Drobo, the "world's first storage robot"

Managing all of your data can be a little intimidating, especially if you need to keep adding more and more storage capacity without breaking the bank or running into technical snags. Well the engineers over at Data Robotics figure the solution to all of your storage needs is, of course, a storage robot. Affectionately named Drobo, the four drive array connects via USB and employs "intelligent" software to handle all of the data management and disk swapping: one drive goes down? No problem, Drobo's already on it. Wanna swap out drives while you listen to music? Drobo keeps the tunes going even when you're down to one disk. At $700 it is a little steep -- especially considering the lack of any "starter" drives bundled in -- but we suppose that in the long run, that's a small price to pay if it truly does deliver the data management nirvana we've been seeking

[Via eHomeUpgrade]

[wako @ Apr 9th 2007 10:30PM]

put a network card in it so I can connect it to my network and Ill think about it

[Jonathan Ng @ Apr 9th 2007 10:32PM]

Sounds like a NAS RAID to me.

[David @ Apr 10th 2007 12:21AM]

USB... are you serious? this device is worthless.

[Justin @ Apr 9th 2007 11:06PM]

is it me.. or is it a little strange you can go from 3 disks to 1 disk and not lose data.. where's the buffer at? you can't store 3 drives worth of data on one disk.. if you could, why would you need the other 2 discs?

unless drobo doesn't use but maybe 1/4 of the drives capacity on each drive.. Raid 5 uses 4 disks.. one fails you put a new one in and it rebuilds the array, 2 fail, you're up the creek with no 35-Ton Excavator.

Or am I missing something.. it is late.. but still.

[Sindre Strandum @ Apr 9th 2007 11:17PM]

Sounds great, looks great, smells great,
but hey.. We need FW800 or/and giga ethernet to go with this :)
A little bit cheaper maybe? 700 $ is a lot of money theese days..

[Sindre Strandum @ Apr 9th 2007 11:30PM]

..forgot to add to the needed list: eSATA >

[earthling @ Apr 9th 2007 11:45PM]

Yeah, the whole thing is a bit strange. First, what Drobo isn't is a RAID system. What it is supposed to be is drive virtualization. If you buy into their underlying pitch which is a virtualized storage system (let us manage your storage pool) then its okay (I guess). I would need some convincing about their 'protected states' and how bulletproof they are. In the video demo they adding and subtracting drives with very little data in place. I would like to see what happens when the disks are near capacity. Also, for the price you have your choice from quite a number of real RAID 5 NAS boxes which I do trust (like the infrant readynas series).

[AntWhite @ Apr 9th 2007 11:47PM]

I'm guessing It must use RAID 1 at 50%. I don't think you can lose any more than one drive at a time. Network support would make this a must have

[AntWhite @ Apr 9th 2007 11:49PM]

I'm guessing It must use RAID 1 at 50%. And RAID 5 (or other parity) at >50% (and ask you to add another drive) I don't think you can lose any more than one drive at a time. Network support would make this a must have

[steve @ Apr 9th 2007 11:59PM]

Why is something that shows any intelligence automatically considered a robot?

A device which shows thinking capacity is a computer.

If that device gets up and walks around my desk, its a robot.

Until then, stop naming things incorrectly.

[alex @ Apr 10th 2007 1:15AM]

True, why just usb?? and for $700 smackers without including any HDD?? What are they smoking? I could settle without eSATA or ethernet, but come on, give me at least FW400.

[Eric @ Jun 6th 2007 2:59PM]

USB 2.0 is more cross platform suppoted as well as faster than FW400 (USB 2.0 = 480), I do agree that they could of added Network as well as Firewire support. It is 499.95 now BTW.

[Trejkaz @ Apr 10th 2007 1:59AM]

USB isn't a problem since practically any computer has USB. The main problem is that it only supports NTFS and HFS+ filesystems, neither of which work particularly solidly under Linux. As far as I can tell, the only reason it would need to know about the filesystem is in order to estimate the remaining disk space... other than that it shouldn't care, if it really is just a virtual disk.

I am a bit skeptical about how fast the guy removed the second disk too. Unless it had already copied all the data onto the third disk... but I would have expected that to take more time than he gave it.

[Tech^Cellfish @ Apr 10th 2007 2:47AM]

I'll stick to my old Ubuntu EVMS box (software raid5 which I can shrink and expand easily)

[The Postmaster @ Apr 10th 2007 8:04AM]

Another cheap RAID NAS NDAS solution is dropping a few massive hard drive into the Ximeta Netdisk enclosures and Raiding those. You can get the enclosure at Frys for $20 right now and a 400GB drive for $99. So for a single drive letter Mirrored 400GB setup you're out $240... That's not bad.

Cheers
The Postmaster
the Joys Of...

[aeo @ Apr 10th 2007 11:34AM]

As Steve stated, stop calling non-mobile things "Robots". Also, stop calling non-autonomous vehicles robots. Robots are mobile, programmable, and autonomous. iRobot's Roomba is a robot but iRobot's packbot is not a robot any more than an underwater ROV is a robot.

