of simplicity and user friendliness. We only wish Drobo came bundled with its own backup utility so that the important first step of data backup wouldn't be left to the whims of end users.
The Drobo's all-black body makes it look small and inconspicuous for a four-bay enclosure. While the top and sides are matte black, the front and rear panels are made of glossy, black plastic. The rear panel of the Drobo houses only a USB port and a power port. If you pop off the front panel (which comes off easily without requiring tools), you're faced with four empty drive bays. Each bay can accept a hard drive of any capacity from any vendor, as long as it's a 3.5-inch SATA 1- or SATA 2-type drive. A series of 10 blue LEDs along the bottom of the front panel as the Drobo is filled--each light represents about 10 percent of the drive; the more blue lights you see, the less capacity you have left. On the right side of the front panel are four LEDs--one for each drive bay--that shine or blink green, yellow, or red to indicate the status of each drive. The included user guide offers a full explanation of the light patterns, as does a sticker on the inside of the front panel--saving you from hunting for the manual should you suddenly see the lights blink red or yellow.
Getting your Drobo up and running couldn't be simpler--no tools are required. Insert a SATA drive into any of Drobo's drive bays, connect Drobo to your PC via USB 2.0, and power it up by plugging it into a wall socket. You can start with just one hard drive, but Data Robotics recommends you start with at least two for data protection. You're paying for Drobo's protection technology--there are cheaper alternatives for a single, external hard drive. No matter how many drives you add to Drobo, your PC will see it as a single USB storage device. After you've popped your hard drives into Drobo and plugged it in, you can either use the included CD to format the drive(s) or you can use the native Windows drive formatting utility or Apple's Disk Utility. The benefit of formatting by using the CD is that you can install the Drobo Dashboard, which will help you stay informed of the device's status. The initial formatting will take a few minutes. Drobo supports NTFS (Windows), HFS+ (Mac OS), and FAT32 (cross-platform) file systems, and the separate DroboShare base provides EXT3 support for Linux systems. In order to format your Drobo volume in the EXT3 file system, you will need to purchase the separate DroboShare product.
Once you've formatted the disks, you can install additional disks without going through the formatting process. Simply pop out the full or damaged drive, and slide in a fresh one in its place. The new drive will be formatted automatically, and the data from the removed drive written to it; you can even access your data during this process (keep in mind that any data already existing on a drive will be erased once you allow Drobo to format it). According to Data Robotics, Drobo uses a variety of data protection schemes, including some used in RAID arrays. Unlike RAID arrays, you don't need to choose a protection level or scheme; all of the protection goes on behind the scenes. As mentioned previously, you can use any 3.5-inch drive from any vendor, in any capacity. When choosing drives, however, you should keep capacity in mind, because not all of the installed capacity will be available to you as storage space. Data Robotics' rule of thumb is to omit the capacity of the largest drive and add up the capacity of the remaining ones: for example, if you have three 250GB drives, your usable capacity is about 500GB. If you have two 500GB drives and a 250GB drive, your available capacity is 750GB. Drobo uses the remaining capacity for data protection. The idea is that if the largest drive fails, you'd need equal its capacity on the other drive(s) to store its data should that drive fail.
We installed the Drobo (with two drives, an 80GB Seagate Barracuda and a 160GB Seagate Barracuda) on our Windows-based system, and it was as easy as the start-up literature promised. After the initial formatting was done, we copied over several gigabytes of data, including photos, music, video, and data files. To test the ability to access data during a drive failure, we started a video from Drobo and proceeded to extract one of the hard drives and replace it with another (a 400GB Hitachi Deskstar). We didn't see any hiccups in the video (or any of the other files we accessed), and the formatting of the new disk and the rewriting of the data progressed in the background.
The Drobo dashboard shows a graphical representation of capacity (in the form of a pie chart), which we found useful. In the advanced options window, you can also check the capacity of each drive, set up alerts for various situations, check for firmware updates, and reformat the drive. The dashboard also lets you access instructional videos that show you how to perform various tasks, such as replacing a drive. While the dashboard is useful, we'd like to see Drobo bundled with more software, specifically with a good backup utility. As good as Drobo is at protecting your data, it still relies on users to actively copy files over and let's face it: we are lazy. A backup utility would let users schedule automatic backups during the installation process and let Drobo take care of the rest.
Because the focus of the Drobo is on data protection and not speed, we didn't test data transfer speeds (plus, speeds will vary depending on the hard drives you choose to add to Drobo). So far, Drobo is only available with a USB 2.0 connector, which is the main speed bottleneck, if that's a concern for you. The separate $199 DroboShare adds Gigabit Ethernet networking, but we would also like to see Drobo come in FireWire and eSATA versions for those users who want faster throughput than what USB 2.0 can provide.
