Check out AT&T's FREE camera phonesDrobo (second generation, 2TB)
Manufacturer: Data Robotics, Inc. Part number: DRO-4DD10-WDC1TB-2
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Product series
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- The second-generation Drobo adds a FireWire 800 connection, but the original USB-only on the now discounted Drobo might be the best bet for Windows users until better FireWire 800 drivers arrive. The device remains the most automated and easy-to-use redundant backup product we've seen.
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CNET editors' review
Drobo (second generation, 2TB)
price range: $749.99
- Reviewed by: Dong Ngo
- Edited by: Matthew Elliott
- Reviewed on: 08/21/2008
The good: Protects your data automatically; easily expandable with SATA hard drives of any size; features both USB 2.0 and FireWire 800 interfaces; faster processor than the original Drobo; works with DroboShare.
The bad: Subpar throughput on Windows XP; no eSATA; Ethernet can be added but costs $200; no bundled backup software; takes a long time to start; FireWire 800 doesn't work well with 64-bit Windows Vista; short one-year warranty; terrible phone tech support; relatively expensive.
The bottom line: The second-generation Drobo adds a FireWire 800 connection, but the original USB-only on the now discounted Drobo might be the best bet for Windows users until better FireWire 800 drivers arrive. The device remains the most automated and easy-to-use redundant backup product we've seen.
Editors' note: After testing a third Drobo unit, we have updated the review and revised the rating.
The third time isn't exactly a charm for Drobo, but it certainly yielded better results than our first two cracks did at the second generation of the so-called storage robot. We originally published our review of the new Drobo on July 30, and we weren't very high on the device because our testing--on two Drobo units on multiple test systems running both Windows XP and Vista--showed very slow throughput speeds and repeated occurrences of instability. Drobo's makers, Data Robotics, insisted the results we saw were due to a problem with its preproduction units, a driver issue with Windows Vista, a conflict with our test systems, or some combination of the three.
We acquired a third review system, this time a retail unit direct from Newegg, to test the validity of these claims. While its USB 2.0 and FireWire 800 performance on Windows XP was still very slow, we did see better numbers with 32-bit Vista. More importantly, our third test unit acted much more stable, assuaging our fears of data loss. Caveats remain for using the device with a Windows PC via FireWire 800, particularly if you are running 64-bit Vista, but we're starting to reestablish the warm feelings we had for the original, USB-only Drobo last year. Do note that last year's model can be had for $349, while the second-generation Drobo costs $500 for the addition of FireWire 800, a slightly faster processor, and a better cooling system. In the end, if you want a flexible and a fully automated redundant backup storage device, no other product works the way Drobo does.
Design and features
A year after Drobo Robotics introduced its Drobo drive to general acclaim, including an Editors' Choice award from us, the company has released the next iteration of the product. The new Drobo looks and functions basically the same as the original, but adds FireWire capability by way of two FireWire 800 ports on the back, next to the USB 2.0 port. Still, the device doesn't come with an eSATA connection--the fastest solution to connect external storage devices to a computer--nor does it feature networking abilities (for that, you'll need to purchase the separate DroboShare unit, which adds Gigabit Ethernet).
Like the original, the new Drobo can house up to four internal SATA hard drives of any capacity and blend them into a proprietary configuration that balances between the highest data security and the most storage space. As long as only one hard drive fails at a time, whether it's the largest one or not, your data is safe. The device is also able to predict which hard drive is prone to fail and prompt you to replace it via a big LED corresponding to that particular hard drive's bay.
There are a couple of catches, however. First, you will never get total-combined storage space of the hard drives, as some space is reserved for data redundancy in the event one of your drives fails. The Drobo is designed to give you the most possible storage capacity and peace of mind regarding data integrality. For example, if you pop in a pair of 250GB hard drives, a 350GB drive, and a 500GB drive, Drobo provides 789GB of total storage. The good part is that Drobo does all the work itself--all you're required to do is insert the hard drives, which is as easy as inserting a CD into a CD-ROM drive. Secondly, if your Drobo fails, or in the event of disaster, it could be very hard to recover the data. Due to its proprietary format, the Drobo's hard drives can't be read by any other third-party machine.
