jasong
08-01-2008, 12:08 AM
I got the latest Tiger Direct advertisement magazine a day or two ago, and the storage "robot"(not sure why they think they made a robot) Drobo has gone done to about 75% of the price I'd been seeing it at. From about $500 to $385. If I had the money right now, I might have bought it on the spot. As it is, because of a recent stock investment, and the fact that I work part-time cleaning the lobby at KFC(I'm a hard worker, but my performance is going to iffy at unpredictable times at pretty much all jobs) it's going to take me 2-3 months to save for it.
For those who don't know, Drobo is a automatic RAIDing device that can accept up to four SATA-I or II hard drives of any size. Basically, it will look at what you stick in it and come up with the absolute best possible usage that will maximize space while also making all data redundant.
It makes the best use of LEDs I've ever seen in my life. There are two lines of LEDs that go across the bottom of the Drobo, the more that are lit up, the more space is being used. If they're green, the Drobo's saying you're safe, if they're yellow, it's time to worry about storage. If they're red, you really need to either delete data or have another drive laying around.
The really cool thing, to me, is that once you max out the four bays, all you have to do to add storage is make sure the large lights next to the drives are green(separate LEDs frp, the storage tracking ones) and then just take out the smallest drive and replace it with a bigger one. Bingo, more storage. Things will temporarily turn yellow to indicate things are temporarily not safe, a possible nail-biting time for some, and then when they turn green again, you're golden.
For those who don't know, Drobo is a automatic RAIDing device that can accept up to four SATA-I or II hard drives of any size. Basically, it will look at what you stick in it and come up with the absolute best possible usage that will maximize space while also making all data redundant.
It makes the best use of LEDs I've ever seen in my life. There are two lines of LEDs that go across the bottom of the Drobo, the more that are lit up, the more space is being used. If they're green, the Drobo's saying you're safe, if they're yellow, it's time to worry about storage. If they're red, you really need to either delete data or have another drive laying around.
The really cool thing, to me, is that once you max out the four bays, all you have to do to add storage is make sure the large lights next to the drives are green(separate LEDs frp, the storage tracking ones) and then just take out the smallest drive and replace it with a bigger one. Bingo, more storage. Things will temporarily turn yellow to indicate things are temporarily not safe, a possible nail-biting time for some, and then when they turn green again, you're golden.