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Drobo 4-Bay Hard Drive Array Enclosure

  • Price: $279.99
  • B&H # DR4BFW800U2
  • Mfr# DR04DD10

Product Highlights

  • FireWire 800 Interface
  • USB 2.0 Interface
  • Write Transfer Rates Up to 34MB/s
  • Read Transfer Rates Up to 52MB/s
  • BeyondRAID Data Protection
  • Single Drive Redundancy
  • Supports Drives Up to 4TB in Size
  • Drobo Dashboard 2.0 via Update
  • Drobo PC Backup via Download
  • Mac & Windows Compatible

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The Data Robotics Drobo 4-Bay Hard Drive Array Enclosure delivers an expandable solution for creative professions and small businesses in need of high performance backup storage. Built on BeyondRAID technology with single drive redundancy, the Drobo protects your data automatically, even in the event of multiple drive failures. Able to hold up to four hot-swappable drives, this system ensures you'll have a high-performance connection to virtually any system with available USB 2.0 and FireWire 800 connectivity. With its unique ability to mix and match drives of several different classifications, the Drobo allows you to instantly expand your capacity simply by adding or replacing a drive. With self-healing and drive redundancy technologies, the Drobo helps make sure your data is always safe and accessible.

Drobo Dashboard 2.0.2 via Firmware Update
You'll be able to install the Drobo Dashboard 2.0.2 via simple firmware update. It offers a variety of features not included in the original Drobo Dashboard, including:
  • View of all of your Drobos in one window
  • Get capacity and status for each Drobo
  • DroboCopy tasks run in the background
  • Get e-mail alerts about your Drobo
Drobo PC Backup
Purchasing unit entitles you to free download of Drobo PC Backup software. It allows you to:
  • Back up your PC to your Drobo with ease
  • Supports direct or network connections
  • Supports backup over USB, FireWire, or eSATA
BeyondRAID Technology
Every Drobo product comes with the revolutionary BeyondRAID storage technology - the next generation of redundant disk protection. BeyondRAID not only keeps your data safe, but will also increase uptime and availability. BeyondRAID technology offers several improvements over traditional RAID-based storage systems, including the flexibility to replace failed disks and increase capacity, all without costly downtime.
File and Operating System Agnostic
Drobo and its underlying BeyondRAID technology currently support the Windows and Mac platforms, with file system support for NTFS, HFS+, and FAT32. Since Drobo is a block level system, it easily adapts to most any environment.
Mixed Drive Capacity Utilization
Grow storage to meet your data capacity needs with minimal effort. To add capacity, simply insert a new hard disk or replace the smallest disk with a larger one, even when all four disk bays are full. Unlike traditional RAID systems, the BeyondRAID technology enables IT managers to efficiently mix and match disk brands, capacities, and speeds. This allows for continuous expansion as disk capacities grow.
Redundant Safety
Drobo can ensure your data is safe even if a hard disk fails. You'll feel safer knowing that if disks do fail, Drobo automatically enters a state of self-healing wherein it relays out your data across the remaining healthy disks and sectors.
Proportional Rebuild Times
The time it takes Drobo to rebuild data after a drive failure or removal is proportional to the amount of data stored in the pool - meaning the less capacity that is used, even on a 4TB disk, the shorter your rebuild times will be. This is superior to traditional RAID, which lacks proportional rebuild times, and is forced to relay out every drive block even if it does not contain user data.

Since Drobo is 'Data Aware', it tracks where data is on each disk, so it can differentiate between used and unused portions of disk. This expedites rebuild times and reduces your risk of losing data to an additional disk failure.

Self-Healing
When Drobo detects a 'bad' hard disk, it proactively advises you with a series of warnings ranging from a blinking red LED on its front panel, to pop-up alerts in Drobo Dashboard, to email alerts. What Drobo does next is exceptional. It enters a self-healing mode where it repairs around the bad sector or disk, and will work until it returns to the safest state possible. If Drobo has sufficient time and free capacity (indicated by all lights returning to a solid green state), it can even withstand additional hard disk failures - that's the power of self-healing.
Storage Virtualization
BeyondRAID was designed from the ground up to allow the storage capacity of the array to expand and contract. BeyondRAID makes this a simple process by utilizing a technology called 'virtualization.' Virtualization provides a layer of abstraction between the data requested by the file system and the physical location of that data on the disk drives. A given piece of data can be located on any drive, and on any physical location on that drive.

