Right, what I meant was, how does it indicate the available space left... I understand that if you have two 2TB drives, you have 2TB of usable space. What I meant was, say I set drobo to show Windows that it's a 16TB drive (for expandability in the future), how does Drobo show me how much actual space I have left for data? I need more than lights flashing a certain color.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Drobo questions
- Thread starter plaidhippo
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Right, what I meant was, how does it indicate the available space left... I understand that if you have two 2TB drives, you have 2TB of usable space. What I meant was, say I set drobo to show Windows that it's a 16TB drive (for expandability in the future), how does Drobo show me how much actual space I have left for data? I need more than lights flashing a certain color.
I have had a FW800 Drobo now for just over a year, and I use it for time machine backups. I still can go back and restore my system to its original state when I first got the Drobo in Feb 2009. A couple of months back my main hard disk failed on my Mac Pro. I was able to completely restore my system using the Drobo and time machine. Last week the Drobo dashboard told me that I needed to add some extra storage, purchased a new drive from Amazon and put it into a vacant slot in the Drobo. All lights turned green within 10 seconds with zero configuration. Would not hesitate to recommend the system to anyone that wants to have a backup system with redundancy protection against hard disk failure and ease of use.
Use the Drobo dashboard to tell you how much actual space that you have left.
Whichever solution you choose, keep certain things in mind.
For invaluable things, like wedding photos, etc. you should have them in as many different types of backup as possible. In addition to putting them on the backup HD, put them on archival quality CD-R, DVD-R, or Blu-ray depending on how much space you require. In addition, you'll want to keep these backups in various locations, besides your house. Your car is a good bet. If your friend is okay with it, it's another place for your super important files to go.
For less important, at least one HD should be used. I personally use two.
You should also try to have a separate Time Machine drive. I keep this one in my car, along with my backup for my backup.
Have a set backup schedule. It's no good to have backups, if they're not updated frequently. Whether it's weekly or every fortnight, back up on a regular basis. Your most important files don't need updating, but you should check them whenever you do your backups.
You don't have to get your backup solution all at once. If all you can afford right now is archival CD-Rs or DVD-Rs for your super important data, then that's what you get. I saved up for my Drobo and bought my HDs over time, by scouring sales and watching for important price points. Last time I checked, $0.06-0.07/GB was a great price point.
Note: Bare drives are cheaper than the pre-packaged externals. A housing or HD dock is relatively cheap and can be bought for the price difference between a bare drive and a encased external.
For invaluable things, like wedding photos, etc. you should have them in as many different types of backup as possible. In addition to putting them on the backup HD, put them on archival quality CD-R, DVD-R, or Blu-ray depending on how much space you require. In addition, you'll want to keep these backups in various locations, besides your house. Your car is a good bet. If your friend is okay with it, it's another place for your super important files to go.
For less important, at least one HD should be used. I personally use two.
You should also try to have a separate Time Machine drive. I keep this one in my car, along with my backup for my backup.
Have a set backup schedule. It's no good to have backups, if they're not updated frequently. Whether it's weekly or every fortnight, back up on a regular basis. Your most important files don't need updating, but you should check them whenever you do your backups.
You don't have to get your backup solution all at once. If all you can afford right now is archival CD-Rs or DVD-Rs for your super important data, then that's what you get. I saved up for my Drobo and bought my HDs over time, by scouring sales and watching for important price points. Last time I checked, $0.06-0.07/GB was a great price point.
Note: Bare drives are cheaper than the pre-packaged externals. A housing or HD dock is relatively cheap and can be bought for the price difference between a bare drive and a encased external.
"My goal in getting a drobo is some redundancy in data protection. In my experience, hard drives fail far more often than something like a drobo, which is why I am looking into that solution. I agree that I'm "going off the deep end" in terms of solving the backup issue, but after losing wedding and honeymoon photos, I'm willing to invest a bit more to back up with security"
Just get one of these ($30):
http://www.amazon.com/Syba-Connecla...?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1253062702&sr=1-22
Then, buy one, two, or even three "bare" hard drives of the size you need to use with it.
Use CarbonCopyCloner and "rotate" your backups between the two or three drives.
A lot cheaper than a DROBO - and probably nearly as reliable. Maybe even moreso.
If USB2 is too slow for you, Other World Computing has a SATA dock with USB2, Firewire 400, Firewire 800, AND E-SATA for about $90.
Just get one of these ($30):
http://www.amazon.com/Syba-Connecla...?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1253062702&sr=1-22
Then, buy one, two, or even three "bare" hard drives of the size you need to use with it.
Use CarbonCopyCloner and "rotate" your backups between the two or three drives.
A lot cheaper than a DROBO - and probably nearly as reliable. Maybe even moreso.
If USB2 is too slow for you, Other World Computing has a SATA dock with USB2, Firewire 400, Firewire 800, AND E-SATA for about $90.
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
I too have been considering getting a Drobo. For the owners here, do you have any recommendations of which kind of drive to use? I hear that Seagates need a certain firmware, Hitachi overheat and, WD Greens are not great because they keep spinning down in order to be "green". Any recommendation would be quite helpful.