Data Robotics supports Drobo with a standard one-year warranty. First-level toll-free phone support is available 24-7; if your matter needs additional attention, the second-level phone support is available 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT. You can also send an e-mail to tech support or fill out the online support form. Drobo's site offers FAQs, documentation, downloadables, and a user forum.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular A well designed/unique storage device
I own a Drobo and 2 ReadyNAS NVs (what some would cite as a competitor). Both are great storage solutions ...
I own a Drobo and 2 ReadyNAS NVs (what some would cite as a competitor). Both are great storage solutions that support automatic RAID expansion as drives are inserted. What makes the Drobo unique is its ability to USE ALL of the space on different sized drives: On every home-qualtiy NAS unit that exists today, you can stick in 2x 500GB drives and 2x 1TB drives and get 1.5 TB of RAID protected space. What happens to the remaining 500GB on each 1TB disk?... it's wasted. On the Drobo, this space is still accessible, just NOT RAID protected. This might sound like a loss, but let's say you own a NON-Drobo NAS with drive bays occupied by 500GB disks and you want to increase the storage, to do so you would need to buy FOUR** larger disks, before any RAID expansion occured.
The Drobo's firmware also supports 1TB SATA drives out of the box (and provided the LB Addressing scheme doesn't change I think* it can support even larger drives without firmware update). Currently the competitor's firmware (v3) only allows up to 750GB drives, with 1TB support promised in the next firmware release.
The Drobo's file transfer speeds are also better than the (ahem*) competitors.
A disadvantage of the Drobo is that it is NOT networked and is just a storage unit. The similarly priced ReadyNAS supports a variety of network based applications including FTP, UPnP streaming, auto USB-backup, and includes decent backup software.
Which one you should buy is up to your storage, access, and spending habits.
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by davidcw (see profile) -
June 29, 2007
9 out of 10 - Spectacular This product rocks
Those of you who gave this unit a bad name no nothing about computers.I will prove it by comparing ...
Those of you who gave this unit a bad name no nothing about computers.I will prove it by comparing it against the Infrant ReadyNAS NV+ With Drobo you can use any size drive or any make of drive, with the ReadyNAS you are stuck with your first drive ie if you put in a 250 gig drive the other 3 must be 250 gig. Also you cant use any drive, only the ones on infrants approved list. Winner Drobo With Drobo you can change drives on the fly, with the ReadyNas you need to power down the unitchange the drive and then reboot,winner Drobo. When drobo is rebuiling mode you still have acess to your Data, With the ReadyNas you do not, you have to wait untill the rebuild is complete, so if you have a lot of data you may have to wait hours or a day before you can acess your stuff, Winner Drobo, Drobo requires no tools at all,just put in the drive and your set winner Drobo The only fault is that drobo does not come with an ethernet connection and ReadyNas does, However you can use an airport extream or a linksys router with usb support as a NAS head and share your data. Cost Drobo is $499.00 The ReadyNAS NV+ is $650 for a diskless unit winner Drobo
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by droborocks (see profile) -
June 30, 2007
5 out of 7 users found this user opinion helpful.
1 out of 10 - Abysmal Version 1.0
Our Drobo failed within three days taking all of our data with it. After a frustrating experience with tech support, ...
Our Drobo failed within three days taking all of our data with it. After a frustrating experience with tech support, it was determined that the data was unrecoverable. Use this product at your own risk. Make sure that you back it up. When it failed for us, it failed completely. Fortunately we were able to recover from backups. This device is slow and unreliable. I should have known better not to purchase a version 1.0 product. Use this product at your own risk. If you are a consultant, do not recommend this product to your clients.
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by Garlydog (see profile) -
August 2, 2007
6 out of 10 users found this user opinion helpful.
10 out of 10 - Perfect Drobo rocks
I use Drobo as my primary backup target for Acronis TrueImage Home. Additionally, I use it to archive files off ...
I use Drobo as my primary backup target for Acronis TrueImage Home. Additionally, I use it to archive files off my laptop which is my primary computer. I'm very happy with the product. I've outgrown three USB drives in the past several years and the process of going out to buy a new one when I filled up the old one was getting old. Now I've got an easy to use, easy to expand, better protected Drobo to use going forward. I've had no issues whatsoever with the unit and highly recommend it. I like the comfort of knowing my data is protected against a drive failure and I'll never again run out of space.