Virtualization is what enables BeyondRAID to effortlessly change the data arrangement on the drives, for example, changing data stored as a mirror into data stored as parity stripe, without interrupting the user access to data. Virtualization completely decouples the physical space available in the array from the space reported to the operating system. This is how BeyondRAID is able to eliminate the need to manually expand/contract the file system as more space becomes available or is removed.

Thin Provisioning
Thin provisioning is a technical term that describes how the BeyondRAID technology communicates with your operating system. BeyondRAID communicates with your OS about how much disk space you have up to 16TB (this varies with older operating and file systems). Specifying a larger amount of storage than is physically available allows you to grow into the volume without having to reformat or migrate your data in order to add capacity. BeyondRAID automatically also reclaims space as you delete files.
Self-Managing
Drobo is highly automated storage. There are no complex configuration screens, DIP switches, confounding choices, web consoles or other complications that prevent so many other storage devices from working out of the box.
Drive Reordering
One long-standing requirement inherent in traditional RAID-based systems was that if for some reason you needed to remove the drives, you'd have to replace the drives in the exact same order. When you remove your disks from Drobo, you can put them back in any order you like.
Interface / Transfer Rate (Max) FireWire 800 Read: Up to 52MB/s
FireWire 800 Write: Up to 34MB/s
USB 2.0 Read: Up to 30MB/s
USB 2.0 Write: Up to 24MB/s
Drive Capacity Up to four 3.5" SATA I or SATA II hard drives
Drives may be from any manufacturer
Drives may be up to 4TB capacity, spindle speed, and/or cache
Acoustics Normal Operation (negligible): 20.9 - 24.2 dB
Power Idle System (standby, drives off): 5W
Typical Idle System - Idle, Drive Spin Down Mode (1 drive): 12W
Typical Busy System (4 drives): 40W
Utilities Windows: NTFS
Mac OS X: HFS+
Cross-Platform: FAT32
Operating Systems Supported Windows 7 (32/64) SP1
Windows Vista (32/64) SP1
Windows XP (32/64) SP3
Windows 2008 Server R2 (64) SP1
Windows 2003 Server R2 (32/64) SP1
Mac OS 10.5.8 or later (Intel Only)
Mac OS Server 10.5.8 or later (Intel Only)
Certification Emissions: FCC Part 15, Class B
Safety: UL & cUL
Security Kensington lock port (lock not included)
Power Requirements AC 100 - 240 V
Dimensions (WxHxD) 6.0 x 6.3 x 10.7" (15.2 x 16.0 x 27.2 cm)
Weight 6.7 lb (3.1 kg)

REVIEW SNAPSHOT®

by PowerReviews
Drobo 4-Bay Hard Drive Array Enclosure
 
4.6

(based on 308 reviews)

Ratings Distribution

  • 5 Stars

     

    (208)

  • 4 Stars

     

    (85)

  • 3 Stars

     

    (6)

  • 2 Stars

     

    (3)

  • 1 Stars

     

    (6)

97%

of respondents would recommend this to a friend.

Pros

  • Easy to install (268)
  • Highly compatible (202)
  • Reliable (197)
  • Quiet (189)
  • Fast (170)

Cons

  • Slow (39)
  • Unreliable (9)
  • No power switch (6)
  • Pricey / poor value (6)
  • Difficult to install (5)

Best Uses

  • High-end multimedia (102)
  • Back-up (28)
  • Photo storage (19)
  • Additional storage (15)
  • Storage (14)
    • Reviewer Profile:
    • Heavy duty user (164), Frequent user (118), Power user (16)
    • Primary use:
    • Personal (156), Business (143)

Most Liked Positive Review

 

Drobo shines but still needs refinement.

