Drobo

[phenixdragon]

Was looking at picking up a Drobo FS. Question though. If I were to pull a drive out of the Drobo, would the data on the drive be readable by OS X or even Windows?

 

[waw74]

nope, a single file will be in many parts on multiple drives , the only way to get to the data would be in another drobo. and that's only if you put the entire set of drives in (although it should work missing any one drive)

 

[phenixdragon]

Ah yes. Good point. Wasn't even thinking about that. Hm...well now I am having 2nd thoughts. Been using Home Server and works pretty great but I like some of the aspects of a more of a true RAID that Drobo brings to all files where WHS only copies files on 2 drives if you select it, but that can take up a lot of space too. Hm...

 

[phenixdragon]

So actually, what if my Drobo dies? Can you just take the disks and pop them into another Drobo and read the files automatically?

 

[Cynicalone]

So actually, what if my Drobo dies? Can you just take the disks and pop them into another Drobo and read the files automatically?

Yes you take the disks out of the dead Drobo and install them in the new Drobo.

I have had the 2nd Generation Drobo Since October of 08 without any problems.

Added a DroboPro in June and it has been running perfectly for four months now.

 

[phenixdragon]

Another question comes to mind. If I do order one and it shows up, can I add a disk that already has data on it without losing that data? I do have a 2 TB blank disk I will first put in it but I have some other disks that already have data. I'd like to just add one at a time, have it copy the files over and then format or do whatever it does to the disk to add it. Or do I just need to copy the files over through the network and then add the disk in?

 

[pastrychef]

Another question comes to mind. If I do order one and it shows up, can I add a disk that already has data on it without losing that data? I do have a 2 TB blank disk I will first put in it but I have some other disks that already have data. I'd like to just add one at a time, have it copy the files over and then format or do whatever it does to the disk to add it. Or do I just need to copy the files over through the network and then add the disk in?

No. Once you stick a drive in there, all the data will be gone.

The best way for you to do it would probably be to set up the Drobo with the 2TB drive and copy stuff from your old drives to the Drobo. Once you've copied everything to the Drobo you can stick that old drive in to the Drobo.

 

[Cynicalone]

Any HDD you add to the Drobo will get erased as soon as you install it.