The new Drobo also comes with better ventilation: a larger fan spins at a lower rate and is, therefore, significantly quietier than the original Drobo. Still, if you stand close to it, you will hear a subtle humming sound.
It was fairly easy for us to get the new Drobo up and running using its included Drobo Dashboard software. We did notice, though, that the drive took a relatively long time (up to a minute or more, as opposed to seconds in other drives) to get started. We were able to swap out hard drives with the device while it was still working. Once a new hard drive is put in, the rebuilding process started and took about five minutes to finish. This amount of time changes, of course, depending on the size of the hard drive and the amount of data stored on the device. Conveniently, you can still access data on the other drives inside your Drobo during this process.
Finally, $500 might seem a bit steep for a storage device that doesn't include any storage out of the box. But the 2TB Drobo goes for $899, which is comparable to the 2TB LaCie Biggest Quadra, which also includes eSATA ,and can currently be found between $835 and $1,099. The 2TB Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ RND4210 is sold online for as little as $1,272. It's a NAS drive with an Ethernet connection, but a 2TB Drobo plus the $200 DroboShare product that aids Ethernet still costs less. Moving the other way, the two-bay empty D-Link DNS-323 costs $200 or less, and a two-bay WD My Book Mirror delivers 2TB of storage out of the box for $500 or less.
Performance
Data Robotics provided us with the two prior units we reviewed, both of which proved to be finicky and slow, regardless of which version of Windows we tested them with. We reported the problem to the company, and Data Robotics, after having taken the test units back, found a soldering problem on the first preproduction unit, and suspected that our test methodology, our test bed, or a driver or firmware issue was to blame for the same performance issues we saw on the next one.
We acquired a third unit from Newegg to avoid any preproduction issues. We tested it on our standard Windows XP test bed that we use for all storage products, and we also tested it on the same test bed with 32-bit Vista Home Ultimate, as well as a Dell Dimension PC with 32-bit Vista Home Premium. We tested all of the units with a mixture of 500GB, 400GB, 320GB and 250GB hard drives setup in different sets of 3 and 4.
We are happy to report that this third Drobo unit proved to be much more stable than the previous two. We were able to move it from one system to another, and swap drives in and out without incident. We did come in one morning to be greeted not by Drobo's green status lights but a yellow light prompting us to believe the device had hung (the yellow light generally indicates that the device is not connected to a computer, which it was at the time). Data Robotics claims that this is just an energy saving feature (as in, the Drobo would go to sleep after being idle for a certain amount of time), but we couldn't get the drive back to work by touching the mouse or keyboard, or even rescanning the hardware list. Nonetheless, we were able to quickly reset it by simply unplugging the power cable and plugging it back in; the Drobo then restarted without any loss or corruption of our data.
Since the biggest change to the product from last year's model is the addition of FireWire 800, the logical expectation from the new Drobo is a bump in performance. We didn't test the original Drobo's throughput performance a year ago (now, we wish we had), but we tested the new Drobo (three times) with both its FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 connections.
The third unit did nothing to change our opinion of its performance over Windows XP, where its FireWire 800 write and read speeds were consistently around a pokey 96Mbps. The situation improved when we moved to Widows Vista Ultimate and Home Premium and used a third-party Unibrain FireWire 800 card and driver. Write speeds increased to 128Mbps and read speeds increased to 160Mbps.
Testing Drobo via its USB 2.0 connection, on the other hand, registered more consistent scores across different operating systems, including Windows XP and Windows Vista, coming in at around135Mbps on our write test and 74Mbps on our read test.
