May 22, 2010 – If you’re looking for a file storage and backup solution for your small Mac based studio then look no further. Data Robotics new Drobo FS provides network file sharing capabilities and automated data protection with Apple’s Time Machine backup software.
Features and Benefits of using Drobo FS with Time Machine
- Set Time Machine capacity limits – Users can control how much Drobo FS capacity is used by Time Machine backups.
- Plug in, share, and back up – The Drobo FS connects directly to any Gigabit Ethernet network for a true plug in and share set-up experience. Multiple users on a network can automatically and simultaneously back up to the same Drobo FS target.
- Open and customizable storage – Using an open-source platform and the growing library of third-party DroboApps, which include media and web applications, users can customize Drobo FS to their unique sharing environment and requirements.
- 5-drive capacity with instant expansion to 10TB and beyond – Customers with growing storage requirements can easily add data capacity by simply inserting a new hard drive or replacing the smallest drive with a larger one, even when all five drive bays are full. With Drobo FS, expansion is automatic, instantaneous, and access to data is always maintained.
- Single- and dual-drive redundancy – The Drobo FS dual drive redundancy option protects against the simultaneous failure of up to two hard drives. Customers can engage this option with a single click without ever losing access to their data.
- Self-healing technology – With BeyondRAID, the Drobo FS continually examines data blocks and sectors on each drive to flag potential issues. The preemptive “scrubbing” helps ensure data is being written only to healthy drive areas and automatically keeps data in the safest state possible – even when a drive fails.
Drobo FS is available now from authorized partners worldwide and on www.drobostore.com. To learn more about Drobo FS, please visit www.drobo.com/drobo-fs.
UPDATE: Just added the below video which was created by Data Robotics and gives a little more information about the company, Drobo FS and Drobo Apps.
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Founder of Current Photographer, co-host of The Digital Photography Cafe Show, Designer, Photographer, and overall tech geek.
This post reads suspiciously like a press release from Drobo.
Have you used any of the Drobos, Trevor? If so, under what conditions and how have they performed?
Thanks.
Hi Stretch, thanks for your comment. As with most media outlets and blogs that report news, they get their information from press releases. So if you read the press release from Drobo, then you will see similarities between the two. I usually try to summarize the press release and add in my two cents if appropriate.
In answer to you second question, yes I’ve used Drobos and in fact have been for about 3 years now. I have two of them sitting on the desk next to me connected to a Mac Mini via FireWire 800 that I’m using as a file server. The Mac Mini is then connected to my gigabit network allowing the files to be accessible to all of the computers in the studio. One Drobo is used as primary file storage and the second is used as a backup drive for Apple’s Time Machine. Unfortunately the Drobo FS was not available when I purchased the other drives and the Mac Mini. If it were I probably would have just bought two of those and connected them directly to the network saving myself $600 on the Mac Mini.
Since the Drobos uses a fast FireWire 800 connection to the computer, and an even faster gigabit connection to the network, it makes it possible to work directly off of the Drobos, even on large files. If you’re working with really large Photoshop files or are capturing audio or video, I would recommend working off your internal drive for faster performance. Since the Drobo FS uses a gigabit interface to connect with the network, you should see faster performance as compared to my setup.
I certainly recommend Drobos to anyone working with a lot of files and who are concerned about data protection. Mine have worked flawlessly and with it being so easy to expand storage, I don’t see a need to change my setup anytime soon.
Hope this helps 🙂