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by bbartle (see profile) -
June 20, 2007
3 out of 10 - Poor Great idea, SLOW machine
Drobo is a wonderful idea, however, I just returned mine because it is USB only, and was very slow at ...
Drobo is a wonderful idea, however, I just returned mine because it is USB only, and was very slow at transferring data. Drobo was taking more than two hundred sixty six hours to intake 600GB of video data from another drive. Tech support wasn't able to solve the painfully slow transfer speeds. I really wanted my Drobo to work, and was very sad to have to return it. My advice? Wait for the Firewire 800 version...
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by Chipbhip (see profile) -
April 25, 2008
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
3 out of 10 - Poor If you value your data, DON'T trust this thing!!!
I just read your Drobo review and wanted to share my experience with Drobo. I don't think you should ...
I just read your Drobo review and wanted to share my experience with Drobo. I don't think you should be endorsing it.
I pre-ordered my Drobo, so consider me an early adopter. At first, I *LOVED* it. Innovative, slick, and a worthy alternative to RAID5, I thought. After applying the first firmware update, the Drobo rebooted and my Mac informed me that the connected disk was unformatted and asked what I wanted to do (Initialize, Ignore, Eject). As you can imagine, I was immediately filled with panic and dread.
Over the past five years or more, I've built a huge (legal) music collection. I'm a music freak and buy between 5 and 10 CDs each month. I had painstakingly ripped each and every one of my 2000+ CDs to the Drobo, both in Apple Lossless format for my home stereo and AAC format for my iPod. I can't even imagine how many hours (hundreds?) I spent doing this. I also took the time to verify all of the metadata (artist, album, etc) and correct any tag errors. As you can imagine, this was VERY TEDIOUS!!!
Recently I've been ripping my DVD collection and converting it to MP4 for my Apple TV. Each rip/conversion takes between 3-4 hours. A hundred DVDs or so and you're looking at another 300 hours of time spent.
So, I called Drobo tech support. They walked me through a procedure that involved removing and re-inserting the drives. At first this didn't work. Then the tech told me to change the position of the drives in the Drobo. Voila! It took about three days to "protect" the data. After this process had finished, my data was back and I was much relieved.
Until the next firmware update.
The most recent update completely hosed my data. This time, tech support's procedure didn't work. It took 12 days to "protect" my data and when all was finished, my data was lost. Throughout this experience, I made efforts to contact tech support. I sent them my Drobo's diagnostic files, as requested. Someone from Drobo sent me the occasional terse email saying "This is a high priority case!" or "Please be patient!" A month later, how patient am I supposed to be???
A few months ago, I contributed a review of Drobo to Macintouch.com. I'm a regular contributor. I praised it and encouraged others to give it a shot. Needless to say, after my recent experience, I wrote to retract my recommendation and explain why. I sent a copy to my Drobo contact's email in the hopes that it might inspire Drobo to actually DO SOMETHING about my problem.
Would you care to hazard a guess as to how Drobo responded?
THEY CLOSED MY CASE (on April 10), despite the fact that:
1) I'm a paying customer. 2) I'm under warranty. 3) I was an early adopter who put my faith in them and their product.
They don't care one iota that I lost 2TB of data that took me years to accumulate and organize. At this point, I've accepted that my data is gone. However, I'm DEEPLY DISAPPOINTED in the utterly pathetic response I've received from customer service.
As you can well imagine, I'm very angry and frustrated. My experience is not unique either. There are others on DroboSpace.com and various forums (I've been searching!) who have all encountered the same problem.
Thanks for listening. I hope my experience has provided another perspective on this troublesome product. More importantly, I hope that it has demonstrated how insincere Drobo is about customer service.
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by tahoerob (see profile) -
April 17, 2008
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
2 out of 10 - Terrible Caused major data loss.
After purchasing a drobo and equiping it with 500 gig drives I was quite impressed. Then, when I purchased a ...
After purchasing a drobo and equiping it with 500 gig drives I was quite impressed. Then, when I purchased a second drobo, and added 750 gig drives to drobo 1, the trouble began. Drobo 1 failed completely, causing a 1.5 terabyte data loss and drobo 2 takes 10 to 15 minutes to boot, during which time the computer is frozen. I'm sorry I switched from raid. I am going back. Additionally tech support in slow answering the phones, and seeming incompetent.
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by rpbest320 (see profile) -
February 19, 2008
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
2 out of 10 - Terrible Reinventing the wheel
Considering the value of today's user's data anything that gets people to think about backup, archiving and data ...
Considering the value of today's user's data anything that gets people to think about backup, archiving and data safety has some good in it. But this product tries to re-invent the wheel by claiming to improve on RAID, as a result causing confusion in minds of many users.