Things that are great about it.1) Very quiet when under 87% full.2) Very easy to set up, interface, and swap drives.3) Attractive (I actually think it looks cooler with the front...Read complete review

Things that are great about it.1) Very quiet when under 87% full.2) Very easy to set up, interface, and swap drives.3) Attractive (I actually think it looks cooler with the front cover removed), and the lights on the front are cool too.4) Peace of mind is wonderful. My data is secure, hallelujah!5) Firewire connection is super fast and stellar cool (under 87% full of course).6) This thing came in the box with a firewire cable... that was a very pleasant surprise. Most companies cheap out and make you buy a $40 cable separately to hook up your toys.7) It sleeps and wakes seamlessly with the OS X operating system... sweet!Things that definitely need attention from the developer.1) There is no power switch. When you manually put Drobo in standby mode you must unplug it and plug it in again to get it to interface with the computer. Either add a power switch, best option, or put a radio button on the drobo advance interface that allows reconnection to a Drobo in standby mode... what product doesn't have a power switch anyway?2) When the unit gets to around 87% full it is not easy to add additional data and does not function as expected. First, it deliberately slows down data transfer to a near standstill to encourage adding another drive (or replacing one with a larger drive). I was told by technical support that this was programmed into the unit. A firmware upgrade is supposed to "help" this, but it didn't seem to make much difference for me. Slowdown, by the way, meant it took me almost 5 minutes to load 800 mb onto my Drobo when it told me I still had approximately 190 gb available for "data storage". Second, Drobo sounds like a constant train wreck as it is transferring data around feverishly between hard drives. I began to get worried it would burn up my hard drives. Below approximately 87%, the Drobo is nice and quiet and runs smoothly.Keep in mind that this 87% is really 87% of 50% as the unit only gives you half of the size of the hard drives inserted due to the redundancy of the data backup.3) Warranty needs to be addressed. Nowadays, it seems like electronic equipment has a very short shelf life. It may be built to last a while, but why not offer a 5 year warranty, even if it has to be purchased separately? This way one can feel confident that not only is their data safe, but that the device they entrust to keep their data safe is worry free for a long time. 4) Power cord has a huge brick of a transformer attached. How about building it into the unit itself? No one likes those things.5) I know that these things can take up to four, 4 tb hard drives... but how about a model that can hold say eight hard drives? It is going to be years before we get to the 4 tb mark on individual hard drives.Overall this is a good second generation product and if you can avoid filling it beyond approximately 87%, you will be super happy with it. The good people at Data Robotics really need to address these limitations so that their Drobo can be everything it was promised to be. I have faith! This thing is really awesome if you can live with the limitations, and the good aspects of this product really do outweigh the bad. If I had known all this going in, I would have still purchased my Drobo.

VS

Most Liked Negative Review

 

Clever and good device

The concept and the device really deserves 5 stars. Its great, setup is easy, and the fact that you dont have to manage the data is a huge weight off your shoulders. Its ...Read complete review

The concept and the device really deserves 5 stars. Its great, setup is easy, and the fact that you dont have to manage the data is a huge weight off your shoulders. Its flexibility is also a huge plus. Im using it primarily right now as a time Machine backup drive for my Mac Pro. I installed 3 WD Caviar Black drives currently. The reason I didnt give it 5 stars is because the first unit I got formatted fine, setup easy and although the initial backup with Time machine took a few tries due to stalling and errors (Which may be due to the TM not the Drobo) it finally took and was running fine for 4 days. Suddenly I had a failed TM incremental backup, I shut down, rebooted the Drobo and the entire drive suddenly became "Read Only" instead of "Read/Write" I couldnt do anything with the current data on it, Disk utility could not unmount it, or repair, etc. Wound up having to do a hard reset of the entire Drobo and start all over. Again, this could have been due to the OS, but it occurred right after I did a firmware update for the Drobo and its dashboard software. None the less, I reset, reformatted, checked permissions, partition scheme and all that, and tried again, still failed initial backups. My only gripe is that I called Drobo tech support for help. They are very helpful and polite, but after trying all of the typical diagnostic procedures over the phone, the issue seemed to have extended beyond the scope of the general tach support they had. I was assigned a case number and was passed to tier 3 tech support which was indicated was the engineers and the "Big guns" Well its been almost 7 days as of this writing and I have not heard any response from them. I will give them the benefit of the doubt and say perhaps they are backed up or busy, but I am just a little let down because in the meantime, I am without my backup and have a expensive piece of equipment that is not operating properly. I opted to, at my own discretion contact B&H and exchange the unit for a new one, which they did without question and promptly, but it would have had been nice to have the manufacturer take the initiative and offer to shoot a new unit out for me and send them they questionable one back so that while tier 3 tech support finishes doing whatever they may be doing, at least a new customer of theirs would not be without the product they paid for. Thats it, my only real gripe. The new unit is working fine, set it all back up, no hitches. The fan is a bit noisy in this unit over the original one I received. But so far so good. I have only had the new unit up for 2 days so far.