It's worth noting that our test data--a 10GB folder that consists of roughly 37,000 small files--is not optimized for throughput speed, but rather to resemble real-world usage. We ran some anecdotal tests with other data sets that included fewer but larger files under Windows Vista, and the Drobo's FireWire 800 performance was much better--up to 200Mbps for writing and 320Mbps for reading. This difference, however, is generally common for all direct attach storage devices
All in all, we found the second generation Drobo's performance to be below average for external hard drives, including those set up in redundancy RAID configurations, in both FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 connections. The device was also inconsistent and registered scores with noticeable discrepancies between tests. For example, at a demo of the third unit with Data Robotics' representatives, we downloaded and installed the latest firmware (version 1.2.2 ), which the company claimed to improve the throughput up to 25 percent. The Drobo actually took almost 13 minutes to finish a job it had taken only a little more than 11 minutes to do with the old version of the firmware.
Though not tested, Data Robotics informed us that there are currently driver issues that affect FireWire 800 performance for the Drobo or any other such device when working with a 64-bit Windows Vista PCs (and even some 32-bit Vista systems). The company advises you to use Windows' own FireWire driver instead of Unibrain's driver; you'll be able to run only at FireWire 400 speeds, but the connection will be stable. Unibrain is aware of the situation and is currently working to resolve the issue with its next driver release.
We didn't compare the Drobo against any other direct attach devices because the Drobo is the only product that offers automated data protection and writes data across up to four drives (most external drives we test are single-drive devices). To put Drobo's read and write speeds in context, however, direct attach external storage drives we've tested with our official test data typically register about 200Mbps on our write test and 230Mbp on our read test for USB 2.0 connection. These numbers jump to roughly 350Mbps and 380Mbps, respectively, for FireWire 800. By comparison, the new Drobo's performance is approximately two times slower than these averages.
We worked closely with Data Robotics on the performance issues and tested the device thoroughly. Overall, we tested three units (two provided by Data Robotics and one we purchased ourselves) with three different test machines, under both Windows XP and Windows Vista 32-bit (both Ultimate and Home Premium editions). In total, we spent over a month testing the units, between our first Drobo test and the last, and we feel confident in our test results. While Drobo is no speed demon, at least in the end it appears the device is stable.
Service and support
Data Robotics backs the new Drobo with a standard one-year warranty, which is disappointing considering other storage vendors sometimes offer up to five years for their products. Its toll-free phone support is supposedly available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST, excluding holidays. We tried the number listed on its Web site and were greeted with a prerecorded message saying the phone support is only available to registered products. After that, we found ourselves on hold for 30 minutes before finally hanging up the phone. You can also send an e-mail to tech support or fill out the online support form. Drobo's site offers FAQs, documentation, downloads, and a user forum.
User reviews
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I love mine
by hillbrook on July 30, 2008
Pros: Simple - Easy - Fast
Cons: Took A Long Time To Get It
Summary: After reading Drobo's response I seriously question CNET's review. I have both generation Drobo's. I ordered the 2nd one from B&H and got it last ...
Summary: After reading Drobo's response I seriously question CNET's review. I have both generation Drobo's. I ordered the 2nd one from B&H and got it last week. It is MUCH faster and gives all of the same functionality as the original Drobo (which we love). The fact that this reviewer is trying to get performance from FW and Windows is comical. 1000's of positive reviews on Drobo and one reviewer who seems like he has a grudge - - too bad.
3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Agree with CNET
by LFCRulesOK on August 25, 2008
Pros: Reliable USB, warm feeling of having a backup
Cons: Unreliable Firewire on Mac, one year warrenty, support forums locked to owners only
Summary: Have got to agree with CNET's review of the V2. I'm using a Mac using Leopard, and have had unreliable connection to Firewire. I could make it hang ...
Summary: Have got to agree with CNET's review of the V2. I'm using a Mac using Leopard, and have had unreliable connection to Firewire. I could make it hang at will, by simply loading it up with work, using Handbrake, Mac The Ripper, or even regular Mac Finder Copy.
However, USB has been rock solid. Ripped and converted many of my DVD's on USB without error. Speed is relatively ok, but it is USB. I got in touch with support via email, and after many a test, I am waiting for a warrenty replacement.
