The Professional's Source 866.276.1435 / 212.502.6357

Drobo FS Network Storage Enclosure

  • Price: $449.00
  • B&H # DRDRDS2A21
  • Mfr# DRDS2A21

Product Highlights

  • 5x SATA HDD Bays
  • Gigabit Ethernet Network Connectivity
  • Hot-Swappable BeyondRAID Storage
  • Supports Drives up to 4TB in Size
  • Drobo Dashboard 2.0 via Update
  • Drobo PC Backup via Download

Protect Your Purchase

 

What item is right for you?

Ask our Experts!

866.276.1435
Live Chat

The Drobo FS Network Storage Enclosure takes the Drobo approach to data storage and applies it to network file sharing. The powerful device connects to your network via its Gigabit Ethernet port, allowing any computer on the network to access media and other files stored on it.

The Drobo FS sports five bays compatible with all SATA hard drives. As you add hard drives, information stored on the Drobo is spread out across the discs redundantly, so in the event of a hard drive failure, your valuable information remains intact while you replace the failed drive. The unique enclosure supports hot-swapping hard drives, letting you upgrade your setup on the fly, based on your increasing storage needs.

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 this item entitles you to a free download of the 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 Ethernet
Share your data on a Gigabit Ethernet Network
Drobo FS connects directly to a Gigabit Ethernet network to make sharing your data easy. Just plug it into any switch or wireless router and you are ready to go.
Supports the Computer of Your Choice
Connect to your Drobo FS using any Windows, Mac, or UNIX/Linux computer. Whatever system you have, it's likely you'll be able to connect to it over your network quickly and easily.
Easy Expansion to 16TB
Drobo FS holds up to five drives allowing you to effortlessly grow your storage to meet your data capacity needs. To add more space, simply insert a new hard drive or replace your smallest drive with a larger one, even when all drive bays are full. Unlike traditional RAID systems, the BeyondRAID technology in Drobo FS enables you to mix and match drive capacities, brands and speeds. This unprecedented flexibility allows for continuous expansion as available hard drive capacities increase. With Drobo FS, expansion is automatic, instantaneous and access to data is always maintained.
Protection from up to Two Drive Failures
Enable the dual-drive redundancy option to protect your data from failure of up to two hard drives. It's all done with a single-click and you never lose access to your data. Running out of space? No problem. Switch back to single-drive redundancy at any time. Unlike moving between traditional RAID levels, there's no need to reformat or migrate data off of the Drobo FS - potentially saving you hours or days of downtime.
Self-Healing Technology
With the self-healing technology incorporated into Drobo FS, your data is safer than ever. When sitting idle, Drobo FS will proactively examine the blocks and sectors on every drive, flagging questionable areas. This preemptive "scrubbing" helps ensure your data is being written only to the healthy areas of your drives. When a drive fails, Drobo FS keeps your data in the safest state possible by moving your data to the available space on the remaining healthy drives.
A Drobo as Unique as you Are
Select from a wide selection of free DroboApps designed to give you the freedom to configure and customize your Drobo FS to meet your own unique set of requirements. The growing library of DroboApps adds amazing functionality like media, web, and more.

Drobo Technology

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. Key features of BeyondRAID include data protection against hard disk failure, instant capacity expansion without downtime, self-management, and automatic healing.
File and Operating System Agnostic
Drobo and its underlying BeyondRAID technology currently support the Windows, Mac and Linux platforms, with file system support for NTFS, HFS+, and FAT32. Since Drobo is a block level system, it easily adapts to almost 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 five 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. Now, expansion is automatic, instantaneous and access to data is always maintained.
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 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.
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. This is what makes adding a drive to a Drobo so simple. The new drive just provides additional places to store data. 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 Gigabit Ethernet Port
Data Transfer Rate Not Specified by Manufacturer
Drive Types Supported 3.5" SATA I/II Drives Up to 4TB
System Requirements Windows 2008 Server, Windows 2003 Server, Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7; Mac OS 10.5 or later; Linux
Power Requirements AC 100-240V 50/60Hz
Consumption: 56W (Typical - 4 Drives Installed); 12W Idle
Dimensions (WxHxD) 5.9 x 7.3 x 10.3" (150.3 x 185.4 x 262.3mm)
Weight Without drives: 8 lbs (3.6kg)