As far as the unit itself, its nicely designed, it looks like a glossy black loaf of bread with blue lights. Its really easy to setup and use, if you can put a tape in a VCR (haha) or better yet, if you can put an 8 track tape into a player, you can put a drive in, then it takes over and does its thing. I notice the hard drives run a lot, and the fans kick on often, it seems like its doing "stuff" often, which is a good thing I presume, but it does make some noise, and if the sound of a number of hard drives wacking away in the muffled thumping sound bothers you, then dont expect to have this sitting right next to you on your desk. The indicator lights are really so simple and easy to understand.

I was very tempted to get one when the 1st gen came out, but the USB only interface held me back, no this new 2nd gen has firewire 800 support as well as the USB so it speed up the data transfer for large amounts over the firewire 800.

In closing, I would recommend this to someone looking for a redundant and flexible backup. Im not very well versed with all of the flavors of RAID. I just simply need a solid and easy to use backup in case I had a catastrophic failure with my data. I feel better knowing that the Drobo will hold my entire computers 3 internal drives data out on the drives I have in it now, as well as easily allow me to slide in larger or more drives if need be, as well as protect against any of those drives in itself from failing. SO short of fire, flood, or vandals- and for those theres always fire extinguishers, boats, and guns...(Or heaven for bid another wacky read only fiasco) the data should be safe.

In comparison to other similar devices configured with similar storage capacity, the Drobo takes the pie

REVIEWS

Reviewed by 308 customers

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5.0

Super Easy To Set Up And Works Great!

By Peter

from Central CT

About Me Heavy Duty User

Verified Buyer

Pros

  • Easy To Install
  • Fast
  • Highly Compatible
  • Quiet
  • Reliable

Cons

    Best Uses

    • Photography

    Comments about Drobo 4-Bay Hard Drive Array Enclosure:

    I needed a solution to store my photos, both raw and edited. They are starting to pile up. Decided on giving this unit a try. Loaded it with 4 Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200 drives. This unit was up and running in 10 minutes (It would have been sooner, but I upgraded the firmware and Dashboard software as well). It is connected via FireWire to my iMac. It really is a great solution!

    • Primary use:
    • Personal

    Comment on this review

     
    5.0

    Great for the price!

    By NG4

    from Ft Lauderdale, Fl.

    About Me Frequent User

    Verified Buyer

    Pros

    • Easy To Install
    • Fast
    • Highly Compatible
    • Quiet
    • Reliable

    Cons

      Best Uses

        Comments about Drobo 4-Bay Hard Drive Array Enclosure:

        At [$] shipped this was a great deal. I fired it up and installed the software on my Mac running Snow Leopard and popped in (4) 1.5 TB drives and have been tossing files at it for a week now and getting all my images and video and other data transferred. So far so good.I put in 5400 rpm drives and I can barely hear the fan when it's running and can't hear the drives at all. After 15 minutes of inactivity it auto spins down the drives and sleeps them.I have been watching Drobo for almost 5? years and the time was right for me...glad I did it!

        • Primary use:
        • Business

        Comment on this review

         
        5.0

        Drobo 4-Bay Hard Drive Array

        By jporter

        from Portland, OR

        About Me Frequent User

        Verified Buyer

        Pros

        • Easy To Install
        • Fast
        • Highly Compatible
        • Quiet
        • Reliable

        Cons

          Best Uses

          • Onsite storage

          Comments about Drobo 4-Bay Hard Drive Array Enclosure:

          I'm using my Drobo 4-bay gen-2 for onsite storage and computer backup. I have 4 Western Digital Caviar Green 2 TD WD20EARS hard drives in it, giving me 5.44 TB of space. It run very quickly, very quiet and was easy to set up using the Drobo Dashboard version 2.0.3 software. It's not cheap but when you lose 1 TB of photos on a [$] external hard drive you start thinking the cheapest way may not be the best way.

