Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/09/11
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]2010-09-11-09:53:45 A. Lal: > Hi Everyone, > > I'm in need of a new NAS box. Looking at NAS boxes on the market > the Drobo looks very interesting. Have any list members used the > Drobo? If so, please comment, pro or con. The Drobos are cute, but I swear by the Netgear (n?e Infrant) ReadyNAS boxes. I've used several generations of them, most having gone through at least one drive replacement/rebuild cycle, for years without (yet!) losing data. They seem solidly engineered to their price-points. Pay less, and they're more likely to engineer in lower performance than lower reliability (although the really big ones with the redundant power supplies are bound to have an edge, I suppose). I know of a couple of radio stations which use ReadyNASses for internal music archives, and I haven't yet heard any nightmare tales. They're pretty nice, solid devices. http://www.readynas.com/ One system administrator I know chose to buy another brand of array because the ReadyNAS people weren't yet listing the latest, highest-capacity drives he wanted to use in their hardware-compatibility list. I, on the other hand, took that as a further reason to prefer a ReadyNAS: they actually try to test drives for awhile before approving them. I wouldn't consider an array with fewer than four drives, and note that with six or more drives, you can choose to waste enough capacity that the array should survive TWO simultaneous disk failures. Cool. Drobos have always seemed so cute and consumer-y I've had trouble trusting them, but that may be just another of my many irrational prejudices. -Jeff