Data Robotics DR04DD10 Hard Drive Array

Angel of Data

Strengths: ease of use, small form factor, ability to use multiple sized hard drives

Weakness: none noted

I like the easy set up and maintenance of the Drobo. Not everyone has the technical knowledge to set up and maintain a RAID system. Some of us simply want to prevent our precious music, videos, and pictures from being lost without a lot of headaches! Drobo does this quite well!!

By GoldenAnkh1 - Sep 12, 2008

It does what it's supposed to and then some

Strengths: Ease of set-up, expansion capabilities

Weakness: Speed, if that is what you need.

I have had a drobo for about a year, has worked flawlessly. The previous reviewer has no clue as to how the drobo works, it is NOT RAID, they have their own redundancy scheme. There is no software or hardware that needs to be installed, the drobo takes care of all of the overhead. I agree that the price is a bit high when you add drives, but for what it does, there is no comparison to "creating...
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I have had a drobo for about a year, has worked flawlessly. The previous reviewer has no clue as to how the drobo works, it is NOT RAID, they have their own redundancy scheme. There is no software or hardware that needs to be installed, the drobo takes care of all of the overhead. I agree that the price is a bit high when you add drives, but for what it does, there is no comparison to "creating your own" with a PC, drives, RAID hardware, etc...

By robberns - Mar 17, 2009

Very Expensive for few features

Strengths: supposedly easy to set up

Weakness: price no drives included no Ethernet easy to set up means hard to diagnose problems when they occur

$410 is very expensive for what the box does. In fact, it's so expensive that I fault Mwave for offering it. Here are some problems with the device: * No drives included. You'll have to spend at minimum ~$250 more for 500MB drives or ~$400 for 1 TB drives. * No indication of what kind of RAID is supported: hardware-based or software-based. It it's hardware-based, you are stuck forever with that...
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$410 is very expensive for what the box does. In fact, it's so expensive that I fault Mwave for offering it. Here are some problems with the device:
* No drives included. You'll have to spend at minimum ~$250 more for 500MB drives or ~$400 for 1 TB drives.
* No indication of what kind of RAID is supported: hardware-based or software-based. It it's hardware-based, you are stuck forever with that brand of controller (which is?). If it's software-based, then (in theory) you can move it to another system.
* No Ethernet. This is inexcusable for a box that costs this much. It should offer Gigabit Ethernet.

A cheaper and just as feature-full alternative is to buy a cheap desktop PC and stick some drives in it. Use the RAID capabilities of your OS (Windows, Linux or BSD) to manage the disks. Cost of cheap PC: less than $300.

Of course you'll have to do some work, but you could hire someone for $50/hr to set it up for you and still come out ahead.

By vgivanovic; - Feb 7, 2009

good purchase, but

It would be a good ideal to tell one that the drives are purchased separate.

By BuddyClif on HPBazaarVoice - Feb 8, 2012

Excellent product and long-term value

My wife is a professional photographer and needed a redundant place to store her photos. Drobo is perfect. If one of the drives fails, you can easily replace it and nothing's lost. High-capacity drives are so cheap, that this is so much of a better value

By Mossrockss on Adorama - Jan 18, 2012