[the vette makes them wet @ Apr 10th 2007 1:01PM]

Definitely not the first robotic storage device.
Here are the REAL robot storage devices:

http://home.fnal.gov/~carrigan/Pillars/Old_Fermilab_tape_robot.png
http://www.mccullagh.org/db9/10d-15/robot-arm-tape-cartridge.jpg

etc. search for robotic tape library.

[RaZor @ Apr 12th 2007 10:18PM]

If anyone is actually interested in buying one, go to http://www.drobostore.com and be sure to use this discount code "REFPHILS" so you get $100 off. The codes expires on 5/30 though.

[Jonathan @ Apr 15th 2007 5:30PM]

A robot does not have to walk. See def #3.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/robot

ro·bot /ˈroʊbət, -bɒt/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[roh-buht, -bot] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun 1. a machine that resembles a human and does mechanical, routine tasks on command.
2. a person who acts and responds in a mechanical, routine manner, usually subject to another's will; automaton.
3. any machine or mechanical device that operates automatically with humanlike skill.
–adjective 4. operating automatically: a robot train operating between airline terminals.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Origin: < Czech, coined by Karel Čapek in the play R.U.R. (1920) from the base robot-, as in robota compulsory labor, robotník peasant owing such labor]

[Dan @ Apr 18th 2007 5:24PM]

I beta tested this product, just like the guy above trying to get referrals...

Yes, I was disappointed that there wasn't an ethernet jack.

Though it does exactly what the video showed... I had 4 disks installed with 300gb of data on it. I played a DVD from it across the network (from a share on the host PC) and pulled a drive. The DVD didn't skip or slow down at all. Warning lights came on the unit telling me to replace the drive that was removed. Once I did the system started to rebuild automatically...

It essentially operates like ReadyNAS x-RAID, a dynamic RAID that switches from RAID1 to RAID5 but it does it on the fly without user intervention. No options, prompts or dialog, it just does what it needs to do.

The data protection they will say is completely different then RAID5, which it may be but this unit holds to pretty much the same rules as RAID.

1. Can only loose 1 drive at a time

2. Uses 1/n of storage for redundancy, since this unit can use multiple drives sizes (unlike RAID) the 1/n is actually the space equaling roughly the largest drive in the unit.

I mentioned this above, this device can use different drive sizes... You can have a 100gb, 250gb, 300gb, and 750gb drive installed and the system will be able to use all of it (within the 1/n rules). In this case the 750gb space amount would not be used but adding the 100+250+300=650gb of usable redundant space. SO you can upgrade your drives 1 at a time and not worry about loosing as much space as with RAID5 where the lowest drive sized is used for all drives.

This unit also is different in that you do not need to install software to use it, there lights as shown in the pic can tell you a ton of stuff like: how much space you have left, which drive is failing, which drive to replace (if full and need more space) etc....

It was a neat little device, I personally bought a Thecus 5200 NAS device mainly because it had 5 drive bays and ethernet, I just have to much data for a 4 drive device ReadyNAS included. If Drobo comes out with a 8 drive device I would buy it without question.

[Bart @ Apr 22nd 2007 8:33AM]

I too beta tested this product and bought a Drobo to keep. It is incredibly simple to use. It was designed for the millions of us who keep filling up USB drives and then buying the next larger one, not those of us running Ethernet attached file servers in the home office. My home network is wireless. I wasn't that interested in a shared storage option over 802.11g. Drobo's USB 2.0 interface provides excellent performance and makes it very easy for me to use Drobo as a backup and archiving target for my laptop where all of my key information resides. I use Acronis True Image Home for that which I highly recommend. Drobo is intelligent, shutting down when I put my laptop in standby, coming up again when I turn the laptop back on. Now I don't have to worry about expanding the USB drive (I literally have three of the things sitting around) each time I fill it up. I like being able to lose a drive and not lose my data as this has happened to several of my coworkers over the years. I'm planning on buying the largest available SATA drive each time I fill up the unit and look forward to having Drobo take care of defragging, file system cleanup, data management, etc.

[Dan Aldridge @ May 4th 2007 7:30AM]

FYI - Data Robotics just dropped the price to $499, and if you use the reference code REFDANA, you'll save another $25

[jblock @ May 8th 2007 10:03AM]

For the interested... DroboSpace (http://www.drobospace.com) is the official user community for the Drobo, and they're giving away a free Drobo there.

[Jeff @ Jun 5th 2007 2:39PM]

Sounds like a great product, but as has already been said, the USB interface is a major downside. Give me FW800, Gigabit ethernet, or eSATA and then we’ll talk.

[alex @ Jun 6th 2007 3:25PM]

Eric, a recent commenter about the Drobo stated that "USB2 is faster in theory, yes, but it is only in burst speeds." Compare this to the constant high-speed of firewire which if you were editing video helps keeps things slowing to a crawl.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/05/drobo-review/

[jtw @ Jun 12th 2007 5:30AM]

I think some people are missing the point.

