I have been researching for weeks but I am relatively computer illiterate so I need a plug and play type solution. I can't be swapping/buying disks/building/software configuring.
Basically I need to open it up plug it in and maybe follow a few pages of directions made for a 3rd grader and viola I'm protected.
I like the idea of a Drobo but read too much about it's exclusive data storage so that you would have to buy another drobo should it fail. In the lacie's case if it fails all the drives can be moved to any other machine to be read and used for backup. I don't see how a hot swappable Lacie NAS is any worse then a hyped up proprietary RAID configuration that can also be hot swapped and costs my first born without any drives in it.
I looked at the ready nas NV+ options but they are all pricier then what I am paying for the Lacie. I am paying either 560 for the 4big quadra or 600 dollars for the 5big network.
I can't get any other plug and play options for this type of cash and i have read a lot good about the lacies so i am not too worried unless I have to deal with technical support, which I hear is terrible.
I have posted about 3 other times in this forum over the last 4-5 months and I think my average number of responses with helpful info is like 2.
Most everyone just reads it and moves on and most say:
"get a drobo" or
"get a ready nas pro, they are the best" or
my favorite "I just built mine with a few rubber bands and spare chips and platters I had laying around, wrote the code by hand and then just slapped it all in a custom enclosure with a flux capacitor. WAY CHEAPER THEN WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO SPEND"
I have read all the RAID configs and I believe I have narrowed it down to the RAID 10 as it seems to be pretty resistant to hardware failure, fast transfer rates, and makes my data very safe.
I've owned the drobo, also the 4big quadra, a readynas NV+ and several other raid systems, so I speak from personal experience with the products you're considering.
You first need to decide what is important to you, a NAS system vs. the 4big are completely different animals.
My priorities personally were plug and play/ease of use, noise, and stability. Speed was important, but less so. Price was not critical. You may have other priorities.
The 4big is a very nice system, it will be markedly faster than the 5big so if you're using it for real-time use, it's clearly better than any NAS system. If it's just time machine use, that's less critical.
Using a RAID-5 setup for time machine backup I think makes a ton of sense - first of all your main drive has to die, then 2 drives have to simultaneously fail on your raid before you'll lose any data. Of course this does not account for user error or fire/flood/theft.
If you've got the 4big, just enjoy it. If you can do raid-10, that will fly. If you need the space, just go raid-5.
The drobo is WAY slower than the 4big - maybe 20% of the performance. I've also found mine to be flaky, but I've got a second generation (FW800) unit, they've since upgraded I know.
The other big downside of the lacies is that you technically have to use their drives to update, a cost issue vs buying generic drives, but again if price is not a critical thing for you, that's fine.