I am at a complete loss. I need to buy something soon.
Also, if it matters, my intent is to use it for my itunes library (streaming to my Apple TV) and for backing up my Aperture library.
I am at a complete loss. I need to buy something soon.
Also, if it matters, my intent is to use it for my itunes library (streaming to my Apple TV) and for backing up my Aperture library.
I've had a FW800 Drobo since they came out, with only a single headache in that time. My Drobo freaked out on me when I tried to put in a pair of brand new 1.5TB Seagate drives (firmware issues). Took me a while to figure it out and recover everything. The lesson here: don't jump on new drives the moment they come out, wait for someone else to be the guinea pig.
After that debacle it has been smooth sailing, with all the drives being swapped out one after the other as my storage needs grow. Currently maxed out with four 2TB WD drives.
As for what I use it for, mainly iTunes (lots of TV shows and movies) and assorted files and documents I like but don't need on my main drive. I also keep copies of my iPhoto library and other large databases on the Drobo.
I have a G-Tech drive on the side for Time Machine.
I would recommend the Drobo for bulk storage, but not for speed, and not for rock-solid stability.
After that debacle it has been smooth sailing, with all the drives being swapped out one after the other as my storage needs grow. Currently maxed out with four 2TB WD drives.
As for what I use it for, mainly iTunes (lots of TV shows and movies) and assorted files and documents I like but don't need on my main drive. I also keep copies of my iPhoto library and other large databases on the Drobo.
I have a G-Tech drive on the side for Time Machine.
I would recommend the Drobo for bulk storage, but not for speed, and not for rock-solid stability.
i love my DroboPro.
Hot-swap ANY size drive, and the option for dual-disk redundancy (two can fail) -- that is all the protection I need.
Hot-swap ANY size drive, and the option for dual-disk redundancy (two can fail) -- that is all the protection I need.
So the only hiccup you've had with the Drobo is due to faulty drive firmware, yet you would not recommend it for stability? Umm, OK.
I have a 4 drive Drobo at home for media and Time Machine (Drobo has an app called Time Tamer that limits the space used by Time Machine. Very clever).
As far as reporting storage space, I formatted a 16TB volume with only 4TB of capacity (2.7TB protected). While this will report more than I have to my Macs, I am pretty good about checking the lights on the front of the Drobo every so often and have pop up and email alerts set which will notify me when the Drobo hits 85% full, so well before any issues.
If you are on PC, they also have a DroboApp called Windows Capacity Filter that will then report the proper amount of usable capacity to the Windows machine. You can find DroboApps at the bottom of their homepage or here http://www.drobo.com/droboapps/
Jim
Thank you for this info.
If moving the Drobo with data on it from a Windows PC to a Mac, is there anything special that needs to be done, or will it be as simple as plugging in the Drobo to the Mac?
I'm considering the Drobo S to use purely as a Time Machine backup - and as commented above, the reason is that Time Machine can only be configured to back up to one drive, and my total data takes up more than the 2TB largest hard drive currently available.
The thing that concerns me slightly is the 16TB volume limit with HFS+. If I'm going to spend that much on the Drobo S I want it to be relatively future-proof. ie. keep on replacing with larger hard drives (assuming SATA is going to be around for a while). With current hard drive capacities at 2TB (x5 = 10TB) it's not going to be long before this 16TB limit is reached. From reading the Drobo user manual, beyond 16TB it will create a 2nd volume - which defeats the whole point of getting a Drobo. According to information I've read, this is a limit of the file system and not of the device. However, according to this
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2422
the current limit for HFS+ since 10.4 is 8 EB, ie. massively larger than 16TB.
It seems to me that it is the Drobo software, with the slider limiting volume size at 16TB that is the problem, not the limits of the file system.
Perhaps by the time this becomes an issue they will release software updates to overcome this. However, it seems that to make a larger volume size the Drobo needs to be erased, and from my experience of computer hardware, larger volume size is more likely to be a 'feature' of future hardware updates.
Any opinions on this?
The thing that concerns me slightly is the 16TB volume limit with HFS+. If I'm going to spend that much on the Drobo S I want it to be relatively future-proof. ie. keep on replacing with larger hard drives (assuming SATA is going to be around for a while). With current hard drive capacities at 2TB (x5 = 10TB) it's not going to be long before this 16TB limit is reached. From reading the Drobo user manual, beyond 16TB it will create a 2nd volume - which defeats the whole point of getting a Drobo. According to information I've read, this is a limit of the file system and not of the device. However, according to this
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2422
the current limit for HFS+ since 10.4 is 8 EB, ie. massively larger than 16TB.
It seems to me that it is the Drobo software, with the slider limiting volume size at 16TB that is the problem, not the limits of the file system.
Perhaps by the time this becomes an issue they will release software updates to overcome this. However, it seems that to make a larger volume size the Drobo needs to be erased, and from my experience of computer hardware, larger volume size is more likely to be a 'feature' of future hardware updates.
Any opinions on this?