New drobo setup options

[SWD]

I recently won a gen3 drobo, USB 3, it is not a NAS. I'm trying to figure out what would be the best way to hook it up.

Right now I have a drobo gen1 via firewire on my 2010 iMac. It is mainly my media library. If I just replace the old drobo, the new one will be on USB 2 speeds, however I do have a netgear n6250 ac router that has a USB 3 port. So where is it better? Direct connect to the older iMac via usb2 or through the router via USB 3 (though no computers are hard wired.


Eventually I would like to have all of my dvds backed up and this could be a media server, either through iTunes or plex. But I'm also wondering if I could have multiple partitions 1 for media and 2 others for time machine backup for 2 machines.

 

[IscariotJ]

Personally, I'd connect it to your iMac ( not entirely sure connecting the Drobo to the router is the way to go, as I don't think it'll be detected by the Dashboard app ). USB2 should be more than sufficient for streaming via iTunes / Plex.

FWIW, I've got a 5D configured as one partition, not sure that having more would provide much benefit....

 

[SWD]

Yeah, that's what I'm finding out. Now what am I supposed to do with 2 drobos?

 

[IscariotJ]

Yeah, that's what I'm finding out. Now what am I supposed to do with 2 drobos?

If it were me, I'd use the Gen 3 for media streaming, and the original for Time Machine, mainly because the Gen 3 will take larger drives....

 

[Gav2k]

I had mine plugged into my AirPort Extreme before I redid my network and plugged it into my mini. To be honest it made no difference both setups offered a glitch free setup. The only downside was as noted above the dashboard didn't detect the drobo

 

[james6000]

Just adding my 2 cents. Remember to have those Drobos backed up offsite or in the cloud.

Recently while routinely upgrading one of my drives on my Drobo 2nd gen, something went wrong and now I've lost 20 years of photos.

Not entirely Drobo's fault as I should have had alternative backups, but those drives aren't as redundant as I previously thought. And Drobo support is useless if you didn't fork out for drobocare, no sympathy or advice offered from the company.

 

[SWD]

Just adding my 2 cents. Remember to have those Drobos backed up offsite or in the cloud.



Recently while routinely upgrading one of my drives on my Drobo 2nd gen, something went wrong and now I've lost 20 years of photos.



Not entirely Drobo's fault as I should have had alternative backups, but those drives aren't as redundant as I previously thought. And Drobo support is useless if you didn't fork out for drobocare, no sympathy or advice offered from the company.

Good reminder.

I do have 3 macs including media on the current drobo backed up on crashplan (close to 1 TB). And 3 time machines, and a super duper clone. I also subscribe to iTunes match, plus music is in Google's free locker service just as a double.

I lost all my music once, before locker services.

I checked with drobo, sent them diagnostic reports. I wanted to be sure to migrate. Their site indicated that it might not be as easy as swapping the old drives into the new drobo, and sure enough I loaded mine early enough where I'll need new drives and need copy the data over.

 

[james6000]

What did you do to lose the data?

 

[SWD]

I don't remember. I know I've had to rebuild the library several times in the past. A classic iPod died, external drive died. Plus I know at least once I accidentally reformatted the drive while attempting to jailbreak an Apple tv. I had DVD backups, plus could use the iPod classic, but I know I lost some things.