REVIEW SNAPSHOT®

by PowerReviews
Drobo FS Network Storage Enclosure
 
4.4

(based on 96 reviews)

Ratings Distribution

  • 5 Stars

     

    (56)

  • 4 Stars

     

    (31)

  • 3 Stars

     

    (5)

  • 2 Stars

     

    (4)

  • 1 Stars

     

    (0)

95%

of respondents would recommend this to a friend.

Pros

  • Easy to setup (67)
  • Easy to use (65)
  • Attractive (31)
  • Compact (30)
  • Large capacity / good size (29)

Cons

  • Slow (10)
  • Unreliable (3)

Best Uses

  • Back-up (36)
  • Additional storage (28)
  • Photo storage (27)
  • Small networks (21)
  • Home (20)
    • Reviewer Profile:
    • Power user (63), Casual user (12)
    • Primary use:
    • Personal (64), Business (30)
    • Computer Platform:
    • Mac (21), PC (12)

Most Liked Positive Review

 

EASY to set up and use!

My situation: Wife runs home based business and I have a growing photographic library. This Baby Boomer is not an IT expert at all, but I do like gadgets and if I have something...Read complete review

My situation: Wife runs home based business and I have a growing photographic library. This Baby Boomer is not an IT expert at all, but I do like gadgets and if I have something explained to me, I pick this stuff up pretty easily.

I had recently set up a backup system comprised of a 2 TB external HD connected to my wireless network (Mac.) It took several trips to the Apple Store Genius Bar and quite a lot of research to try and figure out how to backup my three Mac wirelessly. I would've thought this would be an easy thing to do, but as I found out, it wasn't. After a lot of searching I found the answers on the Apple Support forums (from Users, not the Mac folks). (My stumbling block was that I could not use the WD drive 'as is' out of the box - I'd have to 'reformat' the drive from the default Windows to the Apple HFS configuration. Not hard to do, but I didn't know that was an issue. Then I had to 'repartition' the drive for my 3 computers. Mac people enjoy being able to open the box, plug it in, and go.)

I had a sense of relief that the Macs were backed up, but the 2 TB drive did not have enough space to add the 1.5 TB of digital media I have. Since my photography and video library continues to grow, when the Drobo FS was recently announced, this seemed like the perfect choice for me.

What I ideally wanted to do was backup my three Macs and 1.5TB photo library (on a separate external hard drive) over my home wireless network. And I wanted to use Apple's Time Machine utility to do the backup. I am a very cautious buyer, so I looked at a variety of possibilities before going with the Drobo. For sure, there are less expensive options out there. I looked into them, and for me, they required too much maintenance - moving data files, setting up RAID, installing drives, repartitioning, moving data back - all of this was more than I wanted to do. The Drobo FS does all this for you. I love the idea that I basically plug it in, put in the drives, and with less than five minutes of set up (including installing the software!) I was ready to go. I love the idea that it tells you when to look at it, or when to install new drives. I LOVE the idea that if one of the hard drive disks fails, I have not lost my data. I LOVE the idea that I have LOTS of room to grow, so as the photos and videos continue to grow, and the home bizness grows, I won't be needing to do anthing more than add hard drives. (Right now, I use 3 1.5 TB drives - the Drobo FS has 5 slots, and 2TB drives are fairly cheap, so I don't think I'll be replacing this Drobo for a while. I feel that this was money well spent, and I sleep a little more soundly at night knowing my important digital life is backed up in a way that makes sense to me. For me, reliability and ease of use were worth the premium price and I have no regrets.

VS

Most Liked Negative Review

 

Initially Impressed

So far I'm quite impressed and in love.

I've been looking at this for some time with several bouts of research, weighing of pros and cons, and I had even ad...Read complete review

So far I'm quite impressed and in love.

