NAS (network-attached storage) on Mac and iOS? Drobo FS?

[balamw]

I've been impressed with what I hear about the QNAP units. One user was giving good performance metrics for their 1 bay unit, this would be the 4 bay version. QNAP TS-419P+ . Price wise in line with other 4 bay solutions, ...

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1090144/

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[Maxi86]

@fhall1 nice roundup of all the options...

I'm really considering the Drobo FS... just because of three things:
- works will all sizes/makes of HDD, just plug & play
- easy to set up... very important for people who are too familiar with these things
- ease of use: no hassle when a drive dies, just replace it and let the Drobo handle it...

the only downside is, is it's prices... €560 is a lot of money...

 

[fhall1]

@fhall1 nice roundup of all the options...

I'm really considering the Drobo FS... just because of three things:
- works will all sizes/makes of HDD, just plug & play
- easy to set up... very important for people who are too familiar with these things
- ease of use: no hassle when a drive dies, just replace it and let the Drobo handle it...

the only downside is, is it's prices... €560 is a lot of money...

Those are the way the DROBO is SUPPOSED to work...and if it was really that painless (and the network connected version was halfway speedy) the price premium would be justified. I haven't read any reviews recently, but in the past people wrote about disks dying, swapping in new ones and not being recognized, or the whole unit dying and no way to get their data back, etc. There were enough of those bad reviews to scare me away....maybe they've gotten more reliable now.

 

[balamw]

There were enough of those bad reviews to scare me away....maybe they've gotten more reliable now.

Ditto. I ended up with the EX490 last year because the reviews were more evenly spread on the WHS servers. on the Drobo FS, the reviews were mostly in one of two camps. Excellent or stay away because of performance/failure/...

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