Firstly, this is a first generation product which will have a number of lacking features to please everyone.

Secondly, the market this is being aimed at is the non-technical. In other words, I would be happy giving one of these to my mother.

This is a great product and I look forward to it being available in the UK. This technology has a great future and I'm sure within a year we will start to see the addition of some of the features mentioned above.

[danaldonova @ Jun 12th 2007 5:52PM]

FYI - the reference code REFDANA will still save you $25 until July 31!!

[jaxtechguy @ Jun 22nd 2007 9:23AM]

I don't understand why this product is called a 'robot'. What does it do that makes it special? I have a 4 drive storage array that I use at home that has dual gigabit network made by intel (http://www.intel.com/design/servers/storage/ss4000-E/) and I only paid $450 (without drives). I've had it installed for 6 months RAID5 with Seagate 500G drives and it's AMAZING. Drobo doesn't feel ground breaking to me. I want more information. Someone tell me why this product is better than what I already have.

[L. Kraven @ Jul 1st 2007 9:59PM]

Here's why: It's upgradable... easily. If you build a standard RAID array, using, let's say 500gb drives, you will need to have a 500gb drive ready in case one fails. If you need to EXPAND the size of your RAID, you are in for a big hassle.

With the Drobo, if you have build a 4x500gb drive and you need some extra storage, you could, at your liesure pop in a 1gb drive one week. Another 1gb drive next week. Another 1gb drive a month later, and maybe a 2gb drive in 6 months. You are not required to keep the same drive size, speed, make or model-- things you should really (or have to) match with a traditional RAID setup. That and it's brainless easy to set up... pop the drive in, wait for the light to turn green.

You don't even have to power it off. The rebuilding, the resizing, the redundancy are all done for you. You COULD do something similar with a sophisticated raid array running on a linux server using ZFS or whatever else-- but this is where the ease of use comes in. I could duplicate or excede the Drobo's capabilities with lots of time, lots of money, or lots of both. But with the Drobo, the price to play is set, and the time requirements are nil. It really is a remarkable product.

[jaxtechguy @ Jul 2nd 2007 7:22AM]

Ok, but this does not a robot make. False Advertising is stamped all over every ad I've seen for this product. So far the ONLY minutely interesting thing anyone has been able to say is that this device will RAID drives of different sized. Anyone who's been in IT for any amount of time can tell you that's not a good idea, and I won't go into why.

[L. Kraven @ Jul 5th 2007 5:24AM]

Ok, so I guess your major complaint is about how Drobo is being marketed. I don't feel slighted by the marketing, but if you are, that's your right. The point is that Drobo is brain-dead simple to use. Traditional RAID systems invariably require some level of technical expertise, if only to understand the differences between 1, 0, 5, and 0+1. RAID recovery in the case of a failed drive isn't always straightforward either.

The "robot" part of the Drobo is that it handles this all for you. If something breaks, it makes a light, tells you which, and what you do is pop the drive out, put a different drive in, and everything's good again. Granted, this isn't robotics on the level of a Roomba doing your vacuuming for you, but it DOES simplify data redundancy issues.

Now, onto a further point, this thing doesn't use RAID, or RAID technology. Your statement about using RAID for different drive sizes is well understood-- in fact, I would go so far as to say that is the major shortcoming of RAID technologies. The drives must match in capacity.

Drobo doesn't care. The end result, though, is similar. With two drives in the unit, it is basically giving you a RAID 1 mirrored solution. Add another drive, and it'll move to something like a RAID 5 solution-- but you don't have to worry about any of that -- it just happens.

The product is solid, simple, and very different than anything out there or coming out. Even the upcoming Windows Home Server, which virtualizes a storage pool, can only do a mirrored solution at best. You get mirrrored, or you get unprotected. So you waste a lot of capacity, or you run the risk of losing your data. The Drobo looks just like a big drive to whatever system you hook it into.

For a NAS solution, it's not as simple as a self-contained NAS, but I have mine hooked up to a headless Mac Mini, and it is FAR more flexible.

Don't dump the Drobo because you disagree with it being called a robot. That may be a stretch, but I haven't seen anything else in the advertising I would call a lie. It's a great product.

[Sean @ Jul 31st 2007 5:56PM]

So say the drobo unit it self fails. And your required to replace it with another one. Will the new one reformat you old harddrives after you insert them makeing you sol or is there something i'm missing?

[danaldonova @ Aug 4th 2007 8:50AM]

The new one will recognize your previous drobo drives if you load them all in.

ps - REFDANA coupon code is good for $50 off at drobo.com during August.

[JeffDM @ Dec 2nd 2007 2:08PM]

Eric; If you think USB 2 is faster than Firewire, then you've fallen for the specs, and not actually compared them in practice. Don't look at marketing numbers and expect them to reflect reality.