I have tested and used this product, opened it.
The facts: 24MB/s is slow. Slower than external USB 2.0 mobile hard drives. About 10-12 MB/s slower than the $119.99 500GB USB 2.0 HD you can buy anywhere. The demo video is heavily edited. It is not that fast to configure the unit and to copy data especially if drives are full. It is not that "instant" to have fault tolerance, as the video has you thinking. The amount of data being copied and moved in the demo is very small - not what I would have on my drive for example with my MP3 library and movie library.
Eventually you'll have to populate the unit with drives anyway, making it's entry price point deceiving. And at $500 for the empty box it's not cheap. 1 Year warranty on Drobo and the fact that box and drives are covered by different parties is a draw back also. You don't go to one place for service on this unit.
And I don't care how small those bunch of magnets are that hold the Drobo front cover in place, magnets of any sort have no place being that close to my naked hard drive mechanisms being pulled in and out.
The product in my view commits one major crime worse than above. It confuses people and all they already know about RAID. RAID is good. RAID is here and used by many people it is reliable, established - a standard. RAID makes people think of storage needs and risks to data before selection of solution, before final choice of product. RAID with proper hardware RAID controllers for RAID 0/1/5 levels is affordable and very reliable. You can find fantastic hardware controlled RAID solutions with hot swap drives starting at $399 with drives/capacity already present at this price point. No software application or CPU power required for hardware controlled RAID to handle the virtualization like with Drobo.
Don't ask me what happens should there be a Drobo software issue that handles the virtualization and trickery that makes my computer believe I have 2TB of space with a single 250GB drive installed in the Drobo. Don't ask me what happens if a partition information on the virtualized partition gets corrupted (as can happen with power outage, HD failure, improper unmount, computer crash, etc). Don't ask me if a HD Repair Utility tool will know how to fix this virtualized partition to recover my data in case of failure. I can't answer those questions, but I sure as heck don't want to find out. With RAID being around as long as it has been, I know my chances of recovery, rebuilt, fix are much better even in the worse case scenario than with a partition that thinks it's 2TB when I only have a single 250GB drive installed.
Drobo tires to make people think of capacity, performance, redundancy as an after though to what is called "easy" and "simple". But for this lack of making users plan properly ahead for their storage needs and for confusing many users by claiming that RAID is bad, old, outdated, as well as for the poor performance, need for virtualization, for the short 1 year warranty (especially since there are no hard drives present) - I have to give this product big thumbs down.
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by anarchol (see profile) -
December 5, 2007
7 out of 10 - Very good Decent Product
I own 5 of these for my photography studio. I've had them for about 4 months now. The concept ...
I own 5 of these for my photography studio. I've had them for about 4 months now. The concept is awesome and for the most part they work very well. I love the fact that I can populate these with four 750 GB drives and get 2 TB of protected space. If a drive fails, it does protect the data.
However, Drobo claims to how fast it rebuilds the data are way off. I had 1.9 TB of test data on one of the Drobos, I simulated a failed drive. It took 3 1/2 days to rebuild the data. It worked, but not in the 12 hours or so that the Drobo people claimed.
Another notable quirk is that the Drobo Dashboard often gets out of sync with what the Drobos are actually doing. The Drobo Dashboard is their interface with the hardware to let you know how much storage is being used, when a drive fails, etc... When they get out of sync, it requires a re-boot to re-sync the information presented on the Drobo Dashboard with the Drobos. For most users who only will run one of these on a computer, I think it will work just fine. I have 4 of these hanging off a single system, maybe that is why I'm running into the Drobo Dashboard issues, even though Drobo support says it shouldn't matter.
Overall, I very much like the Drobo and use them daily. I just hope they work out some of the kinks.
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by happy0506 (see profile) -
December 20, 2007
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular I don't want to become a RAID guru, and Drobo lets me avoid that!
My Drobo is the best tech gadget purchase I have made all year. I have a handfull of external hard ...
My Drobo is the best tech gadget purchase I have made all year. I have a handfull of external hard drives, and I bought Drobo early on based on the CNET review and the huge word of mouth I saw. The community (drobospace.com) had lots of very helpful people who answered my questions and I love it.
I have since consolidated all of my external drives into my Drobo, and even ripped apart 2 of them for their hard drives - which have gone to increase my Drobo's storage capacity.
If you are very technical and don't mind fiddling with RAID or reconfiguring and migrating data around between systems - then that may work great for you. But if you have NO desire to figure that out - just buy the Drobo and it does everything for you.
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by RQuarters (see profile) -
December 14, 2007
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