          • Primary use:
          • Business

          Comment on this review

           
          5.0

          Drobo 4-Bay Hard Drive Array Enclosure

          By JoweyfromJersey

          from Other side of the river

          About Me Heavy Duty User

          Verified Buyer

          Pros

          • Easy To Install
          • Fast
          • Highly Compatible
          • Quiet
          • Reliable

          Cons

            Best Uses

            • Photo storage

            Comments about Drobo 4-Bay Hard Drive Array Enclosure:

            EASY to use, just populate it with a few drives and away you go.

            • Primary use:
            • Personal

            Comment on this review

             
            4.0

            Drobo is the best solution for me

            By Artworker

            from Montreal, Quebec, Canada

            About Me Heavy Duty User

            Verified Buyer

            Pros

            • Highly Compatible
            • Reliable

            Cons

              Best Uses

                Comments about Drobo 4-Bay Hard Drive Array Enclosure:

                This is my second Drobo. I have two different aspects of my work backing up onto the two Drobos. I had a mirror RAID module before for one half of the work but it tanked so I decided to get a second Drobo. The first has always worked flawlessly. I greatly appreciate that you can put in different size drives in it. That way as my need for storage has increased and I buy bigger drives (500 Gb used to do, then 1Tb's, lately I'm going for 2Tb drives) I can recycle older drives and fill in the gaps as I go along. Another great thing about the Drobo is support. I was having some trouble setting up my second Drobo and I got great, I mean really GREAT help and walk through from Drobo's customer service over the phone. I've never had better support from anyone.
                One review I read before i bought the second Drobo stated that there's no on/off switch. I had the first Drobo for a year and I'd never even noticed that, so that's about as much of a problem that is. One gripe is the Drobo Dashboard. I have and old Mac G5 PPC and using the Dashboard, which I suspect is better for later, Intel Macs, really slows down my machine. So When setting up my Drobo I used it then dumped it and use Super Duper for the daily backups.

                • Primary use:
                • Business

                Comment on this review

                 
                4.0

                Great RAID, Trick to set up...

                By Sam Jackson

                from Long Beach, CA

                About Me Heavy Duty User

                Verified Buyer

                Pros

                • Easy To Install
                • Quiet

                Cons

                  Best Uses

                  • High-End Multimedia

                  Comments about Drobo 4-Bay Hard Drive Array Enclosure:

                  I got this RAID enclosure because it was recommended to me by several friends of mine. This is the second RAID that I own. My first is a SansDigital 8 bay e-sata that I connect to my main desktop. I wanted the Drobo since it seemed to be very easy to set up and more importantly, I could use any sata drive and watch my storage increase just by adding a drive. I am using the RAID strictly for my media server. I purchased Three 3 TB drives and couldn't wait to get them installed. When I finally connected everything up, the drobo wouldn't recognize the drives. I was pretty disappointed. After doing a little research, I found out that the larger drives were not compatible at the time. When I went to Drobo's website, all of their current RAID enclosures were compatible except for the one I purchased (the most popular one). Luckily, I only had to wait about a week to get the new firmware to make it work. When I followed the instructions on line (line per line) , I couldn't get the firmware to install. After several failed attempts, I called Drobo tech support and got the answer I needed. I needed a 2TB drive or lower to be installed into the drobo, update the firmware, then reinstall my 3tb drives!?! I'm happy now but I had to jump through a lot of hoops to get this way. My Advice - If your drobo has the older firmware, make sure you have the right drives before jumping in to this. You may have to spend extra cash on a small drive just to use the newer larger drives.

                  • Primary use:
                  • Personal

                  Comment on this review

                   
                  4.0

                  Mostly what its cracked up to be!

