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Drobo Mini Alternatives

M

Mufasa804

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 6, 2009
232
78
Hello,

I have a couple of terabyte hard 2.5 drives laying around that I would like to get some use out of. I saw that Drobo has a "Drobo Mini" that would merge all my volumes into one. I like that it's Thunderbolt and USB 3.0.

I couldn't find any other RAID Array options or cases that would do the same thing. Does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations?
 
C

ColdCase

macrumors 68040
Feb 10, 2008
3,360
276
NH
You can use disk utility to merge drives, does it well. Then use whatever Jbod enclosure(2) you want. No need to pay extra for HW RAID and all its constraints. I use the OWC thunderbay enclosures, the older TB1 models are on clearance. You would need a 2.5 to 3.5 adapter, which are simple mechanical brackets.
 
M

Mufasa804

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 6, 2009
232
78
ColdCase said:
You can use disk utility to merge drives, does it well. Then use whatever Jbod enclosure(2) you want. No need to pay extra for HW RAID and all its constraints. I use the OWC thunderbay enclosures, the older TB1 models are on clearance. You would need a 2.5 to 3.5 adapter, which are simple mechanical brackets.
Click to expand...

Thank you! The Thunderbay is a good idea, however I wanted something with USB as well in case I needed to plug it into an older Mac.
 
N

Nemic

macrumors member
Mar 18, 2012
98
1
I'm not personally aware of another product that connects via Thunderbolt and USB 3.0.

With the Drobo mini, you do get the advantage of their redundancy in case of a single (or even double) drive failure. This gives you some useful protection.

Depending on of many hard drives you have, their various sizes and wether you choose dual disk redundancy can impact how much storage the Drobo will give you. They have a calculator on their website for this:

http://www.drobo.com/storage-products/capacity-calculator/
 
W

wwohl

macrumors regular
May 2, 2013
135
25
Does it need to be portable?

OWC makes a thunderbolt and USB 3.0 Raid enclosure for 2x3.5 drives that of course could also use 2.5HDDs. $250 bucks I think
 
W

wwohl

macrumors regular
May 2, 2013
135
25
Nope was referring to this one. http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Thunderbolt/External-Drive/OWC/Elite-Dual-RAID
 
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