I've been looking at this for some time with several bouts of research, weighing of pros and cons, and I had even added to my cart without checking out once before. A recent brush with data loss finally compelled me to pull the trigger.

The Drobo has not disappointed. I quickly had my 3 computers wirelessly backing up to it. Setup is easy and intuitive. The backup software included is competent if not the most powerful I've seen. Data transfer is quick though when backing up 1/2 TB of data nothing seems fast enough. The Drobo itself is attractive enough and has a reasonable footprint. I do wish it were a tiny bit quieter and that the lights would dim more, especially when not in use (being accessed).

The biggest drawback is the price. If I had only a single computer to back up an external drive would've been sufficient. Realistically I knew that I would not regularly back up 3 different computers and that I was on a path to certain data loss. Since almost all my data is personal pictures and movies I've been able to justify the price but until the price comes down I will not recommend this to more casual users or those on a budget.

REVIEWS

Reviewed by 96 customers

Sort by

Displaying reviews 1-20

Back to top

Previous | Next »

 
5.0

Secure and easy backup

By Lunchie

from New York

Verified Buyer

Pros

  • Easy To Collaborate Across Programs
  • Easy to Customize
  • Easy to Navigate
  • Versatile

Cons

    Best Uses

      Comments about Drobo FS Network Storage Enclosure:

      The perfect product for photographers needing "mucho" backup in a simple to use system. Highly reliable and great support service.

      • Primary use:
      • Business
      • Computer Platform:
      • PC

      Comment on this review

       
      5.0

      Fast flexible backup option

      By Eric of Atlanta

      from Atlanta, GA

      About Me Hobby photographer

      Verified Buyer

      Pros

      • Easy to Navigate
      • Fast file server
      • Versatile

      Cons

        Best Uses

        • File Backup
        • File server
        • Multimedia
        • Photo Backup

        Comments about Drobo FS Network Storage Enclosure:

        The drive is very well made. The manual and software are very well written and very clear. I like this version of the drive better than my Firewire 800 version because of the flexibility and ease of access for my computers. I have had the Firewire 800 version for 5 years without any problems. It is a solid back up solution. I would recommend the Drobe FS if you are backing up more than one computer or want remote/mobile flexibility.

        • Primary use:
        • Personal
        • Computer Platform:
        • Mac

        Comment on this review

         
        5.0

        Drobo FS

        By Huponene

        from San Clemente

        About Me Home Business

        Verified Buyer

        Pros

        • Easy To Collaborate Across Programs

        Cons

          Best Uses

          • Multimedia

          Comments about Drobo FS Network Storage Enclosure:

          Great Product- I want more automated tools to configure automatic backups

          • Primary use:
          • Business
          • Computer Platform:
          • Mac

          Comment on this review

           
          5.0

          The Best

          By Watchking

          from Sacramento, Ca

          Verified Buyer

          Pros

          • Compatible with any brand
          • Easy to Navigate
          • Fast setup
          • Insert any size drive

          Cons

          • Didn't see any

          Best Uses

          • Backup
          • Multimedia

          Comments about Drobo FS Network Storage Enclosure:

          This is great deal, fast setup, no brainer and it is neat that you can put any size drive in the bays. It is fast and I really like it. It was worth the money and I expect to use it for years to come.

          • Primary use:
          • Personal
          • Computer Platform:
          • PC

          Comment on this review

           
          4.0

          Great way to backup

          By Mrglass1986

          from Northern VA

          About Me Photographer, Tech guru

          Verified Buyer

          Pros

          • Lots of bays for drives
          • Networked
          • Reliable

          Cons

          • Slow compared to others

          Best Uses

          • Backup
          • Central data access

          Comments about Drobo FS Network Storage Enclosure:

          Easiest Drobo I've set up yet! I'm using dual drive redundancy to ensure my data is secure

          • Primary use:
          • Business
          • Computer Platform:
          • Mac

          Comment on this review

           
          4.0

          awesome solution

          By cardenasj

          from Portland, OR

          About Me Videographer and Editor

          Verified Buyer

          Pros

          • Easy To Collaborate Across Programs
          • Easy to Customize
          • Easy to Navigate
          • Versatile

          Cons

          • A little loud

          Best Uses

          • Multimedia
          • Video Production

          Comments about Drobo FS Network Storage Enclosure:

          easy to set up and use.