                  By pasfire

                  from Dallas Texas

                  About Me Frequent User

                  Verified Buyer

                  Pros

                  • Easy To Install
                  • Fast
                  • Highly Compatible
                  • Quiet
                  • Reliable

                  Cons

                    Best Uses

                    • High-End Multimedia

                    Comments about Drobo 4-Bay Hard Drive Array Enclosure:

                    Everything I ever heard of this product was outstanding, which drew me to the Drobo. It is so easy to set up and start using, The software it comes with, Drobo Dashboard, leaves a lot to be desired. It started out ok, but continues to not recognize my Drobo unit. The only way is to keep disconnecting the Drobo. I finally got tired of that. Contacted Tech support, emailed them the info they wanted off of the unit and stated they would be back in contact with me. Here it is 5 days later and no response. I even emailed the guy back and still no response. So I am at a loss on that one. I just use another program to backup to the Drobo and use the Finder if I need to access it. Maybe some day they will get back in contact with me. That's the reason for 4 stars instead of 5. I might have even gone with 3.5, but the unit itself is excellent.

                    • Primary use:
                    • Personal

                    Comment on this review

                     
                    4.0

                    Drobo does what it is meant to

                    By Imajenn.com

                    from Garden Grove, CA

                    About Me Frequent User

                    Verified Buyer

                    Pros

                    • Easy To Install
                    • Fast
                    • Highly Compatible
                    • Quiet

                    Cons

                    • Cannot recover wo Drobo

                    Best Uses

                      Comments about Drobo 4-Bay Hard Drive Array Enclosure:

                      Mixed reviews on this thing mean buyer beware but it has done what it is meant to do. I think having a true backup in a safe off site location is also important but the ease of this makes sense and B & H has it for a good cost. The only trouble I have had is my desktop copy being incomplete due to denied access in two folders for seemingly no reason.

                      • Primary use:
                      • Business

                      Comment on this review

                       
                      4.0

                      Awesome device

                      By Jackscustoms

                      from ny

                      About Me Frequent User

                      Verified Buyer

                      Pros

                      • Easy To Install
                      • Fast
                      • Highly Compatible
                      • Quiet
                      • Reliable

                      Cons

                        Best Uses

                        • High-End Multimedia

                        Comments about Drobo 4-Bay Hard Drive Array Enclosure:

                        I basically bought this product because I am a music junkie. I now can e x p a n d my music collection to a very nice size.

                        • Primary use:
                        • Personal

                        Comment on this review

                         
                        5.0

                        Still loving Drobo!

                        By The Reviewer

                        from Fargo, ND

                        About Me Heavy Duty User

                        Verified Buyer

                        Pros

                        • Easy To Install
                        • Highly Compatible
                        • Quiet
                        • Reliable

                        Cons

                          Best Uses

                          • Personal StorageBackup

                          Comments about Drobo 4-Bay Hard Drive Array Enclosure:

                          This is the second Drobo I've purchased from this retailer. I purchased the original Gen1 back in 2008 and now have the Gen2. Overall, I'm extremely satisfied with Drobo. I've never lost any data that was on my Drobo. I only purchased this one to eventually make use of its upcoming support for 3TB drives. Drobo has dropped support for Gen1 and it will not be able to support 3TB drives. Upgrading to the Gen2 was as close to idiot-proof as anything could be. All you need to do is take the drives out of the old Drobo and put them in the new Drobo. Replacing a drive can take a long time though. I recently upgraded two of mine and it took around 23 hours for the first and about 31 hours for the second. However, I'm not surprised since Drobo needs to layout the data across the drives again and that takes a while when dealing with terabytes of data. USB on the 4-bay model is still 2.0 and thus has it's limitations, but Gen2 has Firewire800. Unfortunately, most casual users would have to purchase a separate card to make use of Firewire. The Gen2 seems quieter than Gen1 to me. Most likely due to the improved back panel which allows better cooling. So, even with a few "issues" I still absolutely love Drobo.

