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Drobo 4 vs Drobo 5 #34108
02/18/11 04:53 PM
02/18/11 04:53 PM
Joined: Feb 2005
Manhattan, New York, New York
James Morrissey Offline OP
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James Morrissey  Offline OP
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Carpal Tunnel

Joined: Feb 2005
Manhattan, New York, New York
Hey Folks,

I need a new hard drive system. You can purchase the Drobo 4 for about 350 bucks at B&H. The 5 bay version goes for $650. is it worth purchasing the large array? I was thinking about purchasing two of the four drive bays for the same price as the 5 bay.

Is it that the 4 bay is being discontinued?

Drobo 4:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/57...ic_Storage.html

Drobo 5:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/662282-REG/Data_Robotics_DRDR3A21_Drobo_S_5_Bay_Array.html

James

Last edited by James Morrissey; 02/18/11 04:55 PM.
Re: Drobo 4 vs Drobo 5 [Re: James Morrissey] #34111
02/18/11 05:14 PM
02/18/11 05:14 PM
Joined: Sep 2005
Portland Oregon
RomanJohnston Offline
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Joined: Sep 2005
Portland Oregon
I have the Drobo 4 myself. I love it. If I were to have your situation I would choose 2 of the old 4 units as the more you can divide your hardware the less the possibility for a single catastrophic failure to wipe you completely out.

If one DROBO fails, you still have 1/2 your files still if it effects the drives plugged into it.

Just always looking at the safer side of backup.

In my unit I have 2 1.5TB drives and one 500Gig drive and I have every file I have ever created on it and still have room and one empty bay.

That's over 35,000 RAW files and multiple processed versions of many of them.

Roman

Re: Drobo 4 vs Drobo 5 [Re: James Morrissey] #34112
02/18/11 05:52 PM
02/18/11 05:52 PM
Joined: Feb 2005
Manhattan, New York, New York
James Morrissey Offline OP
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James Morrissey  Offline OP
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Carpal Tunnel

Joined: Feb 2005
Manhattan, New York, New York
Hey Roman,

"If one DROBO fails, you still have 1/2 your files still if it effects the drives plugged into it."

I thought that if a Drobo drive failed that the others had the redundancy necessary to prevent any loss.

James

Re: Drobo 4 vs Drobo 5 [Re: James Morrissey] #34113
02/18/11 06:24 PM
02/18/11 06:24 PM
Joined: Sep 2005
Portland Oregon
RomanJohnston Offline
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RomanJohnston  Offline
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Joined: Sep 2005
Portland Oregon
Well a Drobo is a device you put drives INTO. If that failed and took the drives with you (unlikely but not imposable) Then your other setup would have 1/2 your data. That's my only point.

Drobo is about data loss due to a drive failure. ALWAYS have a backup of your most important files somewhere else for true data backup redundancy. (and keep one set off site for disaster recovery if your files are super important)

Basic backup rules.

Roman

Re: Drobo 4 vs Drobo 5 [Re: James Morrissey] #34120
02/19/11 10:41 AM
02/19/11 10:41 AM
Joined: Feb 2005
Manhattan, New York, New York
James Morrissey Offline OP
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James Morrissey  Offline OP
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Carpal Tunnel

Joined: Feb 2005
Manhattan, New York, New York
Do we know if there are any advantages of the 5 drive over the 4 drive (outside if the fact that it has another drive bay) in terms of speed/software, etc.?

If not, I am going to pick up the 4 and (4) 2 TB 7200 rpm drives this weekend.

James

Re: Drobo 4 vs Drobo 5 [Re: James Morrissey] #34124
02/19/11 01:23 PM
02/19/11 01:23 PM
Joined: Nov 2008
Kansas
psmith Offline
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Joined: Nov 2008
Kansas

Re: Drobo 4 vs Drobo 5 [Re: James Morrissey] #34134
02/19/11 07:52 PM
02/19/11 07:52 PM
Joined: Feb 2005
Manhattan, New York, New York
James Morrissey Offline OP
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James Morrissey  Offline OP
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Carpal Tunnel

Joined: Feb 2005
Manhattan, New York, New York
Thanks, Preston. That is a more expensive model that I am now considering. :P The model that Costco is selling is a network model, which is cool because everyone in the house could then use the files.

The model I was looking at is a much older model (hence the $350 dollar price). I am now wondering if it is really the best deal or not. frown

James

Re: Drobo 4 vs Drobo 5 [Re: James Morrissey] #34136
02/19/11 09:35 PM
02/19/11 09:35 PM
Joined: Nov 2008
Kansas
psmith Offline
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psmith  Offline
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Joined: Nov 2008
Kansas
Originally Posted By: James Morrissey
Thanks, Preston. That is a more expensive model that I am now considering. :P The model that Costco is selling is a network model, which is cool because everyone in the house could then use the files.

The model I was looking at is a much older model (hence the $350 dollar price). I am now wondering if it is really the best deal or not. frown

James


The Costco one includes 3x2TB drives, wasn't sure if your prices included the drives.

Re: Drobo 4 vs Drobo 5 [Re: psmith] #34149
02/20/11 09:20 AM
02/20/11 09:20 AM
Joined: May 2008
Virginia, USA
Jim Poor Offline
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Jim Poor  Offline
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Joined: May 2008
Virginia, USA
I read far too much about Drobo problems to trust them.

Here's just one story: http://photography-thedarkart.blogspot.com/2010/07/drobo-pro-my-new-full-time-job-with.html


There are a lot more among the pro photographer blogs I follow.

Re: Drobo 4 vs Drobo 5 [Re: James Morrissey] #34156
02/20/11 11:30 PM
02/20/11 11:30 PM
Joined: Feb 2005
Manhattan, New York, New York
James Morrissey Offline OP
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James Morrissey  Offline OP
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Carpal Tunnel

Joined: Feb 2005
Manhattan, New York, New York
Yeah - that freaked me out a bit when I read that. There are a lot of reviews that read just the opposite. The trick is that I need SOMETHING and soon. I am completely running out of juice and - as we all do - I need redundancy!!

Any other thoughts if the Drobo does not work best?

James

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