Comments on SMB Tech Advice.com - Business Technology Advice from a Systems Architect in the field: DROBO - Fully automated storage you don't have to ...

I have to agree with robwAm experiencing similar p...

2008-04-17T12:23:00.000-07:00

I have to agree with robw
Am experiencing similar problem...

Drobo volume disappearing. Windows explorer recognised the device, but claimed the disk was not formatted.

Currently have investigation going on with Drobo support this is the third day and no further forward with a resolution.

Drobo support have not been able to come up with a resolution so far...

My Drobo unit is currently powered off in the corner, and is about as useful as a chocolate teapot... I have spent in excess of £740.00 on the Drobo unit and the drives to put into it, that’s more than $1400.00 and after just one week of use...

All I have is a load of useless plastic full of ironmongery...
And so far no further forward with a resolution, thus far there is a potential data loss in excess of 230GB of data which I had previously stored on separate external USB drives and replicated between USB drives so if one drive failed I would have the data available.

I thought that the Drobo would be the answer to separate external drives... I moved that dat to the drobo unit now all I ended up with is a basket full of eggs which has fallen to the floor!!

Well, potentially the eggs are destroyed and of no use to anyone... Unless they can fix the problem.. I will let you know.

Good to hear your side of the story. I haven't he...

2008-04-17T08:47:00.000-07:00

Good to hear your side of the story. I haven't heard of any issues with the DROBO units, but people should always be aware that there may be issues with a product. Thanks for the heads up.

This is for anyone considering a Drobo:STAY AWAY F...

2008-04-17T08:45:00.000-07:00

This is for anyone considering a Drobo:

STAY AWAY FROM DROBO!!! Unless you want to LOSE ALL OF YOUR DATA!!! I was loving Drobo at first. It looks slick and performs as advertised - until one attempts a firmware update. The first firmware update I applied resulted in my Drobo volume disappearing. The (Macintosh) Finder recognized the device, but claimed the disk was not formatted and asked if I wanted to Initialize, Ignore, or Eject. Not good.

I called Drobo and they walked me through a troubleshooting procedure that involved removing all drives and re-inserting them one by one. At first this didn't work. I tried it a few times, finally placing each drive in a different bay. Drobo ultimately recognized all drives and proceeded to repair itself. It took about three days.

Of course, I should have ditched the little black nightmare right then and there, but I foolishly believed all was well. Until the next firmware update...

Once again, Drobo lost my primary volume. This time, however, nothing saved it. It took Drobo about 12 days to "repair" itself. When all was said and done, the volume was gone, along with my entire media server library. I still have most of the CDs and DVDs that I ripped, but I've now lost hundreds of hours of time spent setting up my server. I've also lost a number of non-essential files that I chose to store on the Drobo. They're gone for good.

DO NOT BELIEVE THE HYPE!!! Drobo doesn't work. I've encountered a number of other Drobo users on various forums whose data has all suffered a similar fate. Bottom line, if you're a cheapskate and buy Drobo over a RAID solution, you'll get what you pay for: a serious headache and lost data!!! The few hundred bucks I saved on Drobo isn't worth the hundreds of hours of re-ripping ahead of me. And, then there's the data that I didn't have backed up. Gone for good.

Needless to say, I urge anyone looking for a storage solution to skip this nightmare box and go with a tried and true RAID solution. Or, at some point, you'll be very sorry!