                          • Primary use:
                          • Personal

                          Comment on this review

                           
                          5.0

                          Great Buy, Easy Setup

                          By skbatt4

                          from Lexington, KY

                          About Me Frequent User

                          Verified Buyer

                          Pros

                          • Easy To Install
                          • Highly Compatible
                          • Reliable

                          Cons

                          • Slow

                          Best Uses

                          • File backups
                          • Media Server

                          Comments about Drobo 4-Bay Hard Drive Array Enclosure:

                          Upgraded from a 750gb external hard drive that was running out of room. I really like how easy it was to setup and the ability to swap hd drives as my file collection grows. The product is a little larger than I first expected but it works great as a media server with my mac mini.

                          • Primary use:
                          • Personal

                          Comment on this review

                           
                          5.0

                          I love my DROBO!

                          By Elmwood Studios

                          from Corte Madera CA

                          About Me Frequent User

                          Verified Buyer

                          Pros

                          • Easy To Install
                          • Reliable

                          Cons

                          • No support for 3TB drives

                          Best Uses

                            Comments about Drobo 4-Bay Hard Drive Array Enclosure:

                            I used my Drobo to back up media files, primarily video and audio files.
                            I love how simple it is to use.
                            My only complaint is that it does not support 3TB drives) despite info to the contrary on the B&H website).

                            • Primary use:
                            • Business

                            Comment on this review

                            (1 of 1 customers found this review helpful)

                             
                            5.0

                            EASY! AWESOME! Life Saver!

                            By sargphoto

                            from Sacramento, CA

                            About Me Frequent User

                            Verified Buyer

                            Pros

                            • Easy To Install
                            • Quiet
                            • Reliable

                            Cons

                            • Slow

                            Best Uses

                            • Photo storage

                            Comments about Drobo 4-Bay Hard Drive Array Enclosure:

                            You just slide the drives right in! When a drive fails (hasn't happened yet and I have my other one for 2 years now) you just swap it out. I got this one for my mom who has started a photography business and didn't want to worry about losing all her photos! 400,000 photos from all over the world, no amount of money could ever recover them, but we could make sure never happens!

                            • Primary use:
                            • Personal

                            Comment on this review

                            (1 of 1 customers found this review helpful)

                             
                            5.0

                            Great backup solution

                            By GC_Photo

                            from Greenwich, CT

                            About Me Heavy Duty User

                            Verified Buyer

                            Pros

                            • Easy To Install
                            • Fast
                            • Quiet
                            • Reliable

                            Cons

                              Best Uses

                              • High-End Multimedia
                              • Storage

                              Comments about Drobo 4-Bay Hard Drive Array Enclosure:

                              I am a photographer and videographer. I use this to house all of my project files and keep them safe. I am able to work off of the drive which was a big question mark for me going in. I am pleasantly surprised at the access speed given that it has multiple drives in it. I use it with Hitachi SATA II 2tb Deskstar drives.

                              I previously worked off of a 1tb fantom fw800 external drive for editing video, but this drobo has supplanted that so now I don't have to transfer projects off when I'm done to make room. I probably should have gotten the 5 bay with USB 3.0 for future compatibility and one more drive bay, but I won't regret that decision for a while.

                              • Primary use:
                              • Business

                              Comment on this review

                              (1 of 1 customers found this review helpful)

                               
                              5.0

                              I Can Sleep Again!

                              By Sound Sleeper

                              from Lake Stevens, WA

                              About Me Frequent User

                              Verified Buyer

                              Pros

                              • Assurance data is safe
                              • Easy To Install
                              • Efficient
                              • Fast
                              • Highly Compatible
                              • Quiet
                              • Reliable

                              Cons

                                Best Uses

                                • Backup storage

                                Comments about Drobo 4-Bay Hard Drive Array Enclosure:

                                After experiencing a hard drive crash that also involved a crash of of my back-up external hard drive I looked for a solution that would assist in preventing this traumatic loss of data from happening again. I had heard of Drobo and figured it was time to take the plunge. The Drobo unit was VERY easy to set up. It is literally plug and play. The easy to follow instructions had me up and running in no time. I'm going to be purchasing some more hard drives so I can swap them out every week or so. I'll keep a set in my office at work so if I were to have a disaster at home I would still have all my data backed up. The peace of mind I have now definitely made this a worthwhile purchase.