          • Primary use:
          • Business
          • Computer Platform:
          • Mac

          Comment on this review

           
          5.0

          Cheap Insurance

          By Honey Badger

          from Fairbanks, AK

          Verified Buyer

          Pros

          • Cheap insurance
          • Easy set-up and use

          Cons

            Best Uses

            • Insure irreplaceable data

            Comments about Drobo FS Network Storage Enclosure:

            Recently crashed a hard drive with 1TB of irreplaceable photos. Data recovery cost $2100. The drobo cost less than a $1000 and will double-insure 5TB. Lesson learned (the expensive way.)

            • Primary use:
            • Personal
            • Computer Platform:
            • Mac

            Comment on this review

             
            5.0

            ease of use

            By jim

            from Texas

            Verified Buyer

            Pros

            • Easy To Collaborate Across Programs

            Cons

              Best Uses

              • Educational Purposes
              • Multimedia

              Comments about Drobo FS Network Storage Enclosure:

              Makes backing up your computer effortless. A great way to secure your files.

              • Primary use:
              • Business
              • Computer Platform:
              • Mac

              Comment on this review

               
              4.0

              Drobo FS for storage of full DVD's

              By Nicko

              from Portland

              Verified Buyer

              Pros

              • Was plug and play

              Cons

                Best Uses

                  Comments about Drobo FS Network Storage Enclosure:

                  Drobo is accessed by PLEX a media server that resides on a new mac mini with HDMI.
                  Drobo works well on OSX 10.6 but I hear that it is not so good on OSX 10.7
                  I must say that Drobo Dashboard does not find drobo at times yet is found in finder, all I can say is that the bundled dashboard is buggy.
                  I use Bonjour mounter 3.0 to take care of mounting the drive as dashboard is hit and miss. Overall it works really well with Bonjour Mounter, full rip dvd's stream with no lag or jitter.
                  Pretty happy with it, I will not be updating my mac mini to 10.7 untill Bonjour Mounter has version 4.0 ready and tested that will work with osx 10.7

                  • Primary use:
                  • Personal
                  • Computer Platform:
                  • Mac

                  Comment on this review

                   
                  5.0

                  It should be white

                  By User Friendly

                  from Seattle, WA

                  About Me Ex-computer pro

                  Verified Buyer

                  Pros

                  • Safe
                  • Simple

                  Cons

                    Best Uses

                    • Any data storage
                    • Educational Purposes
                    • Multimedia

                    Comments about Drobo FS Network Storage Enclosure:

                    This is like the Mac of storage products. Yes you must pay attention to what you are doing, but everything else is done for you. Put your drives in and save your data. The FS (File Storage)is just that. If you want a NAS or something else Drobo offers different products to fulfill those needs. It is simply one big hard drive with built in ability to keep you data safe. It gives you peace of mind about the dreaded hard drive crash where all your precious file are lost to anyone except a professional who deals with that. Yes is is possible, but what could be easier than inserting a new hard drive and get your data back on track.
                    Transfer rates are good enough for mass storage and backup. The 1080p HD movies I stored playback without glitch or hesitation.
                    Because it is one large drive, it takes a bit longer to retrieve all your file names than a drive on the computer.
                    It is network connected meaning anyone on your network, with permission, may access the data.
                    It is simple and an a large step ahead in data recovery and safety.

