Data Robotics Data Robotics Drobo

Reviewed by: Mason Storm

Duration of ownership:

Strengths: Completely free to add and change drives at any time without having to deal with RAID issues. Protects your data at all times. A first of its kind in many ways.

Weaknesses: Slow USB2 connection - often too slow to stream an HD movie (unbearable stuttering); expensive; VERY noisy if you have 4 HDDs in it.

Overall Evaluation: This unit is very user friendly; I haven't been able to find any other NAS/DAS solution that allows the end user to freely change drives at any time (one at a time, anyway), without having to worry about RAID issues that can get so confusing with other arrays. It automatically backs up your data so that if a drive fails, you won't lose a thing (which naturally means you sacrifice considerable drive capacity to provide for that backup). It looks good and, so long as you don't actually fill it up with 4 HDDs, is nearly silent. If you DO put 4 HDDs in it, it has to spin its fan on high most of the time to keep the heat level under control - and that makes it VERY VERY noisy. (If you kept it on your desk when you only had 3 HDDs in it, you'll want to move it into another room when you add a 4th.) It's quite expensive for what it does (although it's truly the first of its kind in more than one way), and it's very very slow compared to other NAS solutions (it's unclear why Data Robotics would choose USB2 over eSATA, and doubtlessly, they will soon implement a revision that uses eSATA). But at an even deeper level, its mini-computer self is just too slow to stream HD movies much of the time, and it stutters unacceptably (I was downright embarrassed hosting get-togethers where others viewed movies streamed by this turtle). For NAS use, most users will also need to buy their DroboShare unit (unless you own a router that allows a USB device to be networked). Lastly, Windows itself will always erroneously report that you have a 2TB drive, no matter how much you've actually put in there; you do have to use their Dashboard software to have access to reliable size information about the array. (There is a hack for XP users that fixes the issue, but not for Vista.)