Is Drobo still the best?

Raymond Lin

Raymond Lin

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I am looking for an all in one, no hassle Drobo like back up solution. Easy HOT swap HD, auto back up, can fit 4HDs in a the same time with minimal maintenance from me.

They were pretty much the only choice a year ago, i am not up to date with tech in this area, so I am asking the peeps in here that are there any noteworthy competition out there now?
 
TBH, I've never played with Drobo but, to me, it seems a lot of money. I'm currently playing with Windows Home Server. I got an old P4 desktop (free), stuffed a couple of 1TB disks in it (£120) and bought the software (£88). So for a shade over £200 (or £300 if you need to get the desktop from flea bay) I have a backup solution that also allows me to do bare metal restores of any failed system, gives me remote access over the internet to shared data plus remote desktop access to any PC on my network. Adding more disks is just a matter of plugging them in. It can even backup Macs :) May be worth a look.
 
LemmingLover said:
TBH, I've never played with Drobo but, to me, it seems a lot of money. I'm currently playing with Windows Home Server. I got an old P4 desktop (free), stuffed a couple of 1TB disks in it (£120) and bought the software (£88). So for a shade over £200 (or £300 if you need to get the desktop from flea bay) I have a backup solution that also allows me to do bare metal restores of any failed system, gives me remote access over the internet to shared data plus remote desktop access to any PC on my network. Adding more disks is just a matter of plugging them in. It can even backup Macs :) May be worth a look.
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I would but i do not have the time, I seriously don't. I barely sleep enough as it is (6 hours a day if i am lucky in the week), I rather pay £600 for an all in one out of the box than spend time messing with a home server.

It's not about money, its about time, ease of use and hassle free, oh, and size.
 
Have a look at :

http://www.readynas.com/?cat=4

Amongst other things :

"
Backup
All ReadyNAS systems include multiple backup layers that you can customize to fit your needs. First, protect Windows and Mac clients with our included CDP software. Then, take a snapshot of your ReadyNAS data to ensure a recovery point. Next, backup to a USB drive on demand or on a schedule. Replication is a cinch between two ReadyNAS systems, and finally the ReadyNAS Vault option can move files and folders to an offsite secure data center for disaster recovery. It’s all built in!
"
 
neil_g said:
its also expensive and if youre wanting to run it as a NAS its slow.
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There is a new version out now that has gigabit ethernet built in. They are expensive but fantastically easy to use and low maintenance. I love my FireWire one - I'm thinking about upgrading to the new one.
 
I've found drobo very reliable and problem free.
 
Not understanding all the techie stuff here, can I mention what I do. Having had a house fire many years ago that destroyed both computers and very important backups too, I went for on line as well as local backup.

For around £25.00 a year ($4.95/month), I have unlimited automatic backup (not file sharing), mine backs up itself 4 times a day but you can do as many or as few as you want. If a file is deleted on your system, it deletes it on line after 30 days so you dont get heaps of old unwated stuff, but can still recover inadvertantly deleted files in case of a mistake for 30 days.

In addition, you can add a local hard drive that has exactly the same backup system as the on line one so there are 2 bites of the cherry, or belts and braces. You can recover files locally or from on line. Its a system that is easily set up and needs no extra work it looks after itself and give peace of mind for 50p a week or thereabouts.

Linky
 
The problem with online backups is uploading files. If you're shooting a 4gb memory card then that'll take a while to upload to an online service. Although I guess it'd be fine if it was done over night. Amazon S3 could be a feasible online backup solution for media. Relatively cheap too. I'm thinking of getting a Drobo mainly for the ease of use and reliability. From what I've read from independent reviewers its a pretty reliable piece of kit. I think reliability issues are more down to the individual hard drives you decide to put into it more than anything else.
 
...and if a drive does go wrong - Drobo deals with it - without losing any data. :)
 
KayJay said:
The problem with online backups is uploading files. If you're shooting a 4gb memory card then that'll take a while to upload to an online service. Although I guess it'd be fine if it was done over night. Amazon S3 could be a feasible online backup solution for media. Relatively cheap too. I'm thinking of getting a Drobo mainly for the ease of use and reliability. From what I've read from independent reviewers its a pretty reliable piece of kit. I think reliability issues are more down to the individual hard drives you decide to put into it more than anything else.
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Like I said, I love mine. So easy to add or change drives. I started with 2 WD 1TB drives and have since added 2 more. No config at all, just shove em in. You don't even need a screwdriver.

My only fear is losing it in a house fire or something but I'm not sure there is an easy solution to that. Online backups isn't the answer when you're dealing with TB's of data.
 
awp said:
...and if a drive does go wrong - Drobo deals with it - without losing any data. :)
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like anything though you should be keeping your data on 2 separate devices to prevent loss of data from fire, theft, deletion, corruption and hardware failure.

my readynas turns up this week along with 2x 2TB drives but i'll still be backing it up to a separate device for exactly those reasons.
 
jontucker said:
Online backups isn't the answer when you're dealing with TB's of data.
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indeed. i dont think people factor in upload and download times (including data caps for downloading).

im planning on the following:

readynas backed up to my media center which is jammed with harddrives.

files that are added to the readynas are also copied to my portable external drive to be taken to work for adding to my collection of external destop drives.

thats short term, my long term plan involves a 2nd readynas stored offsite (work/parents) and remote backups either using the above method still or FTP depending on the internet connections used.
 
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