                    • Primary use:
                    • Personal
                    • Computer Platform:
                    • PC

                    Comment on this review

                     
                    5.0

                    Best NetworkStorage, Period

                    By pfl

                    from Brownsburg, IN

                    About Me Power user

                    Verified Buyer

                    Pros

                    • No audible noise
                    • Powerful backup technolog
                    • Simple and idiot resistan
                    • System monitor software

                    Cons

                    • Cost so shop around
                    • Drives should be same

                    Best Uses

                    • Data Backup
                    • Multimedia
                    • Multi-user

                    Comments about Drobo FS Network Storage Enclosure:

                    I use the drobo FS to store & back up all my data files as well as 8 TB of Video & Music which streams to other devices/users on my home LAN. It behaves exactly as advertised. I use Western Digital Green drives and the total device audible noise is negligable. You can mix drive sizes BUT you should make all drives the same size. e.g. a 3TB drive is used as a 1TB drive when mixed with 4 other 1TB drives. The least expensive way that I found to add drives is to buy a WD usb desktop drive and pop it out of its case. It was a net $300 cheaper this way to add 5 3TB drives than to buy the basic drives.(Don't put a high power/high rpm drive back in the green drive case. That spells trouble.) If you require the highest reliability then consider special drives at more than twice the cost.
                    I have not tried running apache on it yet but the Linux app capability is a great feature.

                    • Primary use:
                    • Personal
                    • Computer Platform:
                    • PC

                    Comment on this review

                     
                    5.0

                    Love my Drobo

                    By routerman01

                    from Southern NJ

                    Verified Buyer

                    Pros

                    • Easy To Collaborate Across Programs
                    • Easy to Customize
                    • Easy to Navigate
                    • Versatile

                    Cons

                      Best Uses

                      • Backuop
                      • File Shareing
                      • Multimedia

                      Comments about Drobo FS Network Storage Enclosure:

                      I recommend this to anyone looking for a NAS device. I previously owned a Buffalo TereStation which became outdated with no firmware updates and replaced it with the DroboFS. The performance is good based on 1Gbps connection. The Drobo is used for remote backup (TimeMachine) on one iMac and several others for remote storage access. I especially like the Drobo apps which add additional functionality. Loaded mine with 5 X Seagate 2TB drives.

                      • Primary use:
                      • Personal
                      • Computer Platform:
                      • Mac

                      Comment on this review

                      (0 of 1 customers found this review helpful)

                       
                      3.0

                      Back Up Your Data First!

                      By tomswell

                      from bonny doon CA

                      Verified Buyer

                      Pros

                        Cons

                          Best Uses

                            Comments about Drobo FS Network Storage Enclosure:

                            Important lessons:

                            If you delete something from a drobo, your data is likely gone… forever!
                            If your lucky partial recovery from pro services could cost $7000+
                            If your Drobo file system gets damaged, do not let windows or any other operating system repair it or you will lose some or all of your data.
                            The drobo is slow, you can't recover data in a timely manner (if you can recover it at all).
                            Don't trust the Drobo, as it is only a single device it cannot provide an ultimate solution.
                            Some kind of distributed private cloud storage setup is strongly recommended.
                            Drobo is supposed to make data storage simple but if you trust it too much and you will lose all your data. I can't stress how important it is to backup your data to a second device (a spare hard disk, another computer or even another drobo.

                            • Computer Platform:
                            • Mac

                            Comment on this review

                             
                            5.0

                            I love this product

                            By scubash21

                            from New Jersey

                            Verified Buyer

                            Pros

                            • Easy To Collaborate Across Programs
                            • Easy to Customize
                            • Easy to Navigate
                            • Versatile

                            Cons

                              Best Uses

                              • Multimedia

                              Comments about Drobo FS Network Storage Enclosure:

                              Everything works as stated, really easy integration with home PC and Mac for cross sharing.

                              • Primary use:
                              • Personal
                              • Computer Platform:
                              • Mac

                              Comment on this review

                               
                              4.0

                              Good Product

                              By Stan

                              from Indian Trail, NC

                              Verified Buyer

                              Pros

                              • Easy to Navigate

                              Cons

                                Best Uses

                                  Comments about Drobo FS Network Storage Enclosure:

                                  I use this product to store a lot of data. It was easy to set up and configure. I did have an initial issue setting up the admin id and pw and getting an ip address but after a code refresh and a reboot it all came together.