I would say check out my thread on the Drobo owners forum for more info, but I can't as it's locked to owners only. You can check out my progress and others on AVForums.com if it helps others who may have problems who don't go to the official forums.2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Mine is much faster than the reviewer's
by mike0522 on July 31, 2008
Pros: Simple, reliable
Cons: none except need to deal with XP firewire drivers
Summary: The reviewer must have had a defective unit at Data Robotics claimed. I got my Drobo v2 about a week ago and couldn't be happier. I am getting quite ...
Summary: The reviewer must have had a defective unit at Data Robotics claimed. I got my Drobo v2 about a week ago and couldn't be happier. I am getting quite quick performance with it (>35MB/s in Firewire 400; I just ordered a Firewire 800 card). One important note: Windows has terrible firewire support hat can sometimes limit throughput to <100Mb/s so people should consider replacing the drivers with better ones (like Unibrain's) if their cards support them.
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Official Data Robotics Response
by tloverro on July 30, 2008
Pros: Safe, expandable, reliable storage
Cons: None to mention
Summary: This review was based on a defective pre-production review unit. We remained puzzled as to why the reviewer published this review despite having a requested a replacement production unit which ...
Summary: This review was based on a defective pre-production review unit. We remained puzzled as to why the reviewer published this review despite having a requested a replacement production unit which we agreed to provide. Data Robotics stands by its products. If you're interested in reading reporting that is more representative of the new Drobo please see the following:
http://twipphoto.com/archives/593
http://thomashawk.com/2008/07/welcome-to-drobo-20-two-times-faster.html#links2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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close to perfect
by calmplex on August 8, 2008
Pros: upgradeable storage, hot swappable, firewire 800, easy setup
Cons: CNET review(er), Drobo Apps not available yet (hope someone makes an iTunes server), almost too easy to setup you start thinking you missed a step...
Summary: Finally received my Drobo v2 several days ago after waiting 3 weeks... First... Data Robotics service is outstanding, immediately answered all of my questions and kept me well informed on ...
Summary: Finally received my Drobo v2 several days ago after waiting 3 weeks... First... Data Robotics service is outstanding, immediately answered all of my questions and kept me well informed on the status of my order. The setup was beyond easy... Popped in 2 x 1TB Western Digital GP drives and less then 10 minutes later I was transferring my entire iTunes and iPhoto library over... The Drobo is very quiet and runs very cool... Although I'm not sure if that has something to do with the HD's I'm using... Lots of information is available at drobospace.com on the forums to get you started... only drawback is the DroboShare is sold separately if you want to network this thing, which I think could've been easily included on the unit itself instead of a separate attachment... other then that 99.9% happy with my purchase... you won't be disappointed...
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Great for my needs (both Mac and PC)
by Chioti on September 17, 2008
Pros: Expandable, easy to use
Cons: Needs an "On" button, pricey
Summary: I've had the drobo v2 w/droboshare for about 2 months now and have been very happy with it. I only use USB as my wife's MacBook only ...
Summary: I've had the drobo v2 w/droboshare for about 2 months now and have been very happy with it. I only use USB as my wife's MacBook only has FW400 and I usually have it connected to the droboshare for use by my Vista PC. When directly connected to the Mac, Time Machine backups are speedy and even over USB, editing HD video in iMovie is smooth. Accessing it wirelessly through a wireless hub which the droboshare is connected to is quite slow, however when using an ethernet port on the hug I get about the same performance as a direct connection via USB.
Now if only drobo would have included a power on button so that I could turn it back on from standby without unplugging and plugging back in! -
Performance is great!
by banda21 on August 21, 2008
Pros: super easy to use, large amounts of expandable storage, fast
Cons: haven't found any yet
Summary: Hmmm, a big question mark on reviews performance summary. On what planet is a 10GB folder with 37,000 files real-world usage? Maybe earth circa 1990! Man, those are tiny ...
