FireWire 800 (FireWire 400 compatible)
Enhanced USB 2.0 performance
Redundant data protection
Hot expandable up to 16TB
Mix n match drive capacities
nv:Enclosure Type^3.5"|Compatible Drives^3.5" Hard Drives|Drive Interface^SATA|Enclosure Interface^USB 2.0|Enclosure Interface^IEE1394a Firewire 400|Enclosure Interface^IEE1394b Firewire 800|USB 2.0 Transfer Rate^480 Mbps|Firewire IEE1394a Transfer Rate^400 Mbps|Firewire IEE1394b Transfer Rate^800 Mbps

EDITORIAL REVIEWS

Product Description
The safe, expandable Drobo storage solution protects your data against a hard drive crash, yet can expand dynamically at any time in just seconds. With nothing to configure or manage, Drobo is now the ideal solution for primary storage as well as backup.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.5 based on 134 reviews)

Drobo Performance Delivers Just As Advertised by J. Wm Seabrooke CPA (Austin TX)

5 Stars
November 08, 2009
Note-"digitalman" (9/15/08) has already provided an outstanding technical review of this product. I purchased my Drobo on September 30th based on the recommendations from my web designer, who is also a Mac person and is using Firewire connectivity for his Drobo. I am using my unit for data storage connecting directly to a USB 2.0 port on my system board just as DR recommended. As described below, one of the four WD HDDs failed 15 days after I received my Drobo unit. My "pros" below far outnumber and outweigh my "cons": Pros: 1. Data storage, reliability, retrieval, and security are exceptional. The data throughput rate is not as high as Firewire or Ethernet but this is not an issue for me. 2. The capability for using HDDs of different capacities including the "hot swap" and quick replacement of a defective HDD is an outstanding feature. This is in sharp contrast to my current Buffalo Technology NAS that requires a complete disassembly of the unit to replace a drive. 3. The Digital Robotics sales and technical support representatives are excellent. Their recommendations were very important in order to better understand the technical aspects of the unit, performance etc. 4. Although this Drobo has USB 2.0 connectivity (slower data throughput rate) it is still adequate. As I understand it, USB 3.0 will be available next year. You can avoid purchasing the DR NAS unit by making your Drobo a "shared" drive on your PC which will allow other users connected to your network to have access to it. 5. I purchased four WD 1.5 TB EADS drives from Amazon at $119.99 each. DR technical support recommended this model amd assured me that it was compatible with the Drobo. There is a reduction in the total available storage capacity which is required for the overhead/RAID functionality but the advantages are evident in note #6 below. 6. Two weeks after purchasing both the unit and the HDDs the Drobo began reporting that one of the WD drives was failing and immediately began reallocating the existing stored data to provide the required protection and integrity of my data. No data was lost as a result of this incident. 7. Kudos to Amazon customer service. Although one of the 1.5 TB drives failed, it was within 30 days of my purchase. Amazon shipped a replacement drive to me immediately. Reviewer comments on this website have lead me to conclude that I would not have had a similar experience with WD T/S. Cons: 1. Lack of Ethernet connectivity option without having to purchase the expensive NAS unit option. Even if it is purchased the data transfer rate drops to the USB transfer rate internally from the NAS unit to the Drobo. 2. Limited data transfer rate for video, DVD and high definition files

I love my Drobo!!! by Xophonic (CA, USA)

4 Stars
November 01, 2009
I've had my drobo for a few months now and it has been working great. The one and only issue I have with it is that it's slower at writing and accessing data than a regular external drive over firewire 800. This is the trade-off you make for having your data secure and easy to manage. To make this quick and easy for you I'm going to make a quick list of the pro and cons PROS - Drobo keeps your data safe and redundantly stored in the case of a single drive failure Drobo can be easily expanded when space runs out Drodo is fast enough to playback high definition video and DVD images Drobo keeps everything in one place for easily locating your files CONS - Drobo will playback high definition video and DVD images poorly with intermittent pausing and choppiness if you happen to be writing to it during playback, this can be troublesome if you use it as a backup drive that runs automatically throughout the day. writing or copying large amounts of data takes a good amount longer than a regular non redundant or more expensive solution Your data is all in one place, so if in a rare occasion when drobo fails or something bad happens everything is potentially lost (a second copy of everything on drobo is highly recommended, possibly an offsite backup like carbonite or backblaze would be easiest and best) BOTTOM LINE- you will simply not find a better solution that does what drobo does as well as it does even close to this price point. I highly recommend it and would buy another if I needed one and am considering a Drobo Pro for business use. I've swapped drives several times to upgrade the storage capacity with no problems, its just as easy and fast as they claim. I also just today had a drive die on me and I rushed to the store for a new 2 TB drive and popped it in. All my data is still accessible and Drobo is making my data safe again on my new drive just as advertised. On a side note, I have had drives die on me before and since I'm a stickler for backups I've always been able to restore my data but never this quickly and easily with no interruption. I was even accessing data at the time of the drive failure and only noticed the issue because Drobo's software alerted me onscreen and via email that my drive had died. I'm so happy I got one and trust my data with it.

Drobo: Cute but not to be trusted. I sent mine back by Abester (USA)

1 Stars
October 29, 2009
I placed two brand new 1TB Western Digital Caviar GREEN SATA disks in my Drobo and it seemed to work nicely. I added two more on the fly and that worked great too. I even removed one of the four spinning disks and reinstalled it a while later and Drobo rebuilt the data as it should. Cool. However, after some methodical testing over a couple weeks, I determined that Drobo had lost a couple of my large files. I thought it was my imagination at first but it happened again a few days later. Additionally, Drobo would mysteriously unmount (as in eject or disconnect) whether using the Firewire or USB port. I would have to reboot Drobo or my Mac, or disconnect / reconnect the I/O cable to get Drobo back online. To all those users out there who swear by their Drobo, all I can say is, have you THOROUGHLY tested yours or are you simply trusting your initial impressions and the slick marketing behind this little black box? Your Drobo might be humming along all cute and pretty and you may not even realize your data is sitting on a time bomb! I removed the four Western Digital drives, repartitioned them, and tested each one in a basic enclosure with Firewire and USB 2.0 interfaces. All the drives work perfectly on their own. I sent my Drobo back to Amazon and received a full refund. Oh, a quick google search on Drobo will expose several problems reported by many users. Wish I had done more thorough research before my purchase but I'm very happy that Amazon is so good about product returns. Drobo cute, but not ready for prime time. I think I'll build my own ZFS based file server / disk array instead.

Had problem for computer to recognize this by Q. Duan (SF Bay Area, CA, USA)

4 Stars
October 22, 2009
After I installed the software on CD, my vista computer can't find DROBO. I tried to reboot drobo, then it recognized it. I configured it as 16 T volume, it is pretty fast for PC to find it when DROBO is turned on. When I don't use it for a while, I shut down computer, then just unplug the power, not sure if it is the right way. But so far so good.

the girl is so damn annoying by Tony Lee

1 Stars
October 21, 2009
the video with the girl reviewing this product needs to be banned, driving potential customers away. She is holding hard drives and shaking them as she is talking with big arm movement is absolutely absurd. "Oh, this drive is still spinning and I can move them, great, let the machine fix everything". Hiring a total illiterate to promote your product is a big negative. Text to speech software would have done a better job.

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