                                  • Primary use:
                                  • Personal
                                  • Computer Platform:
                                  • PC

                                  Comment on this review

                                   
                                  2.0

                                  Should have listened when they said SLOW

                                  By Rocco

                                  from Newhall

                                  About Me Computer Savvy, Lots of Data, Many types of files

                                  Verified Buyer

                                  Pros

                                  • Accepts Mixed Media
                                  • Data Redundancy
                                  • Gigabit Ethernet
                                  • Not too noisy
                                  • Stylish
                                  • Versatile

                                  Cons

                                  • No free weekend support
                                  • Not too quiet
                                  • Slow
                                  • Software can be quirky
                                  • Sometimes Very Slow

                                  Best Uses

                                  • Large File Storage

                                  Comments about Drobo FS Network Storage Enclosure:

                                  I purchased the Drobo FS because I liked the two-drive failure support, the idea of being able to interchange different sized disks as my storage needs grew, and the ability to share my data across my network to my different machines.

                                  GREAT THINGS:
                                  -Data redundancy
                                  -Uses mixed sizes of media
                                  -Gigabit Ethernet
                                  -Often about as noisy as a space heater on low

                                  LESS GREAT THINGS:
                                  -Not really fast by Gigabit terms
                                  -REALLY SLOW to access/index lots of small files
                                  -Fussy Dashboard software
                                  -Often about as noisy as a space heater on Hi with five drive heads chattering around inside

                                  I am a new-to-mac home user. After both my pc laptop and desktop died within a month of each other I was able to switch my systems over to a Mac mini and an Air, but I had 1T worth of data pulled from the old machines that needed to go somewhere. Mostly music, documents and photographs. I also was looking to take advantage of Time Machine on the Drobo FS.

                                  And while I have to admit that it does these things- accepts different media, stores data with purported redundancy, works as a Time Machine backup drive- It does them all SLOWLY.

                                  I had read that it's transfer rate was often about 30MB/s. That seemed fast enough for my needs- streaming iTunes media, photographs, etc. But what I never read anywhere is that that is only for large files. When transferring lots of little files the rate can easily drop to less than 1MB/sec.

                                  Backing-up data from my old computers- that had a lot of little files to deal with.
                                  Time machine back-up- that has a lot of little files to transfer. Slow
                                  Migrating itunes media- lots of little files. Slow.
                                  And anything with a lot of indexing or scanning of the data- slow.

                                  And whenever these activities are taking place, access of the drive slows down too. Sometimes I can't even stream a 320x240 video while iTunes is organizing music on the drive. It basically stops me dead in my tracks, and I have to walk away for a few hours.

                                  And then there was the setup. The Drobo arrived on a Friday, so when I tried to set it up over the weekend I had no Data Robotics support to call. The problem that I encountered that really set me back a day or two was that after installing the Drobo Dashboard software it checked for updates. Awesome. Both the firmware and the dashboard software had updates. However, after the new Dashboard software installed I could barely use it. Many of the buttons were missing text, or not there at all- only discoverable by how the cursor changed as you passed over them. I un-installed and re-installed several times hoping something would work better, and eventually, after deleting all fonts on my system and restoring the default fonts I was successful. I'm not saying it is the fault of Data Robotics that I had a lot of fonts- and I'm not even certain that that was the problem- but it was incredibly frustrating.

                                  As storage for my rather large iTunes library, it works, but not as well as I had hoped. This is where having a RAID directly attached to my machine would have been better. I always have to remember to encourage the Drobo to mount before starting iTunes, otherwise my music path will default to my user's music directory- and downloads and podcasts will begin to go there, instead of to the Drobo.

                                  After writing this I really feel like I should maybe return it. I guess it depends on how much of a lazy human I actually am.

                                  • Primary use:
                                  • Personal
                                  • Computer Platform:
                                  • Mac

                                  Comment on this review

                                   
                                  4.0

                                  Not the fastest horse in the stable

                                  By Joe

                                  from Chicago

                                  Verified Buyer

                                  Pros

                                  • Easy

                                  Cons

                                  • Slow

                                  Best Uses

                                    Comments about Drobo FS Network Storage Enclosure:

                                    Not fast.. transfers are about 28MBps. But what it does do, it does very well. Its a NAS for the tech illiterate. Set it and go... almost anyone can get it up and running in under an hour.

