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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Connected Data today announced the Drobo Gen3, the next generation of its popular 4-bay storage array. The Gen3 is faster and cheaper than previous Drobo models. It also features enhanced support for Apple's Time Machine backups.

drobo-gen3.jpg
This third generation Drobo is more affordable, three times faster than the previous release and includes new features such as USB 3.0, significantly faster rebuild times and enhanced support for Apple's Time Machine®.
Mac owners will be interested in the improved Time Machine support now available in the Drobo Gen3. Instead of using an entire drive for Time Machine, users can maximize their data storage space by allocating a fixed amount of capacity for their Time Machine-derived backups.

Drobo is accepting pre-orders for the Drobo Gen3, which is priced at $349 for the base model without pre-installed hard drives. Through June 9th, select existing Drobo customers are eligible for a $50 discount on the Gen3 when they purchase the new Drobo through the company's online store. Shipments of the Gen3 are expected to begin in late April.

Article Link: Drobo Announces New 4-Bay Gen3 with USB 3.0, Enhanced Time Machine Support
 

David N

macrumors member
Jan 22, 2008
98
0
The Land of Milk & Honey
Avoid this at all costs. I made the mistake of buying two Drobo's (one mini, one 5D) and they are both incredibly slow (~150mb/s r/w for a 5 drive thunderbolt array? Come on...) compared to other alternatives and unreliable at best.

Tech support is the next best thing to useless, even when a unit is still under warranty. I've been trying to get a system replaced for a week now that will not mount and is stuck in an endless reboot cycle, and support has done nothing other than link various scripted pieces of advice that I have told them I already tried.

I will NOT be supporting Drobo ever again. I will be selling both of my units ASAP and replacing them with another brand.
 

jtrauscht

macrumors regular
Sep 6, 2010
126
83
Nashville, TN
The company's lack of support for older devices pretty much cements me not getting another Drobo. Basically, if you want everything to work properly, you can never update your OS or your driver, even when the driver's update feature prompts you to do so.
 

avanpelt

macrumors 68030
Jun 2, 2010
2,956
3,877
Don't know much about Drobo, but I've been very happy with my Synology NAS.

Agreed. My DS213 has given me zero issues for the year and a half I've owned it. I'm glad Drobo must be feeling the pricing pressure from Synology and others. The Drobo hardware seemed to me to be ridiculously overpriced for what it offered a year and a half ago. That's why I went with Synology. Today, Drobo has an App Store similar to Synology which I don't believe existed a year and a half ago.
 

Yujenisis

macrumors 6502
May 30, 2002
309
115
Drobos are slow. Pegasus 2 line is what you want

For Professional applications you are exactly correct. But the more than $700 difference between this model and the Pegasus R4 makes it clear these products are likely designed for different markets.

Drobo makes solid entry-level "set it and forget it" RAID solutions. But for NAS or professional level storage I would definitely agree to look elsewhere.
 

HackerJL

macrumors regular
Sep 19, 2009
212
62
Omg

OMG someone didnt like theirs, so lets poo on the company.

I own 2, ordered a 5D on Monday. Never had an issue. I have 3 friends that have them, and never an issue either.

Lets all hang them...
 

danny_w

macrumors 601
Mar 8, 2005
4,462
297
Cumming, GA
I just bought a Drobo 5D and am extremely happy with it. I bought an open box unit that had a bunged up thinderbolt cable and Drobo quickly shipped me a new one for free. Yes it is slower than a Pegasus but it is also much more user friendly with mix and match drive ability and I still get over 200MB/S. Yes the old Drobos were slow but not so much anymore.
 

paulrbeers

macrumors 68040
Dec 17, 2009
3,963
123
Mark me down as one of the Suckers who bought a Drobo.... Unless something dramatically changes, I won't ever purchase one again. Waste of money.
 

azdusty

macrumors newbie
Jun 16, 2009
11
3
I love my Drobo 5D and would never go with any other device. Also, tech support is awesome. It's kinda like the Apple of the storage device world, the PC people are crazy about the other cheaper options, but once you go with Drobo, you can't go back.
 

musicpenguy

macrumors 68000
Oct 29, 2006
1,817
725
I've had no issues with my DroboPro - been a happy user for many years now. I use it mainly to store tons of media. It certainly isn't designed to be a boot drive or incredibly fast storage, but really happy to have redundant storage that is dead simple to use.
 

