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Drobo on the cheap!!!
- Thread starter nando2323
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How exactly do you get 1080p .mkv's? And since we're on the subject, what is .mkv? If it's any help I have a PS3; I hear that you can rip Blu-ray Discs with it somehow. I cannot understand it for the life of me. And why do some people prefer it to other formats?
Thanks
Aamazon in the UK have the drobo plus droboshare for 400 pounds. Not a bad deal considering that it is delivered to you.
The only problem is that the ethernet is strangled by the USB connection. I also wonder if this is a sign that drobo may be about to release an ethernet drobo all in one.
I hope so.
I also hope that they fix the issues with the speed of the thing. Somehow they need to prioritise the writing of data and then doing the backup, which I believe is what takes so long.
But it is a great product however.
The only problem is that the ethernet is strangled by the USB connection. I also wonder if this is a sign that drobo may be about to release an ethernet drobo all in one.
I hope so.
I also hope that they fix the issues with the speed of the thing. Somehow they need to prioritise the writing of data and then doing the backup, which I believe is what takes so long.
But it is a great product however.
Same here. Drobo with 4 x 1TB Eco Green Drives attached to my old Mac Mini with ALL of my media inside iTunes. Then I have an Apple TV in my room. It is without a doubt the most seamless solution I've seen. All of my friends would do the same if it wasn't quite so expensive.
I currently have one of 1 ea of the first two generations and I'm close to plunking down the cash for the new 8 drive pro version. I'm using the FW800 version as external storage for a HTPC Mac Mini. No complaints what so ever. Noise is not really an issue because I have it in a closet with the rest of AV & network equipment. The USB2 version is backing up a couple internal drives in may Mac Pro. It's a little slow, but I use CCC to do incremental backups every night so the lack of blazing speed is not an issue.
The Drobo Pro is supposed to be significantly quicker and offers iSCSI if you want to go that route. However, it's 8 drive bays that got my attention!
I know you can go the DIY route and save some money, but I love the convenience and minimal footprint.
The Drobo Pro is supposed to be significantly quicker and offers iSCSI if you want to go that route. However, it's 8 drive bays that got my attention!
I know you can go the DIY route and save some money, but I love the convenience and minimal footprint.
Almost every decent RAID card has online capacity expansion (OCE) which allows you to add disks and grow the array with out downtime or reformatting. This 'thin provisioning' makes no sense.
From what I've heard, the Drobo's are really slow over the network so if you want speed then look elsewhere.
Yes I am sure they do but unless you have a Mac Pro which a lot of people on here do not then you don't have a RAID card. Also thin provisioning makes a whole lot of sense read up on it.
Your right. Totally forgot about the Mac portion. There's what, 2 RAID cards for the Mac? If you can build a server then the options are endless. Otherwise, a QNAP/Synology/Drobo makes sense.
While the Drobo isn't the fastest thing out there, it works fast enough for Time Machine backups. It really depends on what you're using the Drobo for. For me, having my data and not losing it is important.
When I used to have the Drobo right next to my MBP, the noise did annoy me. However, now that I moved it away from my computer, it's not noticeable.
Personally, I like it and would buy it again.
When I used to have the Drobo right next to my MBP, the noise did annoy me. However, now that I moved it away from my computer, it's not noticeable.
Personally, I like it and would buy it again.
I have 3 drobos myself and they are great. 2 of them I purchased when they were originally released. The usb only versions. The only fault I can find in them is the noisy fan. My 3rd drobo is the newer firewire version and the fan is much quieter and the better speeds with fw800 is great. I found out early on that if you shut them down properly from the drobo dashboard that they're fine but if you forget to and sometimes even just eject them from finder that they sometimes don't mount properly and I once had to recover my data using disk warrior. Made that mistake once and never again.
Wouldn't recommend getting a droboshare though. Its painfully slow.
Wouldn't recommend getting a droboshare though. Its painfully slow.
It went well. It was nearly 2 tb of data and it recovered everything but a 1gb video file, which was only partially recovered.
I've had drives fail in a drobo and its done its job and rebuilt once I put a spare in. For me it was a good investment.
Sometimes the rebuilding has taken close to 30 hours but I didn't mind waiting knowing I could have lost it all.
I've had drives fail in a drobo and its done its job and rebuilt once I put a spare in. For me it was a good investment.
Sometimes the rebuilding has taken close to 30 hours but I didn't mind waiting knowing I could have lost it all.
That's not bad. I'm on the verge of getting a Drobo with FW to hold my ripped DVD collection. I don't convert the files. So each DVD is about 7 GB or so. And I already have about 200 DVDs. I'm really trying make a huge "DVD disc changer" of a sort.
That's interesting. I was considering a Mac mini but didn't know how to do that before I went an bought an Apple TV. Your Drobo is directly connected to your ATV? I like the way the ATV works; I've tried it out. I just want to always play my DVD collection at any time, you know. And I was thinking of using Plex.
I could just use that with my MB.
Yeah the drobo with the video files is connected to my atv. I used atv flash. http://www.atvflash.com/product_info.php?products_id=27
I haven't used plex myself but I've seen it on a mac mini thats being used as a media center and its worked well for my buddy.
I haven't used plex myself but I've seen it on a mac mini thats being used as a media center and its worked well for my buddy.
How is that working for you? Any lags, juddering problems etc? I run my drobo off the FW 800 port on the mini and use it as a media server. It works much better than the droboshare, which is painfully slow because of the USB interface.
Let me know.
I noticed in your sig that you have an ATV, mini and drobo. Which do you prefer? I really don't NEED another Mac, I just wanted a dedicated small box that's able to watch DVD rips (from an external HD) and music videos, and listen to music.