                                    • Primary use:
                                    • Personal
                                    • Computer Platform:
                                    • PC

                                    Comment on this review

                                     
                                    5.0

                                    Drobo FS Used for Production Company

                                    By Blurr Prod.

                                    from West Chester, Pa

                                    Verified Buyer

                                    Pros

                                    • Easy To Collaborate Across Programs
                                    • Easy to Customize
                                    • Easy to Navigate

                                    Cons

                                      Best Uses

                                      • Multimedia

                                      Comments about Drobo FS Network Storage Enclosure:

                                      This is the Second Drobo I have used. The first one I've purchased for my company. So far I love all of the features and ease of use and setup for this system. The User interface for the device is very cool and easy to update and make changes to the device. I use this as my master backup for several machines over my network. I would not recommend using it as a drive system to work off of. I would recommend using the Drobo that has the firewire 800 though for a direct drive to edit. I have to store tons of video footage and special FX and the speed at which the system backs up files has been amazing. I also truly enjoy the fact that you can divide sections of the system off to different systems or for different people that I need to have their projects backed up.

                                      • Primary use:
                                      • Business
                                      • Computer Platform:
                                      • Mac

                                      Comment on this review

                                       
                                      4.0

                                      Easy to use, could be snappier

                                      By bfad

                                      from Whoville, DS

                                      Verified Buyer

                                      Comments about Drobo FS Network Storage Enclosure:

                                      It was easy to install the drives and get things up and running. However, the admin console feels slow. Also, it feels like it take a long time from starting the Drobo FS until you can eventually connect the admin console to it.

                                      Comment on this review

                                       
                                      4.0

                                      Nice piece of kit

                                      By w

                                      from perth, australia

                                      About Me Gadget lover, IT background

                                      Verified Buyer

                                      Pros

                                      • Good user interface
                                      • Simple to setup
                                      • Storage capacity
                                      • Versatile

                                      Cons

                                      • Media serving is average
                                      • Pricey

                                      Best Uses

                                      • Bulk storage

                                      Comments about Drobo FS Network Storage Enclosure:

                                      Did a lot of reading on NAS's and canvassed opinion but the clincher for me was the ability to use different size hard drives and upgrade drives while also getting the same benefits as a RAID5 array.

                                      I have 2 x 3TB, 1x 1TB, 1x 2TB and 1x750GB and it just works, simplest piece of kit to setup and access.

                                      Only negative is that my I can't stream some of my media as the public domain app for serving DLNA content (FUPPES) is fairly limited in codecs it supports. Going to have to try a media server that allows samba shares.

                                      • Primary use:
                                      • Personal
                                      • Computer Platform:
                                      • PC

                                      Comment on this review

                                      Displaying reviews 1-20

                                      Back to top

                                      Previous | Next »

                                      Replacement Drives

                                      Western Digital -  1TB Caviar Green SATA Internal Hard Drive
                                      • Price: $94.95
                                       

                                      Cables & Adapters

                                      GGI -  UTP CAT5 350 MHz Cable With Molded Boots - 15'
                                      • Price: $6.89
                                       

                                      Surge Protection

                                      APC -  Personal SurgeArrest 7-Outlet Surge Protector
                                      • Price: $14.95
                                       

                                      Warranties & Support

                                      Drobo -  1-Year DroboCare Enhanced Service Agreement for Drobo FS
                                      • Price: $94.95
                                       

                                      This is a special order item and is non-cancelable and non-returnable. Est. arrival at B&H is 7-14 days (subject to availability). Your order will be charged at time of shipment.

                                      What's in the Box

                                      Drobo Drobo FS Network Storage Enclosure
                                      • Power Supply
                                      • Ethernet Cable
                                      • User Guide
                                      • Quick Start Guide
                                      • CD w/ Software and Documentation
                                      • 1-Year Limited Warranty (US)
                                        2-Year Limited Warranty (EU)
                                       
                                       
                                      See any errors on this page? Let us know.

                                      Close

                                      Close