[Leica] Drobos... If you have them what can you expect?

[Frank Filippone]

Yes, I am helping Tina with her file system.  She is replacing her Drobos with a Synology NAS.   I "am" her tech support person.

Why?  Because Drobo is out of business.  Who cares?  SHE AND YOU SHOULD CARE!

How old is your Drobo, in terms of development..... look at this chart....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drobo

It tells you when your Drobo model was first introduced to the marjket... assume it took at least 1 year to design... Your Drobo was designed in 
roughly 2010., or even earlier  That was the year Windows 7 was in vogue..... Windows 7.  That was when the various software was written to run the 
box and interface with Windows. Windows 7, not Windows 11.  Things have changed....

/If you have a Drobo, it will eventually fail/.  Let me explain.... Windows is not a fixed immovable O/S.  It changes ( somewhat at the whim of 
Microsoft.).

Drobo Software ( yes, it does run on software) is not and will not change to accommodate Windows changes. The company no longer exists.   The SW is 
frozen.  ( probably some amateur code writer will fix this, but if you are not willing to take this chance on code written by some 16 year old who 
lives on Pizza and Energy-Caffeine drinks being responsible for taking care of everything on your Dobo, read further....)..

An analogy is for SW written for Windows 3.1 and using that SW on Windows 11....  Some of it just will not work.

Your computer gets Windows updates all the time, and implements them.  sometime, either now or "tomorrow", some change in Windows will not allow your 
Drobo Software to perform as it did yesterday.  YOU WILL HAVE NO WARNING>>>>. It will be a brick.  It will not be reversible ( almost).  EVERYTHING on 
your Drobo will be permanently inaccessible.

No you can not just remove the HDD from the Drobo and put them into something else and they will work..... THEY WILL NOT.

Your data may be safely ON the Drobo, but unless you can get to it, ....... and eventually you will not be able to,,,,,,   you own a brick.

It is time NOW to fix this situation you are in, before Windows and Drobo no longer work together.

You do have choices.... replace the Drobo boxes with large external HDD boxes that work on USB.  They can be bought for a few hundred dollars.  
Probably the lowest cost and fully equivalent to what you have now, but since the USB box is modern and built to work with WIndows, and uses no SW on 
your computer, it will last a LONG time.....

Replace the Drobo with a LAN box... called NAS ( Network Attached Storage).  Same as above only it works on a network connection to your computer 
rather than USB.  There are a bunch of differences, but in essence, for very large file systems ( Tina has about 1 MILLION images), this solution will 
provide  faster response time for search and other functions.  But you must deal with the LAN issues.... Not so easy.... not terrible, but not easy.  
They are more expensive.

There you go.... if you use Drobo HDD enclosures, do something NOW.

If you are running your BUSINESS on a Drobo, you are living a nightmare in the making... You want the IRS to permanently live in your office, 
demanding you get old records from your now dead computer because the Drobo is dead?  Want/NEED the email address of that 16 year old that lives on 
Pizza and Energy-Caffeine drinks?

I want to point out that this is NOT a hardware issue.... the HDD and the box will probably work for a long time in the future,,,, it is an issue of 
incompatible software.

But you will not be able to access it......

If you have questions, you may email me directly and I will help you to make decisions and, to the extent I can, I will help you implement those 
decisions.

No, I do not charge.

Frank Filippone
BMWRed735i at Gmail.com