golgo1313

macrumors regular
Aug 29, 2008
118
75
Claremont, CA
owner of 5N. no issues... just use it mainly as a network media server. no problems streaming 1080p movies. that said, transfer speeds are abysmal. gave up on time machine backups. once this croaks, i'm looking at synology.
 

medazinol

macrumors 6502
Jul 17, 2002
267
382
Los Angeles
I own a 4 bay first gen attached to my WDTVlive Hub and a 5 bay for storage and Time Machine and they've never given me any trouble. Drives on the other hand have failed many times.
I don't trust drives especially Seagate junk.
 

melendezest

Suspended
Jan 28, 2010
1,693
1,579
Avoid this at all costs. I made the mistake of buying two Drobo's (one mini, one 5D) and they are both incredibly slow (~150mb/s r/w for a 5 drive thunderbolt array? Come on...) compared to other alternatives and unreliable at best.

Tech support is the next best thing to useless, even when a unit is still under warranty. I've been trying to get a system replaced for a week now that will not mount and is stuck in an endless reboot cycle, and support has done nothing other than link various scripted pieces of advice that I have told them I already tried.

I will NOT be supporting Drobo ever again. I will be selling both of my units ASAP and replacing them with another brand.

Thanks for the heads up, man!!
 

smirk

macrumors 6502a
Jul 18, 2002
691
54
Orange County, CA
Surely the "enhanced support for Time Machine" must be more than adding "vol size limit = n" in the Netatalk configuration file. Right?
 

hexor

macrumors 6502
Nov 26, 2002
271
88
Minnesota
Those supporting Drobo in this thread only have to look online for numerous instances of problem with Drobo products and their support. That is why I purchased a Synology system years ago. Synology has had time machine support for years. Do yourself a favor before purchasing and compare the two.
 

akm3

macrumors 68020
Nov 15, 2007
2,252
279
Quite a few friends of mine have complained bitterly about Drobo's horrible customer support. I will avoid them because of this.

I own two drobos. I had to call tech support once. The guy was flat out rude, I was shocked at how bad that experience that was.
 

caljay

macrumors newbie
Jun 16, 2012
8
0
I am considering a drive(s) that will be used for image (mostly RAW) storage attached to my rMBP (late 2013). I feel that I can do without Raid 0 if I use an enclosure with good performing 7200 rpm HDDs. Such as G-drives.

On the Drobo possibility - My understanding is that the earlier Drobo drives including the ones that Scott Kelby wrote about are a problem. However, it seems that the company has done a reinventing of itself with the new (in the last year or so) Thunderbolt products (I suppose the USB3 are also of that newer design as well).

If my understanding is correct, perhaps comments can be directed to model type so when we talk about the product just released, it is compared to the Thunderbolt devices and not to the earlier versions.

As I stated above, the Drobo or other devices mentioned are not where I am heading right now but I am always looking towards the time when a Raid 0 (or proprietary approach) is right for me.
 

jettredmont

macrumors 68030
Jul 25, 2002
2,731
328
Those supporting Drobo in this thread only have to look online for numerous instances of problem with Drobo products and their support. That is why I purchased a Synology system years ago. Synology has had time machine support for years. Do yourself a favor before purchasing and compare the two.

To be fair, when I bought my second-gen 4-bay Drobo in 2009-ish Drobo had Time Machine support. It was clunky, but they did support it. The newer models have improved on that support. To compare with Synology's support would require a little more depth than the date each announced "Time Machine Support".

Personally, I suspect I'd look to Synology on a replacement for my Drobo if/when the time comes (and I'm going to need to start looking for it as a backup of the Drobo soon in case something does happen with the Drobo hardware). Until then, though, my Drobo has outlasted the machine to which it was attached, and while definitely slow (as I knew going in) it is still very useful.

Of course, I'd swear I bought my Drobo five years ago for $350, although that might have been at a discount from the normal $400 price. Although there has been inflation in the meantime, $350 doesn't seem like a revolutionary low price to me for a 4-drive device.
 
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macduke

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,106
19,603
I've heard nothing but bad things about Drobo. Trying to decide right now between Synology Diskstation or a Thunderbolt rig. Wish it was easy to get speed and redundancy. Right now I just have a 2TB G-Drive which uses an eSATA to USB 3.0 adapter cable and I make weekly backups of that to my 2TB WD Elements drive. Kind of a clunky setup that is almost full. What to do?
 
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