                                • Primary use:
                                • Personal

                                Comment on this review

                                 
                                4.0

                                Great RAID system

                                By Mozi Photography

                                from San DIego

                                About Me Heavy Duty User

                                Verified Buyer

                                Pros

                                • Easy To Install
                                • Fast
                                • Highly Compatible
                                • Reliable
                                • Sturdy

                                Cons

                                • Loud

                                Best Uses

                                • Backup storage

                                Comments about Drobo 4-Bay Hard Drive Array Enclosure:

                                Great RAID system. It is a little loud when uploading data. The user interface is great and easy to use.

                                • Primary use:
                                • Business

                                Comment on this review

                                 
                                5.0

                                DROBO is the answer in my opinion!

                                By EdWayneSteve

                                from Mebane, NC

                                About Me Heavy Duty User

                                Verified Buyer

                                Pros

                                • Easy To Install
                                • Fast
                                • Quiet

                                Cons

                                • None at this time

                                Best Uses

                                  Comments about Drobo 4-Bay Hard Drive Array Enclosure:

                                  This couldn't have come at a better time. As an independent filmmaker I have been worried about storage of HD footage. With the Drobo system it's compact and simple. I have been operating with several drives layed out on my editing desk and man what a mess. With the Drobo I have all the necessary storage for a full length feature and if I need to upgrade I simply attach another Drobo with no problems.
                                  Thanks Data Robotics!
                                  Wayne Pecinich
                                  North Carolina

                                  • Primary use:
                                  • Business

                                  Comment on this review

                                   
                                  5.0

                                  Works Great!

                                  By Thom Charlie

                                  from Tulsa, OK

                                  About Me Frequent User

                                  Verified Buyer

                                  Pros

                                  • Easy To Install
                                  • Highly Compatible

                                  Cons

                                    Best Uses

                                    • High-End Multimedia

                                    Comments about Drobo 4-Bay Hard Drive Array Enclosure:

                                    The key is to put fast drives in it. Great interface and super easy to set up.

                                    • Primary use:
                                    • Business

                                    Comment on this review

                                     
                                    5.0

                                    A better solution than Hard drives!

                                    By MMPINC

                                    from Boston, MA

                                    About Me Heavy Duty User

                                    Verified Buyer

                                    Pros

                                    • Easy To Install
                                    • Highly Compatible
                                    • Quiet
                                    • Reliable
                                    • Smarter Solution

                                    Cons

                                    • Slow for video capture

                                    Best Uses

                                    • Everything

                                    Comments about Drobo 4-Bay Hard Drive Array Enclosure:

                                    I don't buy regular hard drives anymore, instead I buy a Drobo enclosure and then add bare hard drives as I need. I know that I am protected from HDD failure which will happen to everyone at sometime. When I need more space I just purchase larger bare HDDs and replace the smaller ones in my Drobo. I know have multiple drobos so I "hand-me-down" the smaller HDDs to another Drobo and I am always re-circulating my HDDs and using them. For video capture I use a regular fast HDD and then store the files on my Drobo. I have used Drobos (I have 3 of them) for 4 years and I have never had a problem. It is the only way to go to protect your data.

                                    • Primary use:
                                    • Business

                                    Comment on this review

                                    (0 of 1 customers found this review helpful)

                                     
                                    3.0

                                    No 3TB support as yet

                                    By stresser

                                    from Traverse City, MI

                                    About Me Frequent User

                                    Verified Reviewer

                                    Pros

                                    • Easy To Install

                                    Cons

                                      Best Uses

                                      • High-End Multimedia

                                      Comments about Drobo 4-Bay Hard Drive Array Enclosure:

                                      Massive storage, waiting for 3TB support from Drobo.

                                      • Primary use:
                                      • Business

                                      Comment on this review

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                                      What's in the Box

                                      Drobo Drobo 4-Bay Hard Drive Array Enclosure
                                      • Resource CD (Drobo Dashboard Application / Help Files / Electronic Documentation)
                                      • External Power Supply (AC 100 - 240 V, 50/60 Hz)
                                      • FireWire 800 Cable - 72" (182.9 cm)
                                      • USB Cable - 72" (182.9 cm)
                                      • 1-Year Limited Warranty (US)
                                      • 2-Year Limited Warranty (EU)
                                       
                                       
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