Summary: Hmmm, a big question mark on reviews performance summary. On what planet is a 10GB folder with 37,000 files real-world usage? Maybe earth circa 1990! Man, those are tiny files they used to test with. I would actually call that a very non-real world test methodology.
I use Drobo1 and now Drobo2 daily and performance is great! Compares favorably with all other external hard drives I've tried in the past, and I've used a lot of brands. They did admit that when they used larger files performance increased significantly, so I guess I'm not crazy! My files are typically photos, audio files and various types of video. In the year 2008, those files are true real-world usage.
These guys gave the first drobo an editors choice award and then they come out with a quiter/faster drobo and it rates a 6.6? Hard to understand why given the production unit CNET tested appears to have worked great. Strange.
Anyway, the new generation drobo shows between 30MB/s and 50MB/s for me. MB/s is megabytes per second. CNET is using Mbps (megabits per second), so in their speak my performance results translate to 240Mbps - 400 Mbps. That is definitely faster than the first generation drobo (which is still a super device and has served me well!) so I strongly recommend drobo2 as the perfect way to cope with the large amounts of digital media we all seem to have to deal with nowadays. In the real world. -
Something smells fishy about this Cnet review
by tchang714 on August 1, 2008
Pros: Unlimited storage capacity. Ease of upgrading drives. As easy to use as a USB drive but with redundant backup protection. Perfect for my needs.
Cons: Really can't think of any... It doens't dust itself once a month...?
Summary: Just like the other people who responded to this review, there's definitely something not right about the unit Cnet got. I have been using mine for months and loved ...
Summary: Just like the other people who responded to this review, there's definitely something not right about the unit Cnet got. I have been using mine for months and loved it from day one out of the box. They must've used the same packaging engineers as Apple because unpacking my Drobo was a rewarding experience in itself. Well thought out and out to impress.
I am a professional photographer and use the Drobo as my main backup device in addition to archiving my photos online. I started off with a total of 300 gigabytes of storage and have since slowly migrated my way up to currently 2 terabytes of photos, videos and documents on my Drobo and it has performed flawlessly.
Reading Drobo's offical response, it seems that Cnet has possibly done an injustice here. I signed up for an account after reading this review just so I could put my 2 cents in and say that as a happy owner of a Drobo, I completely disagree with this Cnet review! -
Insanely easy to use product
by quocx on July 31, 2008
Pros: Safe, simple, affordable, and easy to expand additional storage
Cons: Only black version is available
Summary: Cnet: ?First, you will never get the total combined storage space of the hard drives as some space is reserved for data redundancy in the event one of your drives ...
Summary: Cnet: ?First, you will never get the total combined storage space of the hard drives as some space is reserved for data redundancy in the event one of your drives fails.?
Similar to RAID 1 and 5, drobo does not provide total combined storage space (as expected). However, unlikely traditional RAID, when you mix drives capacity drobo takes advantages of different capacity. For example, if I have a 500GB, 750GB, and a 1TB drives drobo gives me an effective 1.250 TB usable while RAID gives me 1TB usable. This is a 250GB less than drobo.
Cnet: ?We did notice, though, that the drive took a relatively long time (up to a minute or so) to get started.?
Mine drobo took 29 seconds from a cold boot (power on/off) while a warm boot (waking up from a standby mode) took 2 seconds.
Cnet: ?After the rebuilding process, the drive went to standby mode, where it behaved as if it wasn't connected to the computer (though in fact it was).?
This is clearly defective pre-production unit as Data Robotics official responded. Mine drobo does not go into standby mode after rebuild completed. In fact, I can still access my data while drobo is in rebuild mode.
Cnet: To put Drobo's read and write speeds in context, direct-attached external storage drives we've tested before typically register about 200Mbps on our write test and 230Mbp on our read test for a USB 2.0 connection.
It?s unclearly if the author tested direct-attached external with RAID or non-RAID system, if performance numbers were result of a non-RAID, not exactly a direct comparison.
Cnet: ??eSATA and Ethernet connections still absent??
How many of us experienced auto disconnect or unable to connect to your own NAS device not to mention the complexity involves in configuring a NAS box, I for one like the flexibility to directly connect my drobo to a host then share it across my network.
Highly encourage readers to read Technology section from drobo web site http://drobo.com/Products/drobo.html) and others reviewer sites before you draw your own conclusion about drobo. I love my drobo, I've been using RAID for at least 10 years and mine drobo is just insanely game changer for me. -
Stunning Performance
by MissyCadwell on July 31, 2008
Pros: Super Easy to use
Cons: I have wanted FW800 for a year
Summary: I bought mine the first day and I love it. Never has my life been easier when it comes to managing my digital life.
Summary: I bought mine the first day and I love it. Never has my life been easier when it comes to managing my digital life.
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Data Robotics, Inc.
- Part number: DRO-4DD10-WDC1TB-2
- Description: Drobo utilizes a revolutionary storage technology that makes it simple for anyone to use, yet is powerful enough for business. Once you experience the power of Drobo, the idea of keeping multiple external drives or a RAID 5 arrays will seem as antiquated as that 28.8 Kbps modem in the back of your closet. Your library of data grows every moment. Now, your storage solution expands in seconds, too. Drobo holds up to four hard drives, can expand at any time, and supports up to 16 TB on a single volume as disk sizes increase. Choose how big you want your Drobo today with any combination of drives capacities. Why compromise? Safety and accessibility now go hand in hand. Experience Drobo with both FireWire 800 and USB 2.0. It's the data protection and peace of mind you need with the performance and interface you want.
General
- Device Type Hard drive array
- Width 6 in
- Depth 10.7 in
- Height 6.3 in
Cabinet (Chassis)
- Installed Devices / Modules Qty 2
- Supported Devices / Modules Qty 4
Hard Drive
- Capacity 1 TB
- Interface type Serial ATA-II, Serial ATA-I
- Hard drive compliant standards FCC Part 15 Class B|UL|CUL
Storage Controller
- Storage controller interface type IEEE 1394b (FireWire 800) / Hi-Speed USB
- Type Serial ATA - Integrated ( IEEE 1394b (FireWire 800) / Hi-Speed USB )
- Storage Controller / Supported Device Type Hard drive
Storage
- Total Array Capacity 2 TB
- Max Supported Capacity 16 TB
- HDD Array External Interface Hi-Speed USB, FireWire 800
- Optical Storage None
Processor
- Processor None
Storage Controller (2nd)
- Type None
Expansion / Connectivity
- Expansion Bays Total (Free) 4 ( 2 ) x Internal - 3.5" x 1/2H
- Expansion Slots Total (Free) None
- Interfaces 1 x IEEE 1394b (FireWire 800), 1 x Hi-Speed USB - 4 pin USB Type B
- Connections 1
Storage Hard Drive
- Type Hot-swap - Plug-in module
- Capacity 2 x 1 TB
Miscellaneous
- Cables Included 1 x IEEE 1394b cable - 6 ft, 1 x USB cable - 6 ft
- Miscellaneous compliant standards CUL, UL, FCC Part 15 B
Storage Hard Drive (2nd)
- Type None
Power
- Power device type Power adapter
- Operational power consumption 40 Watt
- Power Device Power adapter - External
- Voltage Required AC 100/200 V
Software / System Requirements
- Software type Drivers & Utilities
Manufacturer Warranty
- Service & support type 1 year warranty
- Service & Support Details Limited warranty - 1 year
Product series
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Manufacturer: Data Robotics, Inc.
Specs:
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Drobo (second generation, 2TB)
Manufacturer: Data Robotics, Inc.
Specs:
-
Drobo (Second generation, 4TB)
Manufacturer: Data Robotics, Inc.
Specs:
Manufacturer info
- Data Robotics, Inc.
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Data Robotics, Inc. products on Shopper.com
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- Website: http://www.drobo.com/
- Address:
1881 Landings Drive, Mountain View, CA 40241 